Research Note (5): Against Authenticity
Against the Pursuit of Authenticity in Historical Video Game Design
Historical authenticity in video gaming, as commonly conceived, presumes a fixed and knowable past that can be faithfully reproduced. This understanding aligns with a positivist perspective of history as an objective collection of facts. In video games, this approach manifests in detailed visual recreations of historical settings and narratives that emphasize fidelity to the past. While such efforts contribute to immersion, they often reinforce simplistic and ideologically driven views of history. This focus on authenticity overlooks the inherently constructed nature of historical narratives and their susceptibility to bias, particularly regarding the legacies of colonialism and imperialism.
Edward Said (1978) observed how the ‘West’ constructs a distorted and idealized version of non-European societies and cultures that reinforce stereotypes and power hierarchies. Many historical video games rely on these ‘Orientalist’ tropes to construct exoticized settings and narratives. Such portrayals, though visually engaging, often reduce non-European cultures to static backdrops for Euro-centric heroism that perpetuating colonial narratives. By examining how video games like Assassin’s Creed, Black Myth: Wukong, Ara: History Untold, and This War of Mine engage with the notion of historical authenticity, this essay interrogates the philosophical and ethical implications of the medium’s approach to representing the past.
The Conceptual Boundaries of Authenticity
Historical authenticity in video games is often measured by how faithfully developers recreate historical settings, events, and figures. This framing privileges surface-level accuracy—architecture, clothing, and weaponry—while sidelining critical engagement with the complexities of historical contexts. Such an approach reflects broader cultural expectations equating authenticity with historical truth, a notion entwined with Eurocentric narratives that prioritize Western perspectives while glossing over the nuances of colonialism and imperialism.
Assassin’s Creed: Immersion or Exoticism?
Assassin’s Creed, a long-running action-adventure franchise developed by Ubisoft, is renowned for its meticulous recreations of historical settings. Spanning periods such as the Crusades, Renaissance Italy, and Victorian London, the series blends stealth-based gameplay with narratives of secret organizations manipulating history. In the original installment, set during the Crusades, the game’s reliance on exoticized visuals—labyrinthine bazaars, grand minarets, and austere desert landscapes—creates an aesthetic of mystery and timelessness. While these elements contribute to immersion, they also perpetuate Orientalist tropes that frame the East as static and backward, necessitating intervention by Western protagonists.
The game’s linear missions often prioritize Western-aligned characters, sidelining the complexity and agency of non-Western factions. These choices reinforce colonial narratives, aligning with Edward Said’s critique of how Western cultural products construct reductive representations of the “Other.” By emphasizing aesthetic realism without interrogating the socio-political dynamics of the depicted periods, Assassin’s Creed presents history as a consumable product, reinforcing dominant cultural assumptions while neglecting alternative perspectives, particularly those of colonized and marginalized groups.
Black Myth: Wukong: Celebrating Cultural Authenticity
In contrast, Black Myth: Wukong challenges Western-centric conventions by drawing on Chinese mythology. Based on the classic Journey to the West, this action RPG reimagines mythological narratives through visually stunning landscapes and combat sequences. The game’s celebration of cultural authenticity offers a distinctly Chinese aesthetic that resists homogenizing tendencies in the global gaming market.
However, Black Myth: Wukong also raises questions about the representation of non-Western histories and mythologies in a globalized industry. While the game foregrounds Chinese cultural heritage, its reliance on cinematic presentation and cutting-edge graphics reflects Western gaming conventions, potentially diluting its subversive potential. This tension between celebrating cultural authenticity and adhering to industry norms highlights the challenges non-Western developers face in navigating globalized media markets.
Ara: History Untold: Exploring Counterfactuals
Ara: History Untold, a turn-based grand strategy game, offers an alternative approach to historical authenticity by emphasizing counterfactual scenarios. Players can explore historical contingencies, such as guiding non-Western civilizations to global prominence and challenging traditional Eurocentric trajectories of history. This mechanic fosters engagement with history’s malleability, encouraging players to question deterministic narratives.
However, this approach risks trivializing the complexities of imperial and colonial histories. By framing history as a series of interchangeable outcomes, Ara downplays systemic forces—economic exploitation, racial hierarchies, and structural violence—that shaped historical realities. The game privileges player agency while neglecting the collective struggles and inequalities underpinning historical processes, offering a simplified view of power dynamics.
