Toward a virtual reenactment of history: Video games and the recreation of the past

Several modern video games claim a high degree of historical authenticity, and indeed the experience of modern gaming is often described as being more ‘realistic’ than ever before. This article explores the relationship between history and video games by discussing Brothers in Arms (2005( as a form of reenactment. What emerges from the game is a complex negotiation of two goals that often appear to be contradictory—fidelity to the conventions of gaming and attention to historical detail. By deferring to historical authenticity, the game attempts to build historical knowledge through sympathetic identification, which is precisely what the game fails to induce through its own narrative and characters. After treating Brothers in Arms, I conclude with a discussion of a very different game (Façade, 2005 Mateas, M. and Stern, A. 2005. Façade (PC), Procedural Arts. [Google Scholar]) as a way of speculating on future possibilities regarding the intersections of history and gaming.