Asian Histories and Heritages in Video Games (Routledge Advances in Game Studies)

This book explores the representations of national Asian histories in digital games. Situated at the intersection of regional game studies and historical game studies, this book offers chapters on histories and heritages of Japan, China, Iran, Iraq, Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, Turkey, and Russia.

The volume looks beyond the diversity of the local histories depicted in games, and the audience reception of these histories, to show a diversity of approaches which can be used in examining historical games– from postcolonialism to identity politics to heritage studies. It demonstrates various methodological approaches to historical/regional game studies: case studies of nationally produced historical games that deal with local history, studies of media reception of history/heritage-themed games, text-mining methods studying attitudes expressed by players of such games, and educational perspectives on games in teaching cultural heritage. Through the lens of videogames, the authors explore how nations struggle with the legacies of war, colonialism and religious strife that have been a part of nation-building - but also how victimized cultures can survive, resist, and sometimes prevail.

Appealing primarily to scholars in the fields of game studies, heritage studies, postcolonial criticism, and media studies, this book will be particularly useful for the subfields of historical game studies and postcolonial game studies.

Yowei Kang (PhD in Rhetoric and Composition Study, The University of Texas at El Paso) is an Assistant Professor at the Continuing Bachelor Program of Digital Humanities and Creative Industries, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan. His research interests focus on new media design, digital game research, visual communication, new media and political communication campaigns, and experiential rhetoric.

Kenneth C.C. Yang (PhD in Telecommunications, The Ohio State University at Columbus) is a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Texas at El Paso, USA. His research focuses on new media applications in political and environmental communication campaigns, cross‑cultural consumer behavior, and Asia studies.

Michał Mochocki holds a PhD in Literature and Dr. habil. in Culture and Religion Studies and works as an Associate Professor at the Faculty of History, University of Gdansk, Poland. His primary research interests are historical role‑playing games, which he examines from the angles of transmedia narratology and heritage studies.

Jakub Majewski (PhD) holds the position of Assistant Professor in the Department of Game Studies and Digital Culture at the Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland where he teaches a range of subjects across game design, game writing, and game studies. His specific research interests are game narrative, worldbuilding and open‑world role‑playing games, history, culture and cultural heritage in games, as well as the history of games as a medium.

Paweł Schreiber (PhD) works as an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Literature, Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland His main research interests include post‑war British historical drama, interactive fiction, and video game narrative, with particular emphasis on the relationship between narrative and space. Apart from his academic interests, he has also done work in theater criticism and game writing.