Identity and Identification in the Historical Video Games Set in the Middle Ages
FACTIONS AND NATIONS: IDENTITY AND IDENTIFICATION IN THE HISTORICAL VIDEO GAMES SET IN THE MIDDLE AGES JUAN FRANCISCO JIMÉNEZ ALCÁZAR UNIVERSIDAD DE MURCIA SPAIN Date of receipt: 1st of February, 2021 Date of acceptance: 9th of March, 2021 ABSTRACT Historical video games offer players the opportunity to choose different options for managing factions and nations of the past, with which they can come to identify. The interactive and immersive nature of the medium makes this possible, and the thrill of winning or losing is enhanced by this ability to assimilate. The study focuses on those set in the medieval period, where factions respond to the various historical stages that define it. In this identity process through the video game, the player assumes a virtual role in which individual or group feelings that historically define their identity are reflected. These titles, as products of cultural expression, are also manifestations of those who have designed them, and inaccuracies due to cultural clichés or factors to be more entertaining —playability— are often resolved by gamers through the mod phenomenon. KEY WORDS Historical video game, Middle Ages, Identity, Nation, Avatar. CAPITALIA VERBA Historicorum Videoludi, Medium Aevum, Identitas, Natio, Locumtenens. IMAGO TEMPORIS. MEDIUM AEVUM, XV (2021): 451-489 / ISSN 1888-3931 / DOI 10.21001/itma.2021.15.15 451 452 JUAN FRANCISCO JIMÉNEZ ALCÁZAR 1. Options1 We must not insist on the fact that video games are a reality. It is not necessary, regardless of the position one may hold in principle about this phenomenon. Video games are a medium that came to stay and their globalization is already a fact.
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