Board Games and the Construction of Cultural Memory
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2409607 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jason Begy (Concordia University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 7-8 |
| Pages | 718-738 |
| Publication date | 2017-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Games and Culture (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1555-4120 • E-ISSN: 1555-4139 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1555412015600066 |
| OpenAlex | W2342844202 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 17 |
| References cited | 16 |
Although much has been written about the potential of games for historical representation and their status as historical texts, there is little research placing games into a broader "cultural memory" framework. In this article, I argue that one unique way games as a medium can participate in constructing cultural memory is by simulating historically situated structural metaphors. To do so, I first introduce the concept of cultural memory and link it to material culture studies. I argue that games can be cultural memory "objectivations," but in order to fully analyze them in this respect insights from game studies, namely, the meaning potential of rules, need to be applied as well. I then discuss how three board games, 1830: Railways and Robber Barons , Age of Steam, and Empire Builder simulate the structural metaphors identified by Wolfgang Schivelbusch that were used by contemporary observers to understand the experiential changes wrought by the railroad. I close by arguing that this type of research is valuable in that it opens up new understandings of how games influence the way a culture thinks about and remembers its past
Aesthetics · Art · Cognitive science · Cultural artifact · Cultural memory · Epistemology · Experiential learning · Game studies · Meaning (existential · Media studies · Order (exchange · Political science · Representation (politics · Situated · Sociology · Anthropology · Computer Science · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · Law · Philosophy, History, and Historiography · Psychology · Artificial Intelligence
Traffic boardgames and played mobilities
Secret Hitler and the ghosts of Weimar
Le Grand Jeu and the potential of money games for exploring economic possibilities
La guerra civil española en los juegos y entornos lúdicos
The impacts of game experience and fanwork creation on game loyalty
What History are we playing today? An analysis over 50 years of historical board games
Qué historia jugamos? Una aproximación al estudio de los juegos de mesa de simulación histórica
Hey! There’s an app in my game!” the online debate on digital technology and materiality in contemporary board games
Historizing remediation
Video games and heritage intersect
Introduction
Letting Students Control Their Own Learning
Digital Routes in Greek History’s Paths
The War on Terror beyond the barrel of a gun
Better Game Worlds by Design
It's not just a game
Playing empire at home
Literature, Film, and the Mediality of Cultural Memory
The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media
Memory in Culture
Understanding Material Culture
Unit Operations
Metaphors We Live By
Playing the Past
Persuasive Games
Playing Research
A companion to cultural memory studies
Mind in Matter
Is Sid Meier's Civilization history
Understanding media
| Unique citing works | 17 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,7 |
| Citation span | 2016 - 2026 (11) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 14 |