The interactive past

Video games, even though they are one of the present's quintessential media and cultural forms, also have a surprising and many-sided relation with the past. From seminal series like Sid Meier's Civilization or Assassin's Creed to innovative indies like Never Alone and Herald, games have integrated heritages and histories as key components of their design, narrative, and play. This has allowed hundreds of millions of people to experience humanity's diverse heritage through the thrill of interactive and playful discovery, exploration, and (re-)creation. Just as video games have embraced the past, games themselves are also emerging as an exciting new field of inquiry in disciplines that study the past. Games and other interactive media are not only becoming more and more important as tools for knowledge dissemination and heritage communication, but they also provide a creative space for theoretical and methodological innovations.The Interactive Past brings together a diverse group of thinkers - including archaeologists, heritage scholars, game creators, conservators and more - who explore the interface of video games and the past in a series of unique and engaging writings. They address such topics as how thinking about and creating games can inform on archaeological method and theory, how to leverage games for the communication of powerful and positive narratives, how games can be studied archaeologically and the challenges they present in terms of conservation, and why the deaths of virtual Romans and the treatment of video game chickens matters. The book also includes a crowd-sourced chapter in the form of a question-chain-game, written by the Kickstarter backers whose donations made this book possible. Together, these exciting and enlightening examples provide a convincing case for how interactive play can power the experience of the past and vice versa.CONTENTSTutorial: An introduction to archaeology, heritage, and video gamesAngus A.A. Mol, Csilla E. Ariese-Vandemeulebroucke, Krijn H.J. Boom & Aris PolitopoulosPart I: Ethical Approaches to Heritage and Video Games1. Storytelling for the Next Generation: How a nonprofit in Alaska harnessed the power of video games to share and celebrate culturesCook Inlet Tribal Council2. Tradigital Knowledge: Indigenous video games, copyright, and the protection of traditional knowledgeGabrielle Hughes3. Chickens in Video Games: Archaeology and ethics inform upon complex relationshipsB. Tyr Fothergill & Catherine Flick4. Herald: How Wispfire used history to create fictionRoy van der Schilden & Bart HeijltjesPart II: Analyzing and Designing Games from an Archaeological Perspective5. Designing and Developing a Playful Past in Video-GamesTara Jane Copplestone6. Video Games as Archaeological Sites: Treating digital entertainment as built environmentsAndrew Reinhard7. Single White Looter: Have whip, will travelErik Malcolm Champion8. On Games that Play Themselves: Agent based models, archaeogaming, and the useful deaths of digital RomansShawn GrahamPart III: Playful Heritage Outreach9. Playing the Archive: Let's Play videos, game preservation, and the exhibition of playRené Glas, Jesse de Vos, Jasper van Vught & Hugo Zijlstra10. Explaining Archaeological Research with Video Games: The case of Evolving PlanetXavier Rubio-Campillo, Jorge Caro Saiz, Guillem H. Pongiluppi, Guillem Laborda Cabo & David Ramos Garcia11. Crafting the Past: Unlocking new audiencesJulianne McGraw, Stephen Reid & Jeff Sanders12. The Potential for Modding Communities in Cultural HeritageJakub Majewski13. Looking for Group: A collective chapter writing gameThe Interactive Past CommunityLeveling Up: The future of interactive pastsAngus A.A. Mol, Csilla E. Ariese-Vandemeulebroucke, Krijn H.J. Boom & Aris PolitopoulosAfterwordJames Portnow (Extra Credits)