1 #MAMG20 Welcome all! I’m a historian who works on perceptions of the crusades in the modern era. I increasingly think that games – along with films & TV shows – can be considered as a primary source for forming what the crusades are thought to be. How so? 
2 #MAMG20 The crusades and crusaders are common features of medievalesque digital games. Crusading in games, however, usually consists of bitesize ‘icons’, or tropes, of crusader medievalism. Icons, because they stand symbolically for larger sets of meanings.
3 #MAMG20 @t_winnerling has talked about the development of a ‘historicised iconography’ for historical games more broadly, and we see this with the crusades. Crusading is disassembled into icons & deployed in games – in fact, across modern mass media entertainment.
4 #MAMG20 @AndrewBRElliott & I have suggested that crusading has popularly become a self-reinforcing brand of medievalism. The repetition of these icons shapes & fulfils expectations of what crusading is thought to be, generating ‘affective authenticity’.
5 #MAMG20 Ok, so what are some of these ‘icons’, and what do they do? I’ve chosen three: 1) the crusader knight, 2) the ‘clash of civilisations’, and 3) occult Templars.
7 #MAMG20 The distinctive assemblage of cross, & armour can function as a symbol of Christian militancy, unstoppable zeal, uncompromising purity, chivalric masculinity, or combination of these. They also seep into non-crusading games through visual mods.
8 #MAMG20 2) Clash of Civilisations: The mechanics of many crusading games, especially strategy games, replicate the logic of the ‘clash of civilisations’ paradigm which has framed the crusades as binary contests of monolithic religio-cultural civilisations.
9 #MAMG20 E.g. East vs West, or Christians vs Muslims. This simplifies and explains the crusades as inevitable outbreaks of violence and the ‘natural’ product of civilisational encounter, and provides an ideal setting for games of conquest between two opposed forces.
10 #MAMG20 3) Occult Templars: Associations between crusading and occult mysticism tend to flow through the Templar Knights – a crusading military order – and a staple of conspiracy theorists and Umberto Eco’s ‘lunatics’. Templars + grail = …
11 #MAMG20 Crusading icons are atomised, bitesize pieces of popular culture medievalism - an access point to the broader, more complex historical reality of the medieval crusades. They provide a buffet of crusade-themed ‘affective authenticity’ for ‘historical’ games.
12 #MAMG20 Their frequent repetition heightens their association with crusading, setting the expectations of players and reinforcing existing perceptions. E.g. bit.ly/3grUIJn
Thanks for tuning in – feel free to ask about specific examples or any other questions!
Thanks for tuning in – feel free to ask about specific examples or any other questions!
