Esther Wright

Sharing this again because the deadline is coming up on the 8th.

Can confirm that it is always a good idea to get a historian to work on your game.

Yes even if your game does not have a historical setting.

(I am maybe biased but I stand by it)

YouTube video by Historical Games Network Historical Games Network Discussion Panel: Gender (29th July 2025)

If you missed our Gender panel event on Tuesday, you can now watch the recording of this fantastic discussion here via our Youtube Channel! Featuring @verysrsgames.com @katexe.bsky.social @tesswatty.bsky.social & @ide4fix.bsky.social

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtP3...

A short piece by me on early modern ships’ surgeons and emotions!

An image showing 4 graphs. The top two are based on demographic data for the population of Louisiana in 1900, by race and gender. The bottom two are based on the same demographic analysis of major characters in Red Dead Redemption 2, published on readdead.com

Oops, gotta add another post. As @readdead.com demonstrates in this post, this analysis shatters any claims towards “historical reality” R* might be purporting to show, in favour of, effectively, a white male fantasy space. Again, not a shocker, is it.

readdead.com/2025/07/02/w...

@katexe.bsky.social may be of interest to you, too, given the research you’re working on and yesterday’s panel discussion…

…The least surprising bit being that there are than >4x more men than women characters in the game, and significantly more white characters than any other racial or ethnic background. (2/2)

RDR2 Demographic Data An overview of race, gender, and disability in RDR2.

Apropos the recent RDR2-adjacent *discourse*, @readdead.com’s work is a phenomenally in depth consideration of RDR2’s literary, cultural & historical contexts. You should check it out, incl. this hugely valuable demographic assessment of all significant characters (1/2)
readdead.com/2025/07/02/r...

Sir Charlotte, la bonne chevalière: Playing with Gender in The Knight & the Maiden | Historical Games Network A long time ago, in a world almost, but not quite, like our own… The city-state of Castamont, a centre of scholarship and commerce on the shores of the scenic Ousarine Bay, is buzzing with excitement!...

New post! Ahead of tomorrow’s panel Andreas Kjeldsen (@verysrsgames.com) discusses forthcoming comedic narrative adventure The Knight & the Maiden, where players solve puzzles to unfold the story of a noblewoman’s quest (& her many gendered disguises):

www.historicalgames.net/playing-with...

This is tomorrow! Featuring @tesswatty.bsky.social, @katexe.bsky.social, @andreaskjeldsen.bsky.social of @verysrsgames.com, and Leandro Wallace. Still a few tickets left!

#gamestudies #historygames #gamingthepast

Playing Wrong: The Horse Girl Takeover of Red Dead Online | Historical Games Network Communities of play are vast and varied. The deeply competitive speedrunning community that still surrounds Nintendo’s 1985 release Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), where...

That reference to a piece on the HGN blog: totally made up. Not a shocker for ChatGPT, of course.

This tho, from Ashlee Bird (in 2021), is great

www.historicalgames.net/playing-wron...

I spend a lot of time talking about all the things historical games do wrong when representing (or, mostly, not representing) women in the past - for a change, here I wrote about some games which I think do something better and more interesting in their depictions of historical women & girls!

Women’s Histories in Historical Games | Historical Games Network 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 g...

New on the HGN blog: Gender panel guest speaker @katexe.bsky.social explores the widespread lack of engagement with “women’s histories” in historical video games, & discusses some examples that do represent women’s stories more meaningfully:

www.historicalgames.net/womens-histo...

Gender | Historical Games Network Event details Date 29 July 2025 Time 16:00-17:30 UK time Location Virtual (Teams) | Speakers Kate Cook, Andreas Kjeldsen and Leandro Wallace [Chair: Tess Watterson] Register for the event via TicketTa...

One week to go until our Gender discussion panel! Find out more & sign up here 👇

www.historicalgames.net/gender/

It’s super interesting to me that major journals have been able to straightforwardly find people who work on Red Dead and are well qualified to review it…

For the record/thread: both Bob’s work&History Respawned are *essential* to the fact that we have a field called historical game studies, even if lots of historians still want to pretend it doesn’t exist. He gave me a platform to talk about RDR as a PhD student, and that matters a lot.

Should also declare that I, too, was asked to review this book for a major journal, and you can find that review in the forthcoming September issue of the AHR.

I know how much Bob didn’t want to write this review, but it needed to be written.

RSE Curious event: Unreal pasts, playful presents: history and fantasy in games and media | Historical Games Network This September, in collaboration with the Imperial War Museums Institute and the Royal Society of Edinburgh‘s Curious Festival 2025, the Historical Games Network will be hosting a discussion panel eve...

We've got a bonus discussion panel event coming up September 10th! In collaboration with the IWM Institute, we're hosting this brilliant lineup of speakers for a hybrid discussion, as part of @royalsoced.bsky.social Curious 2025

Read more and register here!
www.historicalgames.net/rse-curious-...

Gender | Historical Games Network Event details Date 29 July 2025 Time 16:00-17:30 UK time Location Virtual (Teams) | Speakers Kate Cook, Andreas Kjeldsen and Leandro Wallace [Chair: Tess Watterson] Register for the event via TicketTa...

We are happy to announce a further guest for our event on 29 July: Leandro Wallace! Sadly, Leandro isn't here on Bluesky, but you can find out more about him, and about our other amazing panellists, on our event page: www.historicalgames.net/gender/

Interview with Fluxo Games on "Book Smugglers" | Historical Games Network The HGN team recently spoke with Rytis Jadzevicius of Fluxo Games, based in Vilnius, Lithuania, about the studio’s forthcoming historical game, Book Smugglers.  Set in 19th Century Lithuania, the game...

The HGN team recently chatted with Rytis Jadzevicius of @fluxogames.bsky.social about their upcoming game, Book Smugglers. A decision-driven, point-and-click adventure set in 19thC Lithuania, the game blends resource management with historical storytelling:

www.historicalgames.net/interview-wi...

If I do say so myself, a brilliant lineup of speakers to chat about video games, fantasy, history and conflict in Edinburgh this September! Online and in person (and free!!) 👇🎮 @historygamesnet.bsky.social
@chriskempshall.bsky.social @drtimpeacock.bsky.social @royalhistsoc.org

Unreal pasts, playful presents: history and fantasy in games and media Can video games help us understand history, or do they distort it? This hybrid event explores how games and media can mix real and imagined pasts to shape how we see history today.

Very much looking forwards to taking part in this panel with @enwright.bsky.social, Fruzsina Pittner, & Mimi Markham at @royalsoced.bsky.social's Curious Festival in September!

rse.org.uk/event/unreal...

There was obviously going to be a better German way of putting it!!

Authenaccureality

The HGN’s next panel discussion on gender, history and games is coming up in 2 weeks!

Sign up via the post below, and read more about the theme (and our brilliant speakers) here:

www.historicalgames.net/gender/

“Let us be shattered, both… Mine other self”: Elden Ring’s Alchemical Explorations of Gender | Historical Games Network The world of FromSoftware’s 2022 RPG Elden Ring is not governed by strictly realistic systems. Death has been abducted, the flow of time eddies around levitating islands, and Patches has been inexplic...

New this week on the HGN blog, Marcus Jensen reflects on Elden's Ring's explorations of gender through the ideas of medieval alchemy. Enjoy! www.historicalgames.net/let-us-be-sh...

#gamestudies #historygames

Hidden Architects: Women in the UK Games Industry, 1970-2000s | Historical Games Network In this video essay, Regina Seiwald traces the lineage of women central to the development of the UK games industry, from the 1970s to the present day. Watch the video below, or find it on YouTube. Dr...

The next contribution to our Gender theme is out! Regina Seiwald’s new video, Hidden Architects, explores the history of women in the UK games industry, from 1970-2000. You can find it here: www.historicalgames.net/hidden-archi...

#gamestudies #historygames

We’re excited to announce that the online panel discussion for our Gender theme will take place on 29 July, 16:00-17:30 UK time, featuring @tesswatty.bsky.social (chair), @katexe.bsky.social, @andreaskjeldsen.bsky.social and a third, mystery panellist. Tickets at buytickets.at/historicalga....

TRADE MAGAZINE WEEK

are you ready

📰 It's TRADE MAGAZINE WEEK 📰

💥 NEARLY 400 video game industry trade magazines, full-text searchable by the public 💥

🎙️ NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN interviews with Shigeru Miyamoto, Sid Meier, and more 🎙️

☠️ NOT for the FAINT-OF-HEART historian ☠️

🚨 ONLY at archive.gamehistory.org 🚨