"'As You Write Your Odyssey...': An Empirical Study of Classics Students’ Play Interests and Ergodic Characterization in Historical Video Games."

Join us on Tuesday 11 March 2025 at 15:30 for a hybrid Classics and Ancient History / Bristol Digital Game Lab research seminar. Dr Alexander Vandewalle (Ghent University) and Dr Richard Cole (University of Bristol) will be presenting on their work exploring player responses to historical video games. The various ways that players actually play historical games, and how history – or players’ conceptualization thereof – impacts play processes, remains understudied in the field of historical game studies. Using Assassin’s Creed Odyssey(Ubisoft Quebec, 2018) as a case study, Alex and Richard conducted an active play experiment with Classics students at Ghent University and the University of Bristol to investigate how players make decisions in historical games, and to what extent such choices are directed by historical considerations or ideas of history. The seminar will be held in Lecture Theatre 3, Arts Complex, Woodland Road (access via 7), University of Bristol and on Zoom.