The study of historical representation in games was once a marginalized subject but has in recent years attracted increased interest from both historians and their students. Many departments now offer courses on games and history, the American Historical Review has published reviews of games, and some historians have even made the move to develop games themselves. For the study of the Middle Ages in games perhaps no one has done more to advance and legitimate the field than Robert Houghton. He has edited the volumes Playing the Crusades (Routledge, 2021), Teaching the Middle Ages through Modern Games (DeGruyter, 2022), Playing the Middle Ages: Pitfalls and Potential in Modern Games (Bloomsbury, 2023), as well as organized the popular The Middle Ages in Modern Games Asynchronous Conference (formerly The Middle Ages in Modern Games Twitter Conference) since 2020.
In this volume, his first monograph on the subject, Houghton argues that computer games should be accorded their own place in the study of medievalism alongside other genres such as literature and film. All forms of medievalism have the potential to affect the assumptions that students bring to our classrooms, and the study of historical representation in medievalist games, specifically, should not be neglected because “Ludic medievalism presents a different and distinct vision from other medievalist media” (1). Additionally, while medievalist games share some of the same tendencies as historical games more generally, they exaggerate some of those trends while subverting or complicating others.
To prove these points, Houghton analyzes a staggering number of games (over 450 are listed in the Ludography at the end of the volume). In what may be a controversial decision for some, Houghton includes games in the fantasy genre both because of their broad appeal and because, no less than historically themed games, fantasy games also engage with academic and popular perceptions of the Middle Ages in their world building and plots. Rather than the case study approach typical of earlier studies, Houghton organizes his material thematically in a manner similar to Adam Chapman’s influential Digital Games as History (Routledge, 2016). The first two chapters look broadly at how games represent history in general and examine the genres of medievalist games more specifically; these are followed by seven thematic chapters on combat, warfare, and violence; science and technology; rulership; the Church and organized religion; morality; race and nationality; and gender and sexuality. After a short introduction, each chapter includes a numbered list of its primary arguments.
Chapter One argues that historical representation in games is fundamentally different from that of literature or film because of the computer’s reliance on quantifiable values and the way in which the narrative generated by a game is a work of co-authorship between designer and player. Games tend to focus on measurable and quantifiable activities such as violence, economic activity, or scientific progress rather than less measurable concepts such as love or relationships. The desire for player agency in games leads to a focus on narratives of victory and progress; the feeling of individual helplessness in the face of larger forces is not seen as an emotion that the typical player wants to feel. Thus, players typically have much more knowledge, power, and control than their game avatar would have had in real life.
Chapter Two examines trends in medievalist games and notes that fantasy games, roleplaying games, and hardcore games (i.e., punishingly difficult games such as those in the Dark Souls series) very frequently have medievalist settings. Here Houghton wants to expand the model first developed by Chapman, who divided games into Realist Simulation Games (with an emphasis on visual fidelity and the “reconstruction” of specific, often smaller, moments in history) and Conceptual Simulation Games (with an emphasis on complex rules systems that attempt to model larger historical processes). The Call of Duty series would be an example of the former; Sid Meier’s Civilization series would be an example of the latter. Houghton argues we need a third category, that of the Roleplaying Game. Roleplaying games differ because of the greater empathetic connection they forge between the player and the game world, their emphasis on the consequences of moral choices, the greater likelihood of fantasy elements, and the central role played by individuals, often of lower status, on the outcome of events.
The following thematic chapters examine how common tropes in both historical games and in other genres of medievalism become exaggerated, attenuated, or modified in medievalist games. Chapter Three looks at violence and warfare in medievalist games. Violence in these games is ubiquitous and can be brutal, but at other times romanticized and sanitized. Corpses disappear, wounds have little long-term impact, and healing is remarkably (often supernaturally) effective. The need for game balance, positive player experience, and graphical limitations also affects representation. The power of knights and late medieval gunpowder weapons, which are often exaggerated in other forms of medievalism, are lessened in games, while lengthy sieges are avoided in favor of dramatic battles.
