Ancient Greece and Rome in Videogames - Representation, Play, Transmedia

This volume presents an original framework for the study of video games that use visual materials and narrative conventions from ancient Greece and Rome. It focuses on the culturally rich continuum of ancient Greek and Roman games, treating them not just as representations, but as functional interactive products that require the player to interpret, communicate with and alter them. Tracking the movement of such concepts across different media, the study builds an interconnected picture of antiquity in video games within a wider transmedial environment. presents a wide array of games from several different genres, ranging from the blood-spilling violence of god-killing and gladiatorial combat to meticulous strategizing over virtual Roman Empires and often bizarre adventures in pseudo-ancient places. Readers encounter instances in which players become intimately engaged with the "epic mode" of spectacle in God of War , moments of negotiation with colonised lands in Rome: Total War and Imperium Romanum , and multi-layered narratives rich with ancient traditions in games such as Eleusis and Salammbo . The case study approach draws on close analysis of outstanding examples of the genre to uncover how both representation and gameplay function in such "ancient games".>

Product details

• Authors: Ross Clare
• Assisted by: Filippo Carlà-Uhink (Editor), Martin Lindner (Editor)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.01.2023
• EAN: 9781350194113
• ISBN: 978-1-350-19411-3
• No. of pages: 240
• Dimensions: 156 mm x 234 mm x 14 mm
• Series: Imagines - Classical Reception; IMAGINES – Classical Receptions in the Visual and Performing Arts
• Subjects: Guides; HISTORY / Ancient / General, ART / Digital, Ancient History, Ancient history: to c 500 CE, Electronic, holographic & video art, GAMES & ACTIVITIES / Video & Mobile, Computer games / online games: strategy guides, Digital, video and new media arts