Benjamin Hanussek | Polish Japanese Academy of Information Technology (original) (raw)

Papers by Benjamin Hanussek

The Marshall Plan Scholarship Papers, 2023

This research combined game-based learning methods with Georg Lind's work on moral competence to ... more This research combined game-based learning methods with Georg Lind's work on moral competence to create Morally: A Game of Right and Wrong, an immersive learning experience with the goal of strengthening moral competence and democratic behaviour. Quantitative data indicates an increase of over 37% in moral competence of university students after the experience, while qualitative data underlines individual satisfaction of its participants with the gamified workshop. Based on this data, Morally: A Game of Right and Wrong has demonstrated to be a successful approach in creating a scalable game-based learning experience with the potential to strengthen moral competence and democratic behaviour. Follow-up studies are required to secure the finding.

International Journal of Games and Social Impact, 2023

The field of videogame ethics has already achieved a differentiated view on many ethical question... more The field of videogame ethics has already achieved a differentiated view on many ethical questions in regards to videogames, their players and the industry. However, most of these approaches have neglected the benefits of a less abstract, more pragmatic view on videogame ethics. Thus, in this paper, I will introduce the concept of moral complexity to formulate a device that allows a pragmatic identification, categorisation, discussion, and design of moral content in videogames. Moral complexity is defined as (or by) the degree to which a game offers alternatives and/or commentary to violence and deceit to players and is exclusively referring to how the issue of morality is implemented in past and contemporary game design. It is a reductionist approach, which treats morality as a game design element and shall help to understand the experience of morality in a closed player/ game circuit. To introduce and explain the notion of moral complexity, this paper will begin with a brief overview of fundamental developments and perspectives in the field of videogame ethics. Further, moral complexity is introduced based on a rendering of Kantian metaphysics into virtual space. Then, elements of Aristotle’s ethics, Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow and Habermas’ principles of communicative action are defined to articulate the phenomenological aspect of experiencing moral complexity ingame. Based on these theoretical building blocks, a comprehensive definition of moral complexity is presented. To illustrate this construct, cases of videogames (Grand Theft Auto V, Spec Ops: The Line and Detroit: Become Human) are introduced to exemplify different degrees and manifestations of moral complexity in contemporary game design. Moreover, a discussion on issues shall forward a differentiated picture of the concept. In the end, a conclusion presents prospects and chances for the notion of moral complexity.

The Magic of Games, 2022

According to Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow, enjoyment of an activity maximises when the chal... more According to Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow, enjoyment of an activity maximises when the challenge it presents matches one’s skill level. Similarly, we think that to allow for an enjoyable moral experience in videogames, it requires manageable moral complexity, which corresponds to a distinct degree of players’ moral
competence. While morality in videogames is often seen as an opportunity for philosophical reflection, in this paper, we treat it as a deliberately implemented game design element, constructed to keep players engaged. We argue that the complexity in which morality appears in contemporary games follows a reproducible system, which we call moral complexity and it consists of the degree to which a game offers players alternatives and commentary to violent and deceitful actions. This system allows for a scale of low to high moral complexity, which establishes its manageability just like generic difficulty in games. We proceed with our argumentation that depending on the degree of moral complexity, some sort of player skill is demanded to enjoy dealing with moral encounters. This skill is moral competence and refers to one’s ability to perform moral actions according to one's internal moral principles. Our hypothesis states that players with low moral competence prefer games with low moral complexity, and that players with high moral competence prefer games with high moral complexity. To test this, we have designed a survey study, and this work aims to serve as a work-in-progress report for this experiment, expanding on both the technical details of this project, while also discussing the pragmatic nature of morality within contemporary game design.

XXIII BOARD GAME STUDIES COLLOQUIUM- The Evolutions of Board Games, 2022

The late fourth and early third millennium BC saw the rise in popularity of the mehen board game ... more The late fourth and early third millennium BC saw the rise in popularity of the mehen board game in Ancient Egypt. Its circular shaped game board with its characteristic coiled serpent as spatial game design appeared in a number of royal burial contexts, and also in inscriptions and wall paintings. A visible decline of mehen's popularity can be observed in the mid-3third millennium BC, leading ultimately to the total disappearance from the material culture of the Egyptians in the late third millennium. It is argued that the disappearance of mehen can be better understood by utilising Assmann's cultural memory theory. This study presents a concise material biography of mehen. Moreover, Assmann's cultural memory is introduced as theoretical apparatus through which mehen's transformations in material culture and representation are analysed. The conclusion regards mehen's disappearance as a result of mehen's fading role as object for establishing social identity.

