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1/ #MAMG20 Welcome! Exercising power is a core function of strategy games, but what does that process teach us about the past? Are the games we play giving us a representative impression of medieval politics? And does it make any difference?
2/ #MAMG20 Strategy games typically take 1 of 2 approaches to modelling power: absolute authority or contractual relationships. Within the player’s sphere of influence (ie, their empire), in most games, the player gets full control over every detail of their rule.
3/ #MAMG20 This makes sense in design; forcing human players to be at the whim of AI behaviour and mechanics makes it hard to achieve victory conditions/have fun. Even games which generate story from AI interactions gives the player lots of control over their empire (ie, CK2).
4/ #MAMG20 When interacting with NPC parties, however, most games adopt contractual relationships. Your relationship is represented by a number, and the higher the number, the better friends you are (usually with benefits). They might give you money or help you fight.
5/ #MAMG20 These systems represent medieval political entities as personalities, and represents politics as completely individual. There are no decisions taken apart from by the personality. Social/legal/political systems only exist if they act to constrain the leader's decision.
6/ #MAMG20 Power in European states, however, was not entirely personal in the middle ages. Legal and administrative bureaucracies existed and had some independence. The inclination of a ruler was important, but certainly not the only factor that would define a state’s policy.
7/ #MAMG20 The papacy in particular (due to its comparatively high turnover of leaders?) had a very effective bureaucracy which functioned comparatively independently. In games, however, interactions with popes are limited and based on if the pope personally likes you:
8/ #MAMG20 Typically, you can ask popes for annulment, popularity increases in Catholic populations, land/money, and crusades. Pope likes you = success. Most of these were really decided by bureaucracy, not the popes themselves. So why make games so personality based?
9/ #MAMG20 Obv playability matters. The more complex your systems, the less playable it is. ‘Papal Petition Simulator’ is not a mini-game most people will want to play. But there is also ideology at work. We imagine the MA as a time of absolute monarchs whose word is law.
10/ #MAMG20 Games model that perspective because of the convenience of playability, and that also helps re-enforce the ‘simple past’ and ‘great person’ narratives we popularly adopt about the MA. The MA wasn’t all kings and lords. But the way we tell it is. Its impact has reach:
11/ #MAMG20 Strategy mechanics tell a story of autocrats with total power and describe it as history, meshing with preconceptions. The past was more complex, but that doesn’t play well. Given that how we play history can reinforce our understanding, the simplification continues.
