L’Histoire dans le jeu vidéo, une généalogie narrative problématique ?

Abstract

Video games using History display numerous playful plots which fictionalize historical narratives. If this narrative genealogy seems interesting from a formal point of view, it still depends on a collective imaginary based on the ideological realities of its time. In this paper, we set out to examine the relation between video games and History from the perspective of the social issues that are called upon and confronted in their very narrative forms. Within this framework, we shall consider a historical episode, namely the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), and the way it has been illustrated in some video games and was received in the national context of the years 2000. We will question the way these games inspired by historical narratives constitute in fact a form of critical appropriation, a very revealing appropriation in relation to the societies which consume these games, the place they grant to History and the way they build their national fiction (or myth).

Keywords

• video game
• History
• Spanish war
• First-Person Shooter (FPS)
• strategy game
• national narrative