This War of Mine: Centering Marginalized Perspectives
This War of Mine takes a radically different approach by focusing on the experiences of civilians in a war-torn city. Eschewing the visual and narrative grandiosity of games like Assassin’s Creed and Ara, the game immerses players in the moral ambiguities and systemic violence of conflict. Players must manage limited resources, make difficult ethical choices, and grapple with the harrowing realities of survival. By foregrounding the voices of those often excluded from dominant narratives, This War of Mine disrupts traditional war game tropes that glorify combat and heroism.
Misconceptions of Authenticity
The pursuit of authenticity in video games often stems from the belief in a singular, objective historical narrative. This positivist understanding of history portrays the past as a fixed reality that can be faithfully recreated through visual and narrative fidelity. However, postmodernist critiques, such as those articulated by Jean-François Lyotard (1984), challenge this notion, emphasizing that history is a construct shaped by cultural, ideological, and political forces. Video games claiming authenticity often obscure the multiplicity of perspectives that define historical inquiry, reinforcing narrow and frequently Eurocentric views of the past.
Assassin’s Creed: The Illusion of Definitive Histories
Assassin’s Creed exemplifies the pitfalls of equating visual fidelity with historical truth. By meticulously recreating architectural landmarks and period-specific attire, the franchise creates the illusion of definitive historical representation. However, these detailed settings often serve as backdrops to narratives that prioritize Western-aligned protagonists, sidelining the complexities of the societies they inhabit. The game’s focus on grand conspiracies and individual heroism marginalizes the lived experiences of colonized peoples, who are reduced to supporting or adversarial roles. This approach reinforces the notion of history as a linear progression driven by Western superiority, glossing over the nuances of imperialism and colonial resistance.
For example, Assassin’s Creed Origins, set in Ptolemaic Egypt, incorporates stunning visuals and compelling gameplay but simplifies the historical context. While the protagonist Bayek’s journey intersects with political turmoil, the narrative overlooks the broader consequences of Roman imperialism and its impact on Egyptian society. By framing history through the lens of personal revenge and heroism, the game perpetuates a romanticized view of historical change, minimizing collective struggles and systemic injustices.
Black Myth: Wukong: Navigating Cultural Representation
Black Myth: Wukong challenges the traditional Western-centric narratives of historical gaming by drawing deeply from Chinese mythology. Its emphasis on cultural authenticity offers a refreshing departure from the homogenized aesthetics often found in the global gaming market. However, the game also highlights the challenges of balancing cultural representation with international market demands.
While Black Myth celebrates Chinese heritage, its reliance on cinematic action sequences and high-end graphics aligns with Western gaming conventions, raising questions about the extent to which cultural specificity is maintained. The game’s mythological focus, while engaging, risks essentializing Chinese culture for a global audience, framing it as an exotic spectacle rather than a nuanced exploration of its complexities.
Ara: History Untold: Oversimplifying Historical Complexity
Ara: History Untold introduces players to an alternative view of history, emphasizing the role of contingency and decision-making. Its counterfactual scenarios—allowing players to lead civilizations to unforeseen prominence—encourage engagement with the possibilities of historical change. However, this design choice often reduces history to a series of interchangeable outcomes, neglecting the systemic inequalities and structural forces that define historical processes.
For instance, a player could rewrite history to favor a non-Western civilization, achieving global dominance through strategic decisions. While this scenario challenges traditional Eurocentric narratives, it risks trivializing the enduring legacies of colonial exploitation, economic hierarchies, and imperial domination. By framing history as malleable and player-driven, Ara prioritizes individual agency over collective struggles, offering an engaging but ultimately reductive view of the past.
This War of Mine: Challenging Positivist Narratives
In contrast, This War of Mine disrupts the positivist assumptions underpinning traditional notions of authenticity by centering marginalized perspectives. Unlike games that glorify military campaigns or heroic exploits, This War of Mine immerses players in the lived experiences of civilians caught in systemic violence. Its minimalist design and focus on survival highlight the ethical dilemmas and human cost of conflict, offering a stark critique of triumphalist historical narratives.
By forcing players to confront the moral ambiguities of survival—such as stealing food to live or risking safety to help others—the game foregrounds the ethical and socio-political dimensions of war. This approach challenges players to consider the broader systems of power and exploitation that perpetuate conflict, offering a more nuanced and inclusive view of history.
Deconstruction of Historical Narratives
Deconstruction, a methodological approach rooted in post-structuralist theory, offers a powerful lens for analyzing how video games construct and privilege certain historical narratives while marginalizing others. By examining the internal contradictions and assumptions embedded in these narratives, deconstruction reveals the ideological underpinnings of video games and their role in reinforcing dominant cultural and political paradigms. Each of the selected games engages with historical narratives in distinct ways, reflecting both the potential and limitations of the medium.
Assassin’s Creed: A Romanticized Vision of Western Agency
In Assassin’s Creed, deconstruction reveals a persistent tension between the series’ historical authenticity and its Eurocentric framing of history. The franchise’s reliance on grand conspiracies and secretive organizations positions Western actors as the primary agents of historical change, sidelining the complex socio-political dynamics that shaped the depicted eras. For instance, in Assassin’s Creed, players embody Altaïr, a Western-aligned protagonist navigating the Crusades. The narrative portrays Muslim and Byzantine factions as chaotic or corrupt, framing the protagonist as a stabilizing force amidst the disorder. This representation mirrors the paternalistic narratives critiqued by Edward Said (1978) in Orientalism, where the West assumes the role of arbiter and savior.
The game’s environments, while visually stunning, function as aestheticized backdrops rather than spaces for critical engagement. Richly detailed bazaars and grand architecture evoke a sense of authenticity but obscure the lived experiences and systemic inequalities that define these spaces. By prioritizing spectacle and player agency, Assassin’s Creed perpetuates triumphalist narratives that romanticize Western intervention while marginalizing non-Western agency and resistance.
Black Myth: Wukong: Subverting Eurocentric Frameworks
Black Myth: Wukong exemplifies how video games can challenge traditional historical narratives by centering non-Western mythologies and cultural traditions. The game draws from Journey to the West, a foundational text in Chinese literature, offering players a deeply immersive experience grounded in Chinese folklore. By foregrounding a distinctly Chinese aesthetic, Black Myth subverts the Eurocentric frameworks that dominate the global gaming industry.
However, deconstruction reveals the complexities of navigating cultural authenticity within a globalized market. While the game resists Western-centric storytelling, its reliance on cinematic visuals and high-intensity combat reflects the influence of Western gaming conventions. This tension raises questions about the extent to which Black Myth can maintain its cultural specificity while catering to international audiences. The game’s emphasis on spectacle risks commodifying Chinese mythology, presenting it as an exotic artifact rather than a living tradition with its internal contradictions and evolutions.
Ara: History Untold: The Pitfalls of Counterfactual Histories
Ara: History Untold invites players to reimagine history by exploring counterfactual scenarios, positioning itself as a sandbox for historical experimentation. This approach challenges the traditional linear narratives of historical progress, encouraging players to engage with the contingency of historical events. However, deconstruction reveals the limitations of this model, particularly its tendency to overlook the structural forces that underpin historical processes.
For instance, while Ara allows players to guide non-Western civilizations to prominence, it frames history as a series of interchangeable outcomes determined by player agency. This perspective reduces historical change to strategic decision-making, neglecting the systemic inequalities and power dynamics that constrained historical actors. The game’s mechanics emphasize individual control while downplaying collective struggles, such as anti-colonial resistance or grassroots movements, that shaped historical trajectories. By abstracting these complexities into gameplay mechanics, Ara risks trivializing the enduring legacies of colonialism and imperialism.
This War of Mine: Centering Systemic Violence and Marginalized Voices
In contrast, This War of Mine employs deconstruction to critique traditional historical narratives and center marginalized perspectives. By immersing players in the experiences of civilians during wartime, the game disrupts the triumphalist portrayals of conflict common in titles like Assassin’s Creed. Its minimalist aesthetic and emphasis on survival mechanics highlight the systemic violence and ethical dilemmas that define life in a war-torn city.
The game’s focus on mundane but harrowing decisions—such as whether to steal food or share limited resources—forces players to confront the moral ambiguities of survival. This approach shifts the narrative focus from military heroics to the structural forces that perpetuate conflict, such as economic inequality, resource scarcity, and political instability. By centering the voices of civilians, This War of Mine challenges players to engage critically with the socio-political contexts of war, offering a more inclusive and nuanced representation of history.
