ABSTRACT
The previous chapter’s discussion of the activity of re-enactment suggests that a large number of diverse groups are keen to embody ‘history’ for a variety of purposes. Analysis of history-as-experience illustrates that it is a set of narratives divorced from an institutionalised framework, used in different and dissident ways by a variety of social bodies. This chapter develops the motif of re-enactment with a consideration of another model of historical ‘experience’ – that enacted in contemporary computer games.1 Initially, such games seem to offer an empowerment similar to that of reality history but this seems ambivalent at best and illusory at worst. The chapter then moves to look at the ‘experience’ of history in a range of other games, and considers the ludic historiographic possibilities that the past creates. These games are sometimes occasional leisure pursuits – undertaken irregularly – although for others they are hobbies and immensely important. They are played by a demographic which is global, across all age groups, and relatively often male. They represent, then, a complex set of cultural-historio phenomena which often entail a certain embodiment – either first-person, or deploying an avatar – and encourage a sense of experiencing history. The manifestation of history in such a range of gaming models and genres suggest a complexity of interaction on the part of the user. Millions of gamers worldwide engage with the past through their immersion in these virtual and ludic worlds, attaining some kind of – albeit skewed – historical awareness through an active engagement with a representation of the past.