Replay. The Polish Journal of Game Studies, 2022

The discussion on games as (not) art has been raging for decades without reaching a consensus. It... more The discussion on games as (not) art has been raging for decades without reaching a consensus. It is argued here that the ontological status of games is irrelevant for the perception and development of aesthetic experiences in videogames. Instead, game design should be regarded as ripe to convey the experience of art according to established aesthetic theories. The essay presents Adorno’s aesthetic theory and highlights its reflections in the games Papers, Please and Observer. It then describes how they were synthesized into a critical gameplay experience in the author’s game Distressed. The latter may be regarded as an example of a method in game studies in which the aesthetic potential of games is explored by creation rather than analysis. Arguably, this reveals the importance of epistemological approaches towards games and art instead of the predominant ontological ones.

Play/Write Student Journal Vol.2, 2022

We are happy to present the second issue of the Play/Write Student Journal. The mission of our jo... more We are happy to present the second issue of the Play/Write Student Journal. The mission of our journal has remained the same since its founding in 2021: to promote the visibility and writing skills of (post)graduate students in the field of Game Studies. Coming from the interdisciplinary master’s program Game Studies and Engineering at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria, our core idea for this journal remains to collect and share the work of students coming from different backgrounds. As the journal emerged as a student initiative, it seeks to form a bridge between student’s work and academia while also serving as a platform for the practice of analytical thinking as well as a community project.

Play/Write Student Journal Vol.1, 2022

The journal has been formed in 2021 as an effort of students of the Game Studies and Engineering ... more The journal has been formed in 2021 as an effort of students of the Game Studies and Engineering master’s program at the Alpen-Adria-University Klagenfurt, Austria. It constitutes part of the critical outlet of the student-run Klagenfurt Critical Game Lab. Our student journal offers the opportunity to both review and publish student’s written works in the field of Game Studies. Our aim is to bring together different perspectives on topics in Game Studies from people with differing (scholarly) backgrounds on a student level, to foster skills of critical analysis and writing, and to promote the visibility of students who aim to find their footing in Game Studies.

International Journal of TESOL & Education, 2021

Commercial videogames have come a long way since their emergence in the 20th century. They remain... more Commercial videogames have come a long way since their emergence in the 20th century. They remain, however, widely excluded from educational discourse. A reason is the absence of reliable methodologies that ensure effective learning through videogames. There have been attempts to teach historical or other content-centred topics to students through edutainment software. It is argued, however, that games are much more effective in strengthening cognitive decision-making processes. One of these cognitive abilities is moral competence. This paper discusses the possibilities of strengthening moral competence through integrating the videogame Papers, Please into Lind's Konstanz Method of Dilemma Discussion (KMDD®). The goal is to craft a didactic framework in which a measurable learning curve in moral competence can be ensured by selecting games that provide a suitable degree of moral complexity. Through clearly defined goals, well-moderated discussions and streamlined reflections, games hold the potential to complement contemporary reading materials in schools and universities.

14th International Conference on Game and Entertainment Technologies, 2021

The gaming industry has been, compared to social media platforms, rather slow in developing its e... more The gaming industry has been, compared to social media platforms, rather slow in developing its effective methods of game analytics. Considering the difficulty of interpreting player behaviour, this might be no surprise, yet the possibility of modelling player ethics might bring more reliable user metrics. Modelling ethics is the creation of user profiles based on their ethical decisions in-game. Recent publications in that field show an increasing interest in this practice and consider the outcome of succeeding in creating profiles containing data on applied player ethics as highly valuable. Modelling ethics is still not a well-studied practice, but its implications in perspective to cases of data abuse by Big Tech companies seem troubling. It is important to consider, interrogate and discuss the possibilities of this emerging practice critically. How can ethical profiles be rendered? How does inconsistent player behaviour affect the ethical metric? Who owns this kind of data, and for which purpose is its utilisation admitted? These and many more questions must be addressed immediately before unethical practices take place, and policies lag behind. Therefore, we intend to present the work of Pereira Santos to define the modelling of ethics as a new method of Game Analytics, how it can be applied, which data it can extract and how it can be interpreted. Further, we propose a new experimental design for how the modelling of ethics may be approached. For that, we want to shift the attention from trying to create full-fledged ethical profiles of players to their measurable moral competence as a more reliable metric. Moreover, we discuss the prospects of modelling ethics and the moral implications for the industry and move towards a conclusion that urges immediate policies to address the method.

Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Cultural Heritage and New Technologies, 2021

Video games have become one of the spearheading media forms of the 21st century and their impact ... more Video games have become one of the spearheading media forms of the 21st
century and their impact on our society omnipresent. Many games do represent historical
and archaeological pasts in an artistic manner that leads still to wide criticism among
archaeologists, historians and heritage practitioners as these reconstructed pasts do not
represent the scholarly complexity that academia provides. Nevertheless, attempts to
bridge the digital gap between academia and the public are still conducted even though
they remain often fruitless due to the lack of effective understanding of popular audience
expectations. Since recent years the gaming industry started to address the demand of
their consumers for more authentic reconstructions of ancient towns and past societies.
Because of that academic specialists have been increasingly employed or outsourced to
enhance the quality of their games. This paper aims to discuss this development and
interrogate aspects of it from an archaeologist’s perspective. For that, cases are presented in which illustrate the relation between archaeological knowledge and the processing of it through games. It shall be also further discussed why it is crucial to participate in this process to benefit from an interdisciplinary collaboration between archaeologists and the gaming industry. It shall be not of focal interest to address the flaws of
games in representing complex pasts but rather how to formulate an approach that would
satisfy the industry as also archaeologists.

Advances in Archaeological Practice, 2020

The introduction of the smartphone into the private and professional lives of humans has provided... more The introduction of the smartphone into the private and professional lives of humans has provided a channel to real-time and place-specific information that can enhance (and disturb) day-today living. Given such impact, many museums and archaeological exhibitions have chosen to develop digital applications to enhance the visitor experience via accompanying the visitor through the exhibitions. Yet after a decade, these applications still seem understudied and, in practice, very undeveloped. This review aims to shed some light on the possibilities and shortcomings of museum apps. I discuss and critically evaluate the technical efficiency, practical utility, and user experience of the British Museum Guide (Museums Guide Ltd.) and My Visit to the Louvre (Musée du Louvre) applications. These two mobile apps represent the contemporary standard for museum apps, thereby allowing me to generalize about this genre of digital media.

XIX i XX Międzynarodowa Interdyscyplinarna Sesja Studentów Archeologii, 2019

Digital Presentation and Preservation of Cultural and Scientific Heritage. Conference Proceedings. Vol. 9, 2019

This paper discusses the influence of private companies in the museum sector. For that I will use... more This paper discusses the influence of private companies in the museum sector. For that I will use qualitative accounts and my empirical research to evaluate and interpret the issue. This article shall present the delegation of multimedia development to outsourced companies at expense of the museum's integrity.

CHNT 24, 2019

Archaeology’s association with media and video games has never been satisfying for most archaeolo... more Archaeology’s association with media and video games has never been satisfying for most archaeologists.
This may go back to the fact that figures like Indiana Jones or Lara Croft had developed “the idea that
archaeologists slash through jungles and prowl through caves searching for golden idols, precious work of
ancient art, and magical charms.” (Orser, 2015, p. 133). The obscured expectations on the work of an
archaeologist that are presented to the public may be one issue. Another aspect that has been always
discussed by archaeologists and historians as well is the accuracy of the content that is presented in digital
games; to which extent can the past be generalised, what are the repercussions or does it even matter?
(Chapman, 2016. Reinhard, 2018).
The visualisation of past realities in which nowadays people can immerse in became “increasingly significant
in tourism, entertainment and education” (Holtorf, 2017 p. 3). Hence video games like the Civilization series
or the Assassin’s Creed series have been trying to offer past experiences to a growing community of players.
These games do not just let players immerse into historical events but they also visualise a material past
based on archaeological evidence. The representations and reconstructions of material heritage have huge
implications for our society and its collective memory as most children grow up playing video games already
in an early age.
The direction in which the archaeological framework develops has been always influenced by socio-cultural
realities (Trigger, 2006) and therefore it has been only natural that many scholars like Angus A. Mol and
Andrew Reinhard had been discovering the conjunctions between archaeological science and video games
since recent years. While Reinhard tried to explore how to apply archaeological methodology on digital
games (Reinhard, 2018), Mol has investigated on how video games could be used for didactic purposes in
the context of heritage and archaeology (Mol et al., 2017).
However, an aspect that has been not much studied was the role of video games as part of public
archaeology and how archaeologists can actively participate in the visualisation of past realities for the
public. A cooperation between archaeologists and the gaming industry could have immense benefits for both
sides.

