Playing with things : representing medieval material culture through video-games

Hiriart, JFV ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3022-684X 2020, Playing with things : representing medieval material culture through video-games , in: The Middle Ages in Modern Games Twitter Conference, 30th June-3rd July 2020, Online (Twitter).

Abstract

In the same way that an empty room deprived of any objects to relate to becomes uninhabitable, an empty desert does not allow life to take place (Gibson, 1979). It is only through the perception and everyday use of the things of the world (i.e. buildings, artefacts, rocks, plants, and so on) that life can be sustained. Despite the non-physicality of virtual worlds, the same principle applies; it is only through the perception and meaningful interaction with virtual things that we can gain an understanding of life in the past within simulated worlds. In this paper, I intend to explore how the interactions with things can be meaningfully represented in video games. For this, I will look into my own experience as a game designer and analyse systems found in different commercial video-games. Through these case studies, I will discuss possible design perspectives and approaches to convey the multi-layered meanings that characterise the relationship between humans and their material culture. References: Gibson, J. (1979). The Ecological Approach To Visual Perception. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin.

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