Videogames offer us the possibility to create spaces to enjoy and engage with in ways that approach the past visually and interactively. We can play with history, and we can play to do history. But playing and history are also gendered. Playing with history and gender can open possibilities for events that happened in a moment in human history […]
There are staggering problems with historical games’ representation of women. Based on an analysis of games with identifiable protagonists from the HistoriaGames database, less than 7% of historical games have female protagonists, and more games feature plots in which women are abducted or killed to motivate the storyline than have female protagonists. Sexualisation and gratuitous nudity are rife, […]
Thank you to everyone who tuned in to the livestream playtest of my in-development tabletop game Witch Which? on May 28th 2025, and to anyone who’s watched it on Twitch since. The recording is now available on the Historical Games NetworkYouTube channel with improved audio, and embedded below (content note: the playtest includes themes of historical witchcraft trials […]
Guest chair/convenor: Tess Watterson Gender shapes the way that we interact with the world, and thus the way we interact with and in virtual worlds. From avatar creation and embodiment, to the design of non-player characters and in-game interactions, to the marketing and popular reception of games – gender is a crucial factor but not […]