Arts et Sciences, 2019

Digital games have become considerable and influential cultural transmitters throughout the past ... more Digital games have become considerable and influential cultural transmitters throughout the past years. As social sciences had grasped the importance of this medium as an object of study, the field of archaeology has increasingly taken notice of the digital leisure worlds of millions of players. Studying games as artefacts or archaeological sites have been therefore pioneering research programmes by scholars like Andrew Reinhard in order to test the boundaries of the archaeological framework, as also to generate important insight on our society by applying archaeological methodology on digital games. The aim of this paper is to discuss the possible role of archaeology in its conjunction with video games and tries to establish a critical perspective towards the enthusiastic first wave of the archaeology of video games.

Talks by Benjamin Hanussek

GLOW2021/Games and Social Impact, Book of Abstracts, 2021

CAA/Digital Crossroads Book of Abstracts, 2021

Once the case is presented, I will conclude and suggest essential steps towards a progressive arc... more Once the case is presented, I will conclude and suggest essential steps towards a progressive archaeogaming practice that should entail the collaboration between archaeologists and game studies researchers in creating a joint syllabus, class or seminar for students. The archaeological viewpoint offers valuable theoretical toolkits for the assessment of virtual worlds. Yet, a better convergence with other fields such game studies or digital humanities is required to foster the competencies of the archaeologist of tomorrow.

BGSC/The Evolutions of Board Games: Book of Abstracts, 2021

The late 4th and early 3rd millennium BC saw the rise in popularity of the mehen board game in An... more The late 4th and early 3rd millennium BC saw the rise in popularity of the mehen board game in Ancient Egypt. Its circular shaped game board with its characteristic coiled serpent as spatial game design appeared in a number of royal burial contexts, as also in inscriptions and wall paintings. Anyhow, a visible decline of mehen’s popularity can be observed in the mid 3rd millennium BC, leading ultimately to the total disappearance from the material culture of the Egyptians in the late 3rd millennium. Even though the original rules of the game are obscured, academic scholarship had been not missing out on discussing the game for about a century. But the game’s religious and cultural meaning to the Egyptians is still the focal point of most discussions concerning the game, yet it is its disappearance from the archaeological record and apparently from the cultural memory of the Egyptians themselves that stays understudied. How can a game which seems to have been strongly embedded in a cultural memory disappear? And what does the disappearance tell us about the cultural and social entanglements of the game? It is therefore the aim of the paper to offer a comprehensive study on neither a game’s emergence, nor its popular existence but rather its unresolved disappearance in order to generate novel conclusions in the academic discourse of mehen.

EAA/Beyond Paradigms: Book of Abstracts, Sep 2019

CAA/Check Object Integrity: Book of Abstracts, Apr 2019

The Marshall Plan Scholarship Papers, 2023

This research combined game-based learning methods with Georg Lind's work on moral competence to ... more This research combined game-based learning methods with Georg Lind's work on moral competence to create Morally: A Game of Right and Wrong, an immersive learning experience with the goal of strengthening moral competence and democratic behaviour. Quantitative data indicates an increase of over 37% in moral competence of university students after the experience, while qualitative data underlines individual satisfaction of its participants with the gamified workshop. Based on this data, Morally: A Game of Right and Wrong has demonstrated to be a successful approach in creating a scalable game-based learning experience with the potential to strengthen moral competence and democratic behaviour. Follow-up studies are required to secure the finding.

