The HGR Framework: A Semiotic Approach to the Representation of History in Digital Games

Many game designers exploit elements, events, characters and narrations retrieved from human history in order to build consistent and intriguing settings for their digital games. The use of historical elements often involves the creation of a complexplayground created by a huge quantity of historica...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Gamevironments
Subtitles:Special Issue: "Gamevironments of the Past"
Authors: Casso, Vincenzo Idone (Author) ; Thibault, Mattia 1986- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: [2016]
In: Gamevironments
Further subjects:B perspectival
B Setting
B representing
B Digital
B history and digital games
B Modelling
B History-Game Relation Framework
B ludic
Online Access: Volltext (kostenfrei)
Volltext (kostenfrei)
Description
Summary:Many game designers exploit elements, events, characters and narrations retrieved from human history in order to build consistent and intriguing settings for their digital games. The use of historical elements often involves the creation of a complexplayground created by a huge quantity of historical tropes. Historical digital games do not limit themselves to represent the past, but they attempt to reproduce the different levels of relationships and correlations between events, causes and consequences. In this article we describe and propose the HGR framework, an analytic tool for scholars and designers alike, capable of taking into account all the layers and processes necessary to transform history in the setting of a game. Inparticular, the framework focuses on the three processes needed for creating an historical discourse (Lozano 1987) and on the three translations that the past undergo to become a game: perspectival, digital and ludic. The HGR framework isfinally tested on a double case study: the representations of Roman Republic and Empire in Total War: Rome II (2013) and Sid Meier's Civilization V (2010).
ISSN:2364-382X
Contains:Enthalten in: Gamevironments
Persistent identifiers:URN: urn:nbn:de:gbv:46-00105661-11