Alexander Vandewalle, a PhD candidate at the University of Antwerp and Ghent and Team Co-Leader of SASA’s Archaeogaming Live Team presented his research, “A Sense of the Past: Game Feel and Sensory Rhetoric as Medium in Historical and Mythological Games'' on June 4th at the hybrid conference “New Directions in Classics, Gaming, and Extended Reality”.
Organized, sponsored and funded by Dr. Richard Cole, a lecturer of Digital Classics at the University of Bristol, this conference shines a light on a diverse range of researching perspectives of artistic and architectural culture from Ancient History and its various forms of representation through world building and storytelling in video games. This conference and its initiative to unite the interests of higher education and the gaming industry, for both education and entertainment, was hosted by The Bristol Digital Game Lab and generously sponsored by University of Bristol Faculty of Arts, Institute of Greece, Rome, and the Classical Tradition and the Centre for Creative Technologies.
This conference highlights the passions and goals of these talented practitioners, industry professionals, and the attendees. Using augmented and virtual reality, this conference explores and celebrates the connections between modern academic research, our technology-oriented world, and ancient history. As one of 24 presentations at the event, along with numerous demos and collaborative play sessions, Alexander presented on Tuesday alongside Gillian Marbury of Ohio State University and Victoria Rooney in a session discussing the experience of classics through the medium of Extended Reality and gaming.
Alex’s presentation explores the experience of classical/historical reception through the perspective of game feel rather than through audiovisuals, items, or gameplay systems. Alex defines game feel as the way players “sensorially perceive a game and the way in which they control their in-game presence (e.g., their character),” applying it to both mythological/historical characters and the notion of historical lived experience in video games. Alex incites game feel for significant developments in gaming where discerning a sensory rhetoric has potential for connecting us with ancient history on a more intimate level.
Alexander has previously collaborated in SASA’s Archaeogaming Education Program, on the module “All Roads Lead to Rome: Making and Maintaining the Roman Empire,'' for middle school. The module explores technologies that allowed for the spread and maintenance of the Roman Empire, as well as their cultural consequences, using games such as Assassin’s Creed Origins, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Total War: Rome II, and more. By using video game footage and supporting materials in an engaging 'let's play' format, this method of teaching history aims to promote a better understanding of infrastructure through engaging entertainment, as described throughout classical history
The Bristol Digital Game Lab and Alexander’s involvement have appeared like a lighthouse for us, and no doubt for academics and gaming enthusiasts with a shared interest in implementing ancient history into our present culture. SASA’s shared mission to celebrate and explore the world and mythology of ancient history through accessible, immersive mediums in video gaming and extended reality provides the basis for collaboration between higher education and the gaming industry, where the ability to further educate and excite finds an integral role with endless possibilities.
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Bristol Digital Game Lab: New Directions in Classics, Gaming and Extended Reality:
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