Over 80 years since its conclusion, the Second World War still plays a pivotal role in defining national identity, as a significant moment that shaped nations across the world. Keith Lowe’s book The F...

It is a fact universally acknowledged that play is a great route to successful learning. Two influential textbooks by Alex Moseley and Nicola Whitton make the case persuasively. New Traditional Games ...

A free interactive discussion panel to explore and imagine historical video games

On 11th Septmber 2026, our Nations panel discussion event was hosted at the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Curious Festival, and streamed online via YouTube. It featured insights and perspectives from M...

Historical board games are often associated with the long-standing ‘hex and counters’ tradition based on maps, counters, charts, dice tables and dense scenario rules. These games remain an important p...

Is individual memory a reliable thing? What about collective memory? A nation’s history connects its people to their past, providing them with a sense of who they “ought to be” as citizens. But what h...

Is individual memory a reliable thing? What about collective memory? A nation’s history connects its people to their past, providing them with a sense of who they “ought to be” as citizens. But what h...

It is a simple enough question, and one I have been asked thousands of times. Growing up in Liverpool, my parents ran a corner shop. We were there everyday, serving the same neighbourhood, getting to ...

How is national identity encoded into video games played all around the world?

Videogame genres have long served as the kindling on which game studies discourse fires rage. As long as there have been discussions around the categorisation of videogames, the specificities that cha...

Videogame genres have long served as the kindling on which game studies discourse fires rage. As long as there have been discussions around the categorisation of videogames, the specificities that cha...

If you take a look at famous combat-flying action game franchise Ace Combat (Namco, 1995-), at first glance it would seem an innocuous pastime. You pilot jets shooting at others, focused in its tightl...

Alex Humphreys explores the legacy of video game music, from classics to modern anthems.

Around two and a half years ago I set out to adapt The Mabinogion as a video game. The text itself is a collection of medieval Welsh tales, and one of the most significant works of Welsh literary heri...

Codice Lugo 1945 – Le Carte della Liberazione is an urban card game created by PopHistory ETS (an Italian association of various types of professionals operating in the field of public history) and co...

Games are a significant medium through which ideas of nationhood, identity, history, and cultural belonging are produced, circulated, and contested. Whether through historically themed simulations, mi...

On the 19th May 2026, we hosted our 14th HGN discussion panel for our Analogue theme, with guest speakers Izzy Bartley, Liz Davidson, and Andrew McKelvey (chaired by Nick Webber). You can now find a r...

Since May 2020, I have conducted over 200 interviews for my podcast, Beyond Solitaire. A significant number of these focus on historical gaming, and one of the most common recurring themes among them ...

Many museums in Britain have their foundations firmly planted in the colonial project. I am a White British woman, educated through the English national curriculum and I work as a Digital Learning Off...

Many museums in Britain have their foundations firmly planted in the colonial project. I am a White British woman, educated through the English national curriculum and I work as a Digital Learning Off...

Historical Games Network Panel - Analogue – Teams, Tue 19 May 2026 - Join us for the 14th Historical Games Network Discussion Panel on the 19 May 2026 (16:00-17:30 UK time), on the theme of "Analogue"...

PhD in Historical Game Studies: study past in games, playful methods or game heritage. Interdisciplinary research, teaching & museum/industry links. Full-tim...

In 1980s American popular culture, men with Uzis were everywhere. In The Terminator (1984), the titular killer cyborg played by Arnold Schwarzenegger demanded an “Uzi 9mm” from a gun store owner prior...

In 1980s American popular culture, men with Uzis were everywhere. In The Terminator (1984), the titular killer cyborg played by Arnold Schwarzenegger demanded an “Uzi 9mm” from a gun store owner prior...

Hashima Island is now better known through its fictional avatars than through its archival record. James Bond fans recognise it as Raoul Silva’s lair in Skyfall (2012). Survival-horror players know it...

Introduction Over the past two decades, scholarship on historical games has tended to privilege digital forms, whether that is strategy games, simulations, role-playing games, or those with distinct h...

Introduction Over the past two decades, scholarship on historical games has tended to privilege digital forms, whether that is strategy games, simulations, role-playing games, or those with distinct h...

We usually expect the fiction in historical games to appear in obvious places: invented characters, simplified battles, alternative endings where “history” might have gone another way. Raid on Taihoku...