Lightning Talk
Tomas Karlsson
Umeå University
Biography
Thomas Karlsson is a PhD Student at the University of Umeå (Sweden) in the History of Education/Gender Studies departments. He has an MA degree in Education from University of Karlstad (Sweden) as well as an MA in History from the University of Lund (Sweden).
Abstract
This paper explores a theoretical understanding of computer war-games as carriers and modifiers of historical narratives, discussing the war-gaming-genre of PC-games as a way of reproducing historical narratives. But it will not merely discuss these games as tools which might render a better or worse representation of the past. Instead it explores the concept of retentional device in order to understand what type of relationship to historical narratives computer war-games might have. To be sure, a number of computer games make prolific use of the past, they reproduce past locations, feature historical personas and may provide the gamer with the possibility of ’rewriting history’. But no other genre is more representative when it comes to historical portrayal than war-games.
In a number of ways, games are becoming part of historical narratives, playing upon famous themes of history as well retaining the power of changing them, and all these changes of historical narratives through games need to be understood if games are to be taken seriously as educational tools.
The concept retentional device is a derivative of the discussion of retention and industrialization of memory, as presented by techno-philosopher Bernard Stiegler. By using this concept the paper explores the history of traditional war-games, which stems from a military tradition of replaying past scenarios, campaigns and battles. It makes it possible to explore how the narratives built into these gaming devices are transported into the platform of historical pc-games. This type of games functions as a kind of ‘history machine’, making the past accessible through simulation and game-play, shifting focus from the past being something temporarily distant into something immediate. History is in a sense retained in these gaming machines.