The Risks of Emotionally Charged Authenticity
The pursuit of emotional authenticity in video games—the use of emotional engagement to immerse players in historical or cultural settings—presents a double-edged sword. While emotional authenticity can foster empathy and provoke critical reflection, it also risks perpetuating reductive narratives, obscuring systemic issues, and commodifying cultural experiences. This tension is particularly evident in games that focus on conflict, cultural heritage, or counterfactual histories.
Assassin’s Creed: The Spectacle of Historical Grandeur
The Assassin’s Creed series exemplifies how emotional authenticity can simultaneously captivate and mislead players. By meticulously recreating historical settings and embedding emotionally resonant narratives of heroism, betrayal, and vengeance, the franchise immerses players in a visually stunning yet ideologically constrained vision of the past. For instance, Assassin’s Creed Origins, set in Ptolemaic Egypt, intertwines the protagonist Bayek’s quest for justice with the broader collapse of Egyptian autonomy under Roman domination.
While the game successfully evokes the grandeur of ancient Egypt through detailed architecture, vibrant markets, and expansive deserts, its narrative centers on individual heroics at the expense of systemic analysis. The story’s focus on Bayek’s journey minimizes the economic exploitation and political subjugation that characterized Roman imperialism. Emotional immersion, achieved through cinematic storytelling and vivid visuals, reinforces a romanticized view of history that foregrounds Western-aligned agency while marginalizing the collective struggles of subjugated populations.
Black Myth: Wukong: Balancing Cultural Celebration and Spectacle
Black Myth: Wukong leverages emotional authenticity to celebrate Chinese cultural heritage through the lens of mythology. The game’s awe-inspiring visuals and cinematic combat sequences immerse players in the fantastical world of Journey to the West. Emotional engagement arises from the game’s ability to evoke wonder and pride in Chinese cultural traditions, offering a counterpoint to the Eurocentric narratives prevalent in the gaming industry.
However, the emphasis on spectacle risks overshadowing the socio-political context of the game’s mythological source material. The tension between religious traditions, imperial authority, and cultural identity in Ming Dynasty China, for instance, is largely absent in favor of action-oriented gameplay and dramatic set pieces. While Black Myth disrupts Western-dominated gaming conventions, its reliance on cinematic presentation illustrates the challenge of balancing cultural authenticity with global marketability. Emotional authenticity, in this context, becomes a tool for both cultural affirmation and commodification, reflecting the dual pressures of artistic expression and commercial viability.
Ara: History Untold: Reducing History to Player Choice
Ara: History Untold channels emotional authenticity through its promise of player-driven historical narratives. By allowing players to guide civilizations through alternative historical paths, the game taps into the emotional satisfaction of reshaping history. However, this approach risks trivializing systemic forces and reducing the historical complexity of individual decision-making.
For example, a player might lead a non-Western civilization to global dominance, experiencing a sense of triumph and empowerment. Yet the game’s mechanics do little to engage with the structural inequalities that defined colonial and imperial histories, such as the economic exploitation of enslaved populations or the resource extraction that fueled industrialization. Emotional authenticity in Ara is thus tied to the player’s agency, but it often neglects the broader socio-political contexts that constrained historical actors. This reductionist approach transforms history into a series of malleable outcomes, sidestepping the enduring legacies of colonialism and systemic violence.
This War of Mine: Emotional Engagement as Critique
In contrast, This War of Mine demonstrates how emotional authenticity can be harnessed to critique traditional historical narratives and illuminate systemic violence. By centering the experiences of civilians during war, the game shifts the narrative focus from militaristic heroism to the human cost of conflict. Players must navigate morally fraught choices—such as stealing from neighbors or risking their safety to help others—evoking feelings of guilt, desperation, and empathy.
This emotional engagement challenges players to confront the systemic forces that perpetuate war, such as economic inequality, resource scarcity, and political instability. Unlike games that glorify combat, This War of Mine uses minimalist aesthetics and survival mechanics to emphasize the mundane yet harrowing realities of life in a war zone. Emotional authenticity becomes a tool for fostering critical reflection, prompting players to question the broader socio-political structures that drive conflict.
