RHUL Gendering Historical Video Games Conference

Huge thank you to our amazing professionals who came and talked at our conference yesterday! It was an illuminating conversation about gender in video games! @Papyrus_Stories @profkjlewis @KatExe @kateantiquity @RobEHoughton @SimonJPTrafford @PdxInteractive

Huge thank you to everyone who came yesterday to the conference! We hope you enjoyed it and learned something! Thank you to our sponsors @RHBedfordCentre @ERC_CONNEC @harirhul @instclasstudies

Thank you Rob Houghton for his summary of today’s conversation about gender in historical video games and professional input about this topic and also where the industry could go with breaking concepts of genders and genre!

“There is an issue of segregation of story versus game play. A storyline of moral salvation with a game play of killing people.” - Rob Houghton #RHULVIDYA

“What we have seen today is that things are getting better. More representations of women are playing games. More female game developers in positrons to make game decisions. More interesting games as a result and trends of representation” - Rob Houghton #RHULVIDYA

“We can focus on what stories the games are telling once we stop looking at the historical accuracy problems within video games.” “Many of these players are not that upset about these inaccuracies because then the game would be boring” - Rob Houghton #RHULVIDYA

“Isn’t a new field anymore, but what is clear is that the field is not mature. There are several blind spots in historical games dealing with gender. By in large we are talking about it as historians from different fields, which makes perfect sense” -Rob Houghton #RHULVIDYA

Our next presenter is Rob Houghton!#RHULVIDYA

Thank you to Kate Cooper on her fascinating talk bringing a different point of view with creativity and accuracy within historical fiction and video games! #RHULVIDYA

Our next presenter is Kate Cooper! #RHULVIDYA

Thank you to Katherine Lewis for her talk on gender representation and appropriation in classical video games! #RHULVIDYA

Our next presenter is Katherine Lewis! #RHULVIDYA

Thank you to Kate Cook for her wonderful discussion on her book and on broader topics about representation in video games. Pushing for more scholarship covering gender in historical games studies! #RHULVIDYA

“This book is a response to the study of classical video games which has one chapter of women. Felt that it was important to feel that the focus was not on men topics until it’s exhausted and then move on to women and gender.” - Kate Cook #RHULVIDYA

Our next speaker is Kate Cook who is discussing her book “Women in Classical Video Games” which is out in September! #RHULVIDYA

Thank you to Claudia and Mariana for their lovely presentation on Crusader Kings III and the hard work on constantly pushing for inclusivity and progress within historical video games! @PdxInteractive #RHULVIDYA

Claudia Baldassi and Mariana Rojas from @PdxInteractive have started their presentation! #RHULVIDYA

“Raises the question of Are we being gender inclusive in a modern context? However, that then opens up angry commenters about historical accuracy” “Women are used as a emotional tool for players.” -Jenny Cromwell #RHULVIDYA

The panel on Jenny Cromwell’s panel has started! “There is this perception of Egypt being static until post-napoleon 19th century. The game does recognize the passage of time, but the question is what Egypt, what women are we seeing?” #RHULVIDYA

Concluding thoughts on Origins “mixed roles and representations, possibility of telling underrepresented and subaltern stories” - Jenny Cromwell #RHULVIDYA