The common view of the Middle Ages as an era of technological stagnation conflicts with the tendency of historical games to represent history as a long march of progress. Chapter Four argues that while some strategy games do represent the Middle Ages as a period of limited technological development, certain aspects of the stereotypical “Dark Ages” are not represented or receive less emphasis. For example, according to Houghton, medievalist games tend to deemphasize the effects of disease, poor health care, and widespread illiteracy. Chapter Five examines the representation of rulership in medievalist games. Rulers are typically depicted as focused on conquest and warfare, and rulership is portrayed primarily as an exercise in manipulating personal relationships. On the other hand, medievalist strategy games allow the player to engage with economic activities and structures in a way not often seen in other forms of medievalism. While games tend to reflect a “great man” account of history; that great man is only rarely a ruler. Realist games, in particular, tend to present the ruler as distant in order to allow the player-protagonist to act as the real driver of history.
In Chapter Six, Houghton observes that while religious imagery is ubiquitous in medievalist games, it is only rarely used as more than a backdrop due to commercial and legal concerns. In conceptual strategic games such as the Civilization series, religion becomes a quantifiable tool similar to a technology; the player can choose to invest resources into the development of religious beliefs and structures in order to gain production or research benefits. This tendency undermines the common view of the Church as an implacable opponent of scientific and technological progress, but only by reducing faith to an instrument that can be manipulated and deployed by rulers. The relative over-representation of roleplaying games in ludic medievalism results in a greater engagement with moral questions, the topic of Chapter Seven. Game developers have used various methods to make players feel the weight of their moral choices, but Houghton argues that the genre’s emphasis on romanticized violence means that much of that moral engagement is in service of dehumanizing opponents in order to justify the violence perpetrated by the player-protagonist.
Chapters Eight and Nine engage with the topics of race, sexuality, and gender. Most game developers are themselves still white, male, and cis-hetero and assume their audience to be the same, though that audience is becoming ever more diverse. The frequently heard calls for “accuracy” among a vocal portion of game players are in reality a demand that games continue to conform to hegemonic representations of the past that leave out women and people of color. The world of the Middle Ages is commonly presented as overwhelmingly white in many forms of medievalism, but this tendency is even more pronounced in games. Player-characters are nearly always white, and white non-player characters are presented with far more nuance that those of color. Houghton argues that the fantasy elements prominent in medievalist games heighten the use of racial stereotypes and imagery. Non-European cultures are often depicted as non-human in these fantasy games, while opposing nations are typically presented as racially and culturally homogeneous. Violence in these games can thus acquire a racial overtone. The mechanical requirements of games combined with the desire to give players strategic and tactical choices can lead game developers to give cultural stereotypes a quantified reality. However, whereas medievalist games, like computer games in general, marginalize female and queer characters while focusing their gameplay on masculine-coded activities, the prevalence of roleplaying games means that the ludic Middle Ages is somewhat less heteronormative than game worlds set in other periods.
Near the end of this impressive thematic study of several decades’ worth of medievalist computer games, Houghton concludes “In sum, the representation of the Middle Ages in computer games is distinct from other forms of medievalism and the representation of the medieval period in computer games is distinct from that of other historical periods” (288). I find the overall argument convincing, though at times I was left wondering just how distinct these representations were. Houghton tends to assert that a certain characteristic is more or less common in medievalist games than in other games or in other genres of medievalism but rarely gives any statistics to show the reader whether the difference is a minor or a dramatic one. Perhaps it is asking too much, but I would have loved to see some charts or tables to support some of the comparative analysis. This, however, is a small criticism. The Middle Ages in Computer Games synthesizes an enormous quantity of game studies scholarship, highlights trends in medievalist games otherwise obscured by the sheer quantity of existing titles, and points the field in several new and interesting directions.