Book cover for Re-Rolling the Past, edited by Gabriel Mckee and Daniela Wolin

Re-Rolling the Past: Representations and Reinterpretations of Antiquity in Analog and Digital Games

edited by Gabriel Mckee and Daniela Wolin

Open-Access Publication from the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University

ISAW Papers no. 22
2022

This collection presents papers from the 2020 virtual conference “Re-Rolling the Past: Representations and Reinterpretations of Antiquity in Analog and Digital Games.” Looking at a diverse range of games with a variety of media and mechanisms–including board games, role-playing games, and computer games– the papers collectively examine games as valuable and useful avenues avenues for communicating information about ancient history and archaeology. Specific topics include the methodology of devising game rules that simulate ancient historical periods, pedagogical gamification and the use of simulations in educational settings, the interpretation of ancient board games in the modern era, and critical approaches to commercial game design.

Table of Contents

  1. Gabriel Mckee and Daniela Wolin - Introduction
  2. Hamish Cameron - The Painful Art of Abstraction: Representing the Ancient World in Modern Games
  3. Shawn Graham, Tom Brughmans, and Iza Romanowska - On Building FORVM: Making Our Research On The Roman Economy Playable…and Fun
  4. Anne Dunn-Vaturi - Hounds and Jackals in Modern Times
  5. Sebastian Heath - Game Engines and Playification at Pompeii and for Roman Art and Archaeology
  6. Daniela Wolin - Gender Across the Board: Representations in Ancient World-Themed Games
  7. David M. Ratzan - Agoranomika: Playful approaches to teaching the serious economic and institutional history of measurement in the ancient Greek world
  8. Mi Wang - Beyond Photogrammetry in Cultural Heritage Management: Three-dimensional experiences of monuments destroyed in modern conflict