International Journal of Games and Social Impact, 2023

The field of videogame ethics has already achieved a differentiated view on many ethical question... more The field of videogame ethics has already achieved a differentiated view on many ethical questions in regards to videogames, their players and the industry. However, most of these approaches have neglected the benefits of a less abstract, more pragmatic view on videogame ethics. Thus, in this paper, I will introduce the concept of moral complexity to formulate a device that allows a pragmatic identification, categorisation, discussion, and design of moral content in videogames. Moral complexity is defined as (or by) the degree to which a game offers alternatives and/or commentary to violence and deceit to players and is exclusively referring to how the issue of morality is implemented in past and contemporary game design. It is a reductionist approach, which treats morality as a game design element and shall help to understand the experience of morality in a closed player/ game circuit. To introduce and explain the notion of moral complexity, this paper will begin with a brief overview of fundamental developments and perspectives in the field of videogame ethics. Further, moral complexity is introduced based on a rendering of Kantian metaphysics into virtual space. Then, elements of Aristotle’s ethics, Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow and Habermas’ principles of communicative action are defined to articulate the phenomenological aspect of experiencing moral complexity ingame. Based on these theoretical building blocks, a comprehensive definition of moral complexity is presented. To illustrate this construct, cases of videogames (Grand Theft Auto V, Spec Ops: The Line and Detroit: Become Human) are introduced to exemplify different degrees and manifestations of moral complexity in contemporary game design. Moreover, a discussion on issues shall forward a differentiated picture of the concept. In the end, a conclusion presents prospects and chances for the notion of moral complexity.

The Magic of Games, 2022

According to Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow, enjoyment of an activity maximises when the chal... more According to Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow, enjoyment of an activity maximises when the challenge it presents matches one’s skill level. Similarly, we think that to allow for an enjoyable moral experience in videogames, it requires manageable moral complexity, which corresponds to a distinct degree of players’ moral
competence. While morality in videogames is often seen as an opportunity for philosophical reflection, in this paper, we treat it as a deliberately implemented game design element, constructed to keep players engaged. We argue that the complexity in which morality appears in contemporary games follows a reproducible system, which we call moral complexity and it consists of the degree to which a game offers players alternatives and commentary to violent and deceitful actions. This system allows for a scale of low to high moral complexity, which establishes its manageability just like generic difficulty in games. We proceed with our argumentation that depending on the degree of moral complexity, some sort of player skill is demanded to enjoy dealing with moral encounters. This skill is moral competence and refers to one’s ability to perform moral actions according to one's internal moral principles. Our hypothesis states that players with low moral competence prefer games with low moral complexity, and that players with high moral competence prefer games with high moral complexity. To test this, we have designed a survey study, and this work aims to serve as a work-in-progress report for this experiment, expanding on both the technical details of this project, while also discussing the pragmatic nature of morality within contemporary game design.

XXIII BOARD GAME STUDIES COLLOQUIUM- The Evolutions of Board Games, 2022

The late fourth and early third millennium BC saw the rise in popularity of the mehen board game ... more The late fourth and early third millennium BC saw the rise in popularity of the mehen board game in Ancient Egypt. Its circular shaped game board with its characteristic coiled serpent as spatial game design appeared in a number of royal burial contexts, and also in inscriptions and wall paintings. A visible decline of mehen's popularity can be observed in the mid-3third millennium BC, leading ultimately to the total disappearance from the material culture of the Egyptians in the late third millennium. It is argued that the disappearance of mehen can be better understood by utilising Assmann's cultural memory theory. This study presents a concise material biography of mehen. Moreover, Assmann's cultural memory is introduced as theoretical apparatus through which mehen's transformations in material culture and representation are analysed. The conclusion regards mehen's disappearance as a result of mehen's fading role as object for establishing social identity.

Replay. The Polish Journal of Game Studies, 2022

The discussion on games as (not) art has been raging for decades without reaching a consensus. It... more The discussion on games as (not) art has been raging for decades without reaching a consensus. It is argued here that the ontological status of games is irrelevant for the perception and development of aesthetic experiences in videogames. Instead, game design should be regarded as ripe to convey the experience of art according to established aesthetic theories. The essay presents Adorno’s aesthetic theory and highlights its reflections in the games Papers, Please and Observer. It then describes how they were synthesized into a critical gameplay experience in the author’s game Distressed. The latter may be regarded as an example of a method in game studies in which the aesthetic potential of games is explored by creation rather than analysis. Arguably, this reveals the importance of epistemological approaches towards games and art instead of the predominant ontological ones.

Play/Write Student Journal Vol.2, 2022

We are happy to present the second issue of the Play/Write Student Journal. The mission of our jo... more We are happy to present the second issue of the Play/Write Student Journal. The mission of our journal has remained the same since its founding in 2021: to promote the visibility and writing skills of (post)graduate students in the field of Game Studies. Coming from the interdisciplinary master’s program Game Studies and Engineering at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria, our core idea for this journal remains to collect and share the work of students coming from different backgrounds. As the journal emerged as a student initiative, it seeks to form a bridge between student’s work and academia while also serving as a platform for the practice of analytical thinking as well as a community project.

