The Middle Ages in Modern Games

Image: Foundation by Polymorph Games, 2020

Games about the Middle Ages are increasingly important in the classroom, within historical research, and in the wider world. Medieval and fantasy tabletop, roleplaying and computer games command a considerable and growing audience.

These games can fundamentally influence how their players think about and understand the Middle Ages. This can make them powerful teaching and outreach tools, but can also lead to  misunderstandings about the period and the reinforcement of negative tropes and stereotypes with pronounced consequences in the real world. The Middle Ages in games are typically portrayed as backwards, violent, racially homogeneous and openly misogynist, and this has an inevitable impact on their players.

We need to understand these tendencies in medievalist games. Not just the stories they tell and whether these accounts are accurate, but how these stories are constructed, why these games present this version of history, and what impact this has on their players and the modern world.

Medievalists need to listen to game developers and players. We need to explore the various practices of game design and criticism, and look at what these games take from TV, film and literature. There is vast and growing potential for playing with this period in constructive and entertaining ways, and a lot to explore, and this is what The Middle Ages in Modern Games (MAMG) aims to do.

MAMG is a series of events and publications by the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Research and sponsored by The Public Medievalist, which provide a platform for this discussion.

The Middle Ages in Modern Games Asynchronous Conference

The Middle Ages in Modern Games Asynchronous conference (formerly Twitter conference) is an annual four-day event which brings together a host of game developers, game scholars, medievalists and medieval historians from around the world to talk about any and all aspects of the Middle Ages or medievalism in games of any variety. The event has featured many speakers and reached peak audiences of tens of thousands of people.

Each participant delivers a 12-Tweet ‘paper’ about their current work. The papers are retweeted through the conference account @MidAgesModGames, and questions and comments are welcome from everyone during and after the event.

Recent participants have spoken about a diverse range of topics such as:

• The experience of gender in medievalist computer games
• Creating Fantasy Species for Roleplaying games
• Audio Environments in Assassin’s Creed
• Medieval Apocalypse in LARPs
• Challenging Dark Age tropes
• Arthurian and Skaldic influences in Skyrim
• Exploring medieval cultures in Warhammer Fantasy Battle
• The medievalism of Fallout
• Romantic violence in The Witcher

The papers from previous conferences have been compiled and are presented within a growing series of conference proceedings, which provide a useful and accessible introduction and summary of ongoing and embryonic research throughout this diverse and growing field, and serve as important teaching and research materials.

All proceedings are available Open Access on the MAMG website.

The Middle Ages in Modern Games at Leeds International Medieval Congress

Large and successful strands addressing The Middle Ages in Modern Games have also formed a regular part of the annual International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds in recent years. The congress is the largest annual meeting of medievalists in Europe and is currently operating on a hybrid model to allow remote participation.

Find out more about MAMG at Leeds IMC on the MAMG website.