The Dual Nature of Emotional Authenticity
The contrast between these games underscores the dual nature of emotional authenticity in video game design. When used thoughtfully, emotional engagement can deepen players’ understanding of historical and cultural contexts, fostering empathy and critical reflection. This War of Mine, for example, uses emotional authenticity to challenge dominant narratives and center marginalized voices. Conversely, when deployed without critical intent, emotional authenticity can reinforce triumphalist and Eurocentric perspectives, as seen in Assassin’s Creed and Ara: History Untold. Black Myth: Wukong illustrates the delicate balance between cultural celebration and commodification, highlighting the complexities of navigating authenticity within a globalized industry.
Concluding Thoughts
The pursuit of historical authenticity in video games reveals both the medium’s potential and its limitations. While the ability to recreate immersive historical and cultural settings offers unique opportunities for engagement, the focus on surface-level authenticity often reinforces dominant narratives, marginalizes alternative perspectives, and reduces complex historical events to simplified entertainment. This reliance on visual fidelity and emotional resonance risks perpetuating colonialist and imperialist ideologies, presenting history as a linear progression driven by heroic individuals or dominant civilizations.
Games like Assassin’s Creed and Ara: History Untold exemplify the challenges of prioritizing aesthetic realism and player agency over systemic analysis. By centering narratives around Western perspectives and presenting history as a series of interchangeable outcomes, these games reinforce triumphalist and Eurocentric views. The spectacle of meticulously detailed historical settings and emotionally driven storylines often obscures the socio-political dynamics that shaped historical events, sidelining the experiences of marginalized groups and the enduring legacies of imperialism and colonial exploitation.
In contrast, games like This War of Mine demonstrate how video games can disrupt traditional historical narratives and foster critical engagement. By centering the experiences of civilians and emphasizing the systemic violence of conflict, the game shifts the focus from militaristic heroism to the ethical dilemmas and human cost of war. Emotional authenticity in this context serves as a tool for critique, challenging players to reflect on the structures of power, inequality, and resistance that shape historical and contemporary realities.
Similarly, Black Myth: Wukong subverts Western-centric conventions by foregrounding Chinese mythology and cultural heritage. However, its reliance on cinematic presentation highlights the complexities of achieving cultural authenticity within a globalized industry. These examples illustrate the medium’s capacity to explore nuanced narratives while navigating the tensions between cultural representation, marketability, and artistic integrity.
Emotional authenticity, when harnessed thoughtfully, has the potential to transcend the limitations of traditional authenticity. Its effectiveness lies not only in its capacity to engage players but also in its ability to interrogate the narratives it constructs and the ideologies it sustains. By leveraging emotional engagement to provoke deeper reflection on systemic issues—such as colonialism, imperialism, and cultural marginalization—video games can evolve from consumable entertainment into platforms for meaningful historical and cultural inquiry.
To fully realize this potential, game developers must prioritize inclusivity, reflexivity, and systemic analysis in their designs. Alternative mechanics, such as dynamic NPC behaviors or branching narratives, could encourage players to engage critically with historical complexities. For example, integrating stories of resistance, decolonization, and marginalized communities into gameplay could disrupt triumphalist narratives and enrich players’ understanding of history. Additionally, foregrounding the structural forces of imperialism and colonialism—such as resource extraction, forced labor, and cultural erasure—can provide a more nuanced and systemic view of historical change.
Critical frameworks like postmodernism, historiographic metafiction, and deconstruction offer valuable tools for uncovering the biases and exclusions embedded in historical representation. By embracing these perspectives, developers can create games that not only entertain but also challenge players to interrogate the histories they encounter. This approach would foster a more inclusive and reflective understanding of the past, encouraging players to question whose stories are told, whose voices are silenced, and whose interests are served.
Ultimately, the pursuit of historical authenticity in video games should not be an end in itself but a means to deepen engagement with history’s complexities. By moving beyond surface-level realism and embracing the medium’s capacity for creative and inclusive storytelling, video games can transcend their current limitations. Titles like This War of Mine demonstrate how centering marginalized perspectives can challenge dominant paradigms. At the same time, Black Myth: Wukong highlights the importance of cultural specificity in broadening the scope of historical representation.
Video games, as a cultural medium, have the potential to reshape the way audiences understand and engage with history. By leveraging emotional authenticity and systemic analysis, designers can create experiences that educate, provoke, and inspire. In doing so, video games can emerge as powerful tools for historical inquiry, fostering empathy, critical reflection, and a more inclusive vision of the past.
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