Play/Write Student Journal Vol.1, 2022

The journal has been formed in 2021 as an effort of students of the Game Studies and Engineering ... more The journal has been formed in 2021 as an effort of students of the Game Studies and Engineering master’s program at the Alpen-Adria-University Klagenfurt, Austria. It constitutes part of the critical outlet of the student-run Klagenfurt Critical Game Lab. Our student journal offers the opportunity to both review and publish student’s written works in the field of Game Studies. Our aim is to bring together different perspectives on topics in Game Studies from people with differing (scholarly) backgrounds on a student level, to foster skills of critical analysis and writing, and to promote the visibility of students who aim to find their footing in Game Studies.

International Journal of TESOL & Education, 2021

Commercial videogames have come a long way since their emergence in the 20th century. They remain... more Commercial videogames have come a long way since their emergence in the 20th century. They remain, however, widely excluded from educational discourse. A reason is the absence of reliable methodologies that ensure effective learning through videogames. There have been attempts to teach historical or other content-centred topics to students through edutainment software. It is argued, however, that games are much more effective in strengthening cognitive decision-making processes. One of these cognitive abilities is moral competence. This paper discusses the possibilities of strengthening moral competence through integrating the videogame Papers, Please into Lind's Konstanz Method of Dilemma Discussion (KMDD®). The goal is to craft a didactic framework in which a measurable learning curve in moral competence can be ensured by selecting games that provide a suitable degree of moral complexity. Through clearly defined goals, well-moderated discussions and streamlined reflections, games hold the potential to complement contemporary reading materials in schools and universities.

14th International Conference on Game and Entertainment Technologies, 2021

The gaming industry has been, compared to social media platforms, rather slow in developing its e... more The gaming industry has been, compared to social media platforms, rather slow in developing its effective methods of game analytics. Considering the difficulty of interpreting player behaviour, this might be no surprise, yet the possibility of modelling player ethics might bring more reliable user metrics. Modelling ethics is the creation of user profiles based on their ethical decisions in-game. Recent publications in that field show an increasing interest in this practice and consider the outcome of succeeding in creating profiles containing data on applied player ethics as highly valuable. Modelling ethics is still not a well-studied practice, but its implications in perspective to cases of data abuse by Big Tech companies seem troubling. It is important to consider, interrogate and discuss the possibilities of this emerging practice critically. How can ethical profiles be rendered? How does inconsistent player behaviour affect the ethical metric? Who owns this kind of data, and for which purpose is its utilisation admitted? These and many more questions must be addressed immediately before unethical practices take place, and policies lag behind. Therefore, we intend to present the work of Pereira Santos to define the modelling of ethics as a new method of Game Analytics, how it can be applied, which data it can extract and how it can be interpreted. Further, we propose a new experimental design for how the modelling of ethics may be approached. For that, we want to shift the attention from trying to create full-fledged ethical profiles of players to their measurable moral competence as a more reliable metric. Moreover, we discuss the prospects of modelling ethics and the moral implications for the industry and move towards a conclusion that urges immediate policies to address the method.

Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Cultural Heritage and New Technologies, 2021

Video games have become one of the spearheading media forms of the 21st century and their impact ... more Video games have become one of the spearheading media forms of the 21st
century and their impact on our society omnipresent. Many games do represent historical
and archaeological pasts in an artistic manner that leads still to wide criticism among
archaeologists, historians and heritage practitioners as these reconstructed pasts do not
represent the scholarly complexity that academia provides. Nevertheless, attempts to
bridge the digital gap between academia and the public are still conducted even though
they remain often fruitless due to the lack of effective understanding of popular audience
expectations. Since recent years the gaming industry started to address the demand of
their consumers for more authentic reconstructions of ancient towns and past societies.
Because of that academic specialists have been increasingly employed or outsourced to
enhance the quality of their games. This paper aims to discuss this development and
interrogate aspects of it from an archaeologist’s perspective. For that, cases are presented in which illustrate the relation between archaeological knowledge and the processing of it through games. It shall be also further discussed why it is crucial to participate in this process to benefit from an interdisciplinary collaboration between archaeologists and the gaming industry. It shall be not of focal interest to address the flaws of
games in representing complex pasts but rather how to formulate an approach that would
satisfy the industry as also archaeologists.

Advances in Archaeological Practice, 2020

The introduction of the smartphone into the private and professional lives of humans has provided... more The introduction of the smartphone into the private and professional lives of humans has provided a channel to real-time and place-specific information that can enhance (and disturb) day-today living. Given such impact, many museums and archaeological exhibitions have chosen to develop digital applications to enhance the visitor experience via accompanying the visitor through the exhibitions. Yet after a decade, these applications still seem understudied and, in practice, very undeveloped. This review aims to shed some light on the possibilities and shortcomings of museum apps. I discuss and critically evaluate the technical efficiency, practical utility, and user experience of the British Museum Guide (Museums Guide Ltd.) and My Visit to the Louvre (Musée du Louvre) applications. These two mobile apps represent the contemporary standard for museum apps, thereby allowing me to generalize about this genre of digital media.

XIX i XX Międzynarodowa Interdyscyplinarna Sesja Studentów Archeologii, 2019

Digital Presentation and Preservation of Cultural and Scientific Heritage. Conference Proceedings. Vol. 9, 2019

This paper discusses the influence of private companies in the museum sector. For that I will use... more This paper discusses the influence of private companies in the museum sector. For that I will use qualitative accounts and my empirical research to evaluate and interpret the issue. This article shall present the delegation of multimedia development to outsourced companies at expense of the museum's integrity.

CHNT 24, 2019

Archaeology’s association with media and video games has never been satisfying for most archaeolo... more Archaeology’s association with media and video games has never been satisfying for most archaeologists.
This may go back to the fact that figures like Indiana Jones or Lara Croft had developed “the idea that
archaeologists slash through jungles and prowl through caves searching for golden idols, precious work of
ancient art, and magical charms.” (Orser, 2015, p. 133). The obscured expectations on the work of an
archaeologist that are presented to the public may be one issue. Another aspect that has been always
discussed by archaeologists and historians as well is the accuracy of the content that is presented in digital
games; to which extent can the past be generalised, what are the repercussions or does it even matter?
(Chapman, 2016. Reinhard, 2018).
The visualisation of past realities in which nowadays people can immerse in became “increasingly significant
in tourism, entertainment and education” (Holtorf, 2017 p. 3). Hence video games like the Civilization series
or the Assassin’s Creed series have been trying to offer past experiences to a growing community of players.
These games do not just let players immerse into historical events but they also visualise a material past
based on archaeological evidence. The representations and reconstructions of material heritage have huge
implications for our society and its collective memory as most children grow up playing video games already
in an early age.
The direction in which the archaeological framework develops has been always influenced by socio-cultural
realities (Trigger, 2006) and therefore it has been only natural that many scholars like Angus A. Mol and
Andrew Reinhard had been discovering the conjunctions between archaeological science and video games
since recent years. While Reinhard tried to explore how to apply archaeological methodology on digital
games (Reinhard, 2018), Mol has investigated on how video games could be used for didactic purposes in
the context of heritage and archaeology (Mol et al., 2017).
However, an aspect that has been not much studied was the role of video games as part of public
archaeology and how archaeologists can actively participate in the visualisation of past realities for the
public. A cooperation between archaeologists and the gaming industry could have immense benefits for both
sides.

Arts et Sciences, 2019

Digital games have become considerable and influential cultural transmitters throughout the past ... more Digital games have become considerable and influential cultural transmitters throughout the past years. As social sciences had grasped the importance of this medium as an object of study, the field of archaeology has increasingly taken notice of the digital leisure worlds of millions of players. Studying games as artefacts or archaeological sites have been therefore pioneering research programmes by scholars like Andrew Reinhard in order to test the boundaries of the archaeological framework, as also to generate important insight on our society by applying archaeological methodology on digital games. The aim of this paper is to discuss the possible role of archaeology in its conjunction with video games and tries to establish a critical perspective towards the enthusiastic first wave of the archaeology of video games.

GLOW2021/Games and Social Impact, Book of Abstracts, 2021

CAA/Digital Crossroads Book of Abstracts, 2021

Once the case is presented, I will conclude and suggest essential steps towards a progressive arc... more Once the case is presented, I will conclude and suggest essential steps towards a progressive archaeogaming practice that should entail the collaboration between archaeologists and game studies researchers in creating a joint syllabus, class or seminar for students. The archaeological viewpoint offers valuable theoretical toolkits for the assessment of virtual worlds. Yet, a better convergence with other fields such game studies or digital humanities is required to foster the competencies of the archaeologist of tomorrow.

BGSC/The Evolutions of Board Games: Book