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Women in Historical and Archaeological Video Games
This volume focuses on the depiction of women in video games set in historical periods or archaeological contexts, explores the tension between historical and archaeological accuracy and authenticity, examines portrayals of women in historical periods or archaeological contexts, portrayals of female historians and archaeologists, and portrayals of women in fantastical historical and archaeological contexts.
It includes both triple A and independent video games, incorporating genres such as turn-based strategy, action-adventure, survival horror, and a variety of different types of role-playing games. Its chronological and geographical scope ranges from late third century BCE China, to mid first century BCE Egypt, to Pictish and Viking Europe, to Medieval Germany, to twentieth century Taiwan, and into the contemporary world, but it also ventures beyond our universe and into the fantasy realm of Hyrule and the science fiction solar system of the Nebula.
It includes both triple A and independent video games, incorporating genres such as turn-based strategy, action-adventure, survival horror, and a variety of different types of role-playing games. Its chronological and geographical scope ranges from late third century BCE China, to mid first century BCE Egypt, to Pictish and Viking Europe, to Medieval Germany, to twentieth century Taiwan, and into the contemporary world, but it also ventures beyond our universe and into the fantasy realm of Hyrule and the science fiction solar system of the Nebula.
362 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 6, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 22, 2024
A superb collection of essays discussing the various interpretation of Women in various historical and archaeological video games and how they are interpreted and received by the gaming community at large.
I have to say I was disappointed at the often hesitant, reserved and somewhat dissaproving initial reactions of male gamer friends when I said I was reading this book, not all, only some. But I encourged they at least attempt to read one of the articles before dismissing it as 'feminist non-sense'.
In reality the articles were quite detailed in demonstrating some of the issues surrounding the portrayal of women in historical and archaeological video games as well as there perception by, in particular, male gamers. For instance, one article highlights that the female gamer base is roughly equal to that of males, and in some categories even outnumbers them, yet the number of female developers in larger gaming companies always form a minority and are subject to far more sexual and gender based harassment than their male counterparts, whilst the decisions made by female developers are often far more harshly treated online by gamers than those of men.
In dealing with virtual world of the gaming experience, the inclusion of women is often met with negative review if the role to which they are assigned is not regarded as being 'historically accurate' or 'authentic'. The latter being the perceived reality that should be ideally created while playing.
A large discussion on this is centered on an article detailing the role of women in the total war series. Their inclusion in an expansion to Rome 2 Total War and Shogun II Total War as playable generals, though small and relatively limited, was met with backlash by a section of the gaming community that saw it as pushing a 'woke' agenda for political correctness and forced inclusion since afterall women in the ancient world did not lead armies. Indeed, roles for women were as wifes, spies, administration, courtesains etc. However, as this article goes on to demonstrate, these are the percevied realities of the western male gamer, and in fact different cultures throughout history, have had a more ambiguous, varying and nuanced positions of women in society. In ancient Greek history, there are a few small examples of women who led armies, while in Han China women could hold positions of real power as a result of family structures, allowing them to lead. Thus why should their inclusion be met with such hostility by male gamers who can choose not to play as them.
A further example is the use of Cassandra in AC Odyssey, and the complaints that there were no female warriors in ancient Greece. While historically it is true that there were no, as yet discovered, factual female warriors in Greek armies, this does not disclude the posibility of female mercinaries from outside of Greece, and given the concept of the Amazon's the Greeks were clearly familiar with the notion of female fighters. The main character of AC Valhalla is also a woman, which sparked complaints even though a female viking, albeit the only example of her king, was discovered several years ago. In general both of these characters were met relatively positively, especially Kassandra, though the inclusion of male counterparts no doubt helped.
Either way these above examples giver a broader discussion into how we are to view history. Are we to take indivudual examples as being one off and insignifiacnt, or should we embrace their nuance and keep an open mind into the possibility of further examples, as yet uncovered or simply erased from the historical record? And does this mean they should not be included in games, even though the idea of a Call of Duty soldier is perfectly entitled to be filled with bullets and survive the day or have superhuman strength without question.
Wider discussion is also given to such topics as the presentation of female characters, particularily Laura Croft, the most famous of them all, and I found these facinating from the point of view of her personal development over the years, among others.
Overall, this was a very enlightening and enjoyable work which I simply could not put down and left me enlightened, not only in how I view women in antiquity, but how we can be more open in our studies of women in antiquity but also in their portrayal of them in video games without adding double standards when compared to male representations.
I have to say I was disappointed at the often hesitant, reserved and somewhat dissaproving initial reactions of male gamer friends when I said I was reading this book, not all, only some. But I encourged they at least attempt to read one of the articles before dismissing it as 'feminist non-sense'.
In reality the articles were quite detailed in demonstrating some of the issues surrounding the portrayal of women in historical and archaeological video games as well as there perception by, in particular, male gamers. For instance, one article highlights that the female gamer base is roughly equal to that of males, and in some categories even outnumbers them, yet the number of female developers in larger gaming companies always form a minority and are subject to far more sexual and gender based harassment than their male counterparts, whilst the decisions made by female developers are often far more harshly treated online by gamers than those of men.
In dealing with virtual world of the gaming experience, the inclusion of women is often met with negative review if the role to which they are assigned is not regarded as being 'historically accurate' or 'authentic'. The latter being the perceived reality that should be ideally created while playing.
A large discussion on this is centered on an article detailing the role of women in the total war series. Their inclusion in an expansion to Rome 2 Total War and Shogun II Total War as playable generals, though small and relatively limited, was met with backlash by a section of the gaming community that saw it as pushing a 'woke' agenda for political correctness and forced inclusion since afterall women in the ancient world did not lead armies. Indeed, roles for women were as wifes, spies, administration, courtesains etc. However, as this article goes on to demonstrate, these are the percevied realities of the western male gamer, and in fact different cultures throughout history, have had a more ambiguous, varying and nuanced positions of women in society. In ancient Greek history, there are a few small examples of women who led armies, while in Han China women could hold positions of real power as a result of family structures, allowing them to lead. Thus why should their inclusion be met with such hostility by male gamers who can choose not to play as them.
A further example is the use of Cassandra in AC Odyssey, and the complaints that there were no female warriors in ancient Greece. While historically it is true that there were no, as yet discovered, factual female warriors in Greek armies, this does not disclude the posibility of female mercinaries from outside of Greece, and given the concept of the Amazon's the Greeks were clearly familiar with the notion of female fighters. The main character of AC Valhalla is also a woman, which sparked complaints even though a female viking, albeit the only example of her king, was discovered several years ago. In general both of these characters were met relatively positively, especially Kassandra, though the inclusion of male counterparts no doubt helped.
Either way these above examples giver a broader discussion into how we are to view history. Are we to take indivudual examples as being one off and insignifiacnt, or should we embrace their nuance and keep an open mind into the possibility of further examples, as yet uncovered or simply erased from the historical record? And does this mean they should not be included in games, even though the idea of a Call of Duty soldier is perfectly entitled to be filled with bullets and survive the day or have superhuman strength without question.
Wider discussion is also given to such topics as the presentation of female characters, particularily Laura Croft, the most famous of them all, and I found these facinating from the point of view of her personal development over the years, among others.
Overall, this was a very enlightening and enjoyable work which I simply could not put down and left me enlightened, not only in how I view women in antiquity, but how we can be more open in our studies of women in antiquity but also in their portrayal of them in video games without adding double standards when compared to male representations.
February 16, 2024
A very interesting collection that introduces a number of different games and topics related to the book's overall theme. This book will definitely give you things to think about.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews