Women in Historical and Archaeological Video Games

Jane Draycott

• Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9783111356624
• eBook ISBN: 9783110724271
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Social History

This volume focuses on the depiction of women in video games set in historical periods or archaeological contexts, explores the tension between historical and archaeological accuracy and authenticity, examines portrayals of women in historical periods or archaeological contexts, portrayals of female historians and archaeologists, and portrayals of women in fantastical historical and archaeological contexts.

It includes both triple A and independent video games, incorporating genres such as turn-based strategy, action-adventure, survival horror, and a variety of different types of role-playing games. Its chronological and geographical scope ranges from late third century BCE China, to mid first century BCE Egypt, to Pictish and Viking Europe, to Medieval Germany, to twentieth century Taiwan, and into the contemporary world, but it also ventures beyond our universe and into the fantasy realm of Hyrule and the science fiction solar system of the Nebula.

Warriors and Waifus: Community responses to historical accuracy and the representation of women in Total War: Three Kingdoms

Josh Webb

1 Introduction

By utilizing a feminist framework, and employing a mixture of content and discourse analysis, this chapter will explore three distinct themes that emerged during a thematic analysis of 259 critical comments taken from 30 separate discussions on the Total War Forums relating to the representation of women in the historical strategy game, Total War: Three Kingdoms.¹ The emerging themes are: 1) a transgression of historically defined “gendered” spaces; 2) an historic and numerical overrepresentation of women;² and 3) a desire to control the appearance of women represented in the game. By exploring these themes, this chapter aims to reconstruct how a predominantly male community perceives the representation of women, specifically East Asian women, in both an historical and video game context, and will demonstrate how criticism based on “historical authenticity” appears to reflect a concern to delegitimise the inclusion of, as well as to reinforce pervasive stereotypes regarding East Asian women in gaming more generally. More so, it shows how fan communities’ understanding of what is “historical” is rooted in the systematic erasure of women in history and in gaming, rather than one informed by ancient and contemporary evidence.

Released in 2019, Total War: Three Kingdoms is a critically acclaimed, historical video game developed by AAA studio Creative Assembly (henceforth CA) which mixes both turn based strategy and real-time battles. Set in ancient China during the fall of the Han Dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE), the game depicts a time of great social and political upheaval in which the authority of the emperor was subverted by the great provincial warlords of the crumbling empire.³ It is a period whose history and personalities are well documented through the survival of the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms,⁴ and brought to near soap-opera levels in Lo Kuan-Chung’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a sixteenth century dramatization of the events of the Chronicles. In order to “launch a game that’s both historically accurate and culturally authentic,” the developer consulted both of these historical works alongside ongoing discussions with the leading Sinologist of the period, Dr. Rafe de Crespigny.⁵ From these discussions, two distinct “modes” were created. Firstly, a “romance” mode, “based on the romanticised history”, where Lo Kuan-Chung’s characters are imbued with superhuman abilities and able to “hold their own against hundreds of rank-and-file warriors”.⁶ Secondly, a “records” mode, based on the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, where players could expect a more “classic Total War experience” with generals that are “only human, and will march into battle at the centre of a bodyguard unit.”⁷ These differences, alongside changes to character appearance, the rate of battlefield fatigue, and the depiction of events in the game, are the only differences that exist between the two modes. The representation of history, gender and, importantly, that of women, does not change between these game modes.

It is precisely this tension between representation and historical authenticity which has attracted criticism of the developer’s integrity from a vocal part of the online fan community on the Total War Forums.⁸ This study analysed 30 separate discussions from this forum that directly referenced the representation of women within the game and counted a total of 477 comments that contributed to the discussion.⁹ We will focus on the 258 (54.1 percent) comments that were coded in data analysis as “negative” in that they directly expressed, or stood in agreement with, opinions that the representation of women is historically inaccurate and negatively impacted their enjoyment of the game. It should also be noted that 219 (45.9 percent) comments were coded as “positive” or “neutral” in that they did not outwardly express or agree that the representation of women negatively impacted their experience of the game, yet constraints on space meant that a secondary analysis of these comments was not possible. As outlined, these comments represented three distinct themes that this paper shall analyse after a brief historical overview.

2 “I’d like to remind you that no Total War game has been 100% faithful to history:” Setting the historical scene

Malpas argues the virtual and non-virtual worlds are inseparable, the former “always dependent … on the everyday world within which it is embedded.”¹⁰ This is inescapable, as the virtual world is created and sustained by actors whose “existence is based in the everyday, and not in the virtual alone.”¹¹ Video games are a part of this virtual world and Malpas’ conclusions hit particular resonance when issues of gender and representation become the subject of discourse in online, virtual message boards.

Individuals participating in video games are, as Malpas suggests, firmly embedded in the non-virtual world surrounding them, including being subject to external discourses that shape their views and assumptions. Extensive researching into gaming and communities of gamers are indicative of this understanding, particularly when it is revealed that videogaming is considered to be the prerogative of the white, middle-class male “gamer,” that has led to an ideology of exclusion within gaming communities against those who do not fit this narrow demographic mould, termed by Fron et al. as the “hegemony of play.”¹² In reflection of this ideology, studies have revealed that, similar to other online message boards and social media, gaming forums and lobbies are hotbeds of racist, homophobic, and misogynist abuse.¹³ Thus, we cannot help but see issues and prejudices of the non-virtual world played out in virtual theatres. Along these lines, Shaw comments that it is critical we view video games within the “larger cultural discourses” of the contemporary world in order to understand the permeation of problematic perceptions of race and gender more clearly.¹⁴ Braithwaite further echoes this observation, adding that gamers are firmly “embedded within everyday ideologies of gender, power and privilege” that is solidified and actively encouraged via positive feedback from other users.¹⁵ Thus, it is important to remember that larger social discourses, particularly along sexist, homophobic, and racist lines, are constantly part of virtual discussion.

Alongside this, CA’s representation of women in Total War: Three Kingdoms can be viewed as one evide...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• A short introduction to women in historical and archaeological video games
• Assassins and the Creed: A look at the Assassin’s Creed series, Ubisoft, and women in the video games industry
• Expectations vs. reality: Perceived accuracy when women are in historical video games
• “The hardest battles are fought in the mind”: The role of women in Viking Age games
• Warriors and Waifus: Community responses to historical accuracy and the representation of women in Total War: Three Kingdoms
• Nefertiti – beauty, Pharaoh, and murderous mummy in Assassin’s Creed Origins – The Curse of the Pharaohs
• Senua’s psychosis and the stigma of mental health
• Playing (with) Gisla in Mount & Blade
• National trauma, powerlessness, and female protagonists in East Asian historical survival horror
• “Make him a woman:” Gender and witches in Darklands
• Androgynous artefacts: The princess as heirloom in The Legend of Zelda franchise
• Uncharted heroines: Women, popular archaeology, and digital games
• Fourth wave feminism in video games: An analysis of Lara Croft
• Not male, not pale, and definitely not stale: Aliyah Elasra and archaeology in Heaven’s Vault
• Index