Souvik Mukherjee

Playful Maps of Empire. Colonial Cartography in Digital Games' Representation of Global History

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Abstract

This essay addresses the role of videogame maps in representing history in the last thirty years and how the game’s cartography influenced the construction of history and vice versa in videogames. Starting from the idea that perspective, topography and the environment are important in understanding the map and following some Derrida’s comments on the role of maps in portraying history in videogames, the author highlights different casestudies in which Eurocentric point of view around colonial cartography guided the videogame-design’s sector for many years. Finally, the author analyses new approaches of «counterplay history» used in recent videogames releases. For the development of these new videogames, the author points out the importance of postcolonial perspectives in making possible new ways of engagement with history’s representation troughout the gameplay experience.

Keywords

  • History of Cartography
  • Postcolonial Studies
  • Videogames Maps
  • Counterplay History
  • Gameplay Experience

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