Arcanum: Of Steamworks And Magick Obscura – How I Fell In Love With Industrial Archaeology

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Making Waves through Play: A Historical Archaeological Examination of Archaeogaming and the Global Impact of Video Games on the Field of Archaeology", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Arcanum is a steampunk fantasy role-playing game (2001). The gameplay allows the player to interact with NPCs. It has a vast world, multiple choices, and tons of dialogues regarding dualities such as science and religion, or environmental concerns. It also reflects the colonialist discourse when unavoidable stereotypes arise between aristocrats and slum inhabitants, hierarchically placed throughout the plot.

The game presents a myriad of material culture representations: springs, electrical parts, ore fragments, gears, bottles, spikes, and clamps, among others. Both authors met this video game in different stages of their lives. One is a huge fan, and the way he sees (or used to see) Industrial Archaeology stereotypes is highly influenced by the concept, while the other highlights the inequality discourses, the dualities, and the way that she notices the absence of female presence or influence in the game plot. The aim of this presentation is to explore these perspectives.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Making Waves through Play: A Historical Archaeological Examination of Archaeogaming and the Global Impact of Video Games on the Field of Archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow