History, Heritage, and Memory in Video Games: Approaching the Past in Svoboda 1945: Liberation and Train to Sachsenhausen


The journal Games and Culture has recently published the article History, Heritage, and Memory in Video Games: Approaching the Past in Svoboda 1945: Liberation and Train to Sachsenhausen written by Vít Šisler, Holger Pötzsch, Tereza Hannemann, Jaroslav Cuhra, and Jaroslav Pinkas. The article presents a self-relfexive analysis of two historical games made by the studio Charles Games.

Original abstract: This article explores authenticity, immersion, and heritage in two historical video games, Svoboda 1945: Liberation and Train to Sachsenhausen. The two games use different strategies when inviting understanding, emotional attachment, and immersive experiences of past events. We draw upon a critical, self-reflective analysis of the design process and a comparison of both games. Our aim is to expand further the toolset for historical game analysis and critique by developing the terms inter-medial authenticity and procedural heritage to enable investigations of games as both representations and simulations of historical events. We show that both these aspects can contribute to the roles games can play as conveyors of historical memory and heritage.

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