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Description

This book offers an accessible introduction to the dynamic intersection between history and games, and the flourishing discipline of Historical Game Studies. From the representation of the past found in games with historical themes and settings- both digital and analogue- to the histories we might write about games, their development, use and the cultures and discourses that surround them, these methods offer something very new to the study of history.

How do we approach games as objects of historical study, or as ways of creating narratives and representations of the past? What methods and approaches do we need to account for when understanding the complex and multifaceted histories of games, as well as the myriad ways in which games have and continue to engage with history? Writing Game Histories answers these questions and more, offering the perfect guide to this rapidly growing and increasingly popular field of research, and provides an invaluable resource for considering its future.

Table of Contents

List of Figures
Introduction: Where and What is Historical Game Studies, Now? Esther Wright, Nick Webber, and Iain Donald
Part 1: Methods and Approaches

1. Inventory Full: Equipping the Interdisciplinary Toolbox, Corine Gerritsen, Keerthi Sridharan, and Angus Mol

2. Autoethnography as Historical Method: A Plague Tale and Authentic Experiences of the Past, Poppy Wilde and Nick Webber

3. Reading Paratexts and Writing Histories, Ed Vollans

4. Historical Analogues: Non-Digital Ludic Pedagogical Methods for History, Robert Houghton

Part 2: Frameworks and Lenses

5. On Being Colonised: Postcolonial Anxiety and Fantasy in the Historical Allegory of Anito: Defend a Land Enraged, Christoffer Mitch C. Cerda

6. Gender, Games, History, Tess Watterson

7. Playing with the Bubble: Showa nostalgia and Japan's economic collapse in Yakuza, Rachael Hutchinson

8. Mythology in Games: The Case of Inter-Mythological Storytelling, Alexander Vandewalle

Part 3: (Game) Histories in Practice

9. Board Games as Historical Rhetoric: Crisis: 1914, Maurice Suckling

10. Historical Theory and Game Design, Rüdiger Brandis

11. 'Research is a Creative Process': Writing Histories with Games, James Coltrain, Leyla Johnson, Nikhil Murthy and Holly Nielsen (with Esther Wright)

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published 14 May 2026
Format Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition 1st
Extent 272
ISBN 9781350468276
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Series Writing History
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Anthology Editor

Esther Wright

Esther Wright is a Lecturer in Digital History at…

Anthology Editor

Iain Donald

Iain Donald is a Lecturer in Design & UX at Ed…

Anthology Editor

Nick Webber

Nick Webber is Associate Professor in Media at Bir…

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