Esther Wright

A bit of weekend listening/watching to brighten your Sunday!

Interview: Witches of Islandmagee Project | Historical Games Network This interview features Dr Victoria McCollum and Dr Andrew Sneddon (Ulster University) in conversation with Kirstin Mitchell (PhD student with Cardiff University and Amgueddfa Cymru/Research Assistant...

On the HGN blog: an interview with @drandrewsneddon.bsky.social & Dr Victoria McCollum @ulsteruni.bsky.social on the amazing Witches of Islandmagee project. Huge thanks to Kirstin Mitchell (HGN Research Assistant Extraordinaire) for leading this conversation! www.historicalgames.net/interview-wi...

Fiction as Historiographic Method: Ethical Mediation and the Politics of Representation in USAWA | Historical Games Network USAWA is an Afrofuturist impact game I co-created with the Kenya-based game studio Jiwe in collaboration with the Malian NGO Donkosira and communities in southern Mali. Set in a speculative future sha...

New HGN blog for our “Fictions” theme: Marie Rodet writes about USAWA - an Afrofuturist game co-created with Kenya-based game studio Jiwe. The post explores the use of fiction as historiographical method, the “problem of representation”& ethical game design:

www.historicalgames.net/fiction-as-h...

One of those captcha things. This one says ‘select all images with bicycles. Click verify once there are none left’. There are 9 squares - 4 contain photos of bicycle seats, with the remaining 5 showing the beautiful head and face of a grey greyhound with a white stripe going from the top of their head to the tip of their nose.

Hats off to whoever did this (and the beautiful model).

History ended in the 2000s. now this is History NG+

Think someone else has mentioned it but the Vinland section of AC: Valhalla is really interesting in its lack of subtitling to English (the only shame being that it’s easy to miss and optional as a section of the game)

Cover of Writing Game Histories, edited by Esther Wright, Iain Donald, and Nick Webber. The top half features a minimalist black background with the title in script and sans-serif fonts. The bottom half is filled with a colorful, hexagonal map-style layout resembling a strategy game interface, populated with icons, numbers, and zones. A green vertical label on the right side reads "Writing History" connecting the book’s theme to academic and game studies.

1753. WRITING GAME HISTORIES
​
👉 www.thevideogamelibrary.org/book/writing...

"An accessible guide to Historical Game Studies, exploring how games represent, shape, and create history across digital and analogue forms"

#Books #Booksky #Gaming #VideoGames #GameStudies #GamingThePast

a green approved stamp with a black background ALT: a green approved stamp with a black background

I'm extremely excited that the Forum section I'm co-organising with the amazing @enwright.bsky.social on British historical game studies has been green lit by a journal. More details to come in due course. What a nice way to end the semester.

If you have any trouble let me know, I can ask!

I assume so, likely on publication? You can possibly use the “request inspection copy” on the page for the book?

In addition to being a stunningly beautiful cover, choosing an image from a video game that remediates classical board game aesthetics illustrates the balance the volume tried to achieve between digital and analogue approaches.

I'm super eager to put my hands on this book!

And now, Writing Game Histories (2026) with cover art (courtesy of @murthynikhil.bsky.social’s Syphilisation)

www.bloomsbury.com/uk/writing-g...

Nic & I wrote hundreds of events for Amberspire, so I can say (with some bias) that the game’s world is so considered & interesting, but allows the player to form their own narrative that is reflected back at them in the cities they build.

I’m proud to work on it, and everyone should wishlist it!!

A screenshot of the article’s title and author on the Games & Culture website.

I wrote a new article: it’s on the Fallout franchise, & it’s just been published in Games&Culture

I’m currently trying to wrap my head around a bigger project on historical video game promotion and branding & this article is a slice (in progress) of that
+ it’s open access!
doi.org/10.1177/1555...

Foundational work on Fallout!

A screenshot of the article’s title and author on the Games & Culture website.

I wrote a new article: it’s on the Fallout franchise, & it’s just been published in Games&Culture

I’m currently trying to wrap my head around a bigger project on historical video game promotion and branding & this article is a slice (in progress) of that
+ it’s open access!
doi.org/10.1177/1555...

Are you a scholar in Games Studies, Museum Studies and/or Digital Humanities and want to help NMS develop research in Collecting Video Game Heritage? Come and apply to be an IASH Fellow at the University of Edinburgh!
Applications
Opens - Dec 25
Closes - April 26
www.iash.ed.ac.uk/iash-nationa...

Exciting news!

Some of the most creative voices in the field have contributed to this volume.

#gamingthepast #historygames

Just a reminder that this call is open if the overlap of history, fiction and games is your thing!

The Rockstar union case made its way into UK Parliament earlier today

Writing Game Histories This book offers an accessible introduction to the dynamic intersection between history and games, and the flourishing discipline of Historical Game Studies. Fr…

A project that started with a DiGRA23 workshop is finally, nearly out in the world! Coming May 2026 from Bloomsbury’s Writing History series, Writing Games Histories is a collection of essays on historical game studies methods&approaches. Find the ToC here:

www.bloomsbury.com/uk/writing-g...

a poster with a blue background and an isometric pattern of green hexes with a blue and red decoration. the text reads CALLING ALL HISTORICAL GAMERS: Playful Time Machines is an NWO-funded research project investigating what historical video gameplay means to players. We are looking for survey respondents aged 18 and up who play grand strategy, action/ adventure, and shooter games about the past! Fill in our survey at edu.nl/7w3yn!

hey y'all! my questionnaire on player experience in historical videogames is now LIVE! if you play videogames about the past, we want to hear from you! edu.nl/7w3yn

I'm delighted to be part of this volume with a plethora of awesome people. The immediate paperback edition is an additional nice touch.

such an honor and a joy to be included in this volume, talking (inter)disciplinarity in historical game studies and the importance of putting "current" methods in context. ain't no party like a @times-new-roman.bsky.social @docrandom.bsky.social cowriting party ‼️

Yep, very pleased about that!

Thanks James! 😊

Everything about this, including the editors and stellar contributors, looks amazing.

Such a brilliant conversation, could have been book-length by itself!

Can’t thank Esther enough for inviting me to contribute to this collection! It was a real treat to contribute to an academic book from the perspective as both a historian and a game developer.

I think this book is going to be an essential one for anyone interested in historical game studies

Really enjoyed working on mine + @doktornick.bsky.social co-authored chapter "Autoethnography as Historical Method: A Plague Tale and Authentic Experiences of the Past" for this collection, we presented the work at DiGRA25 + loved discussing the themes + methodology. The ToC for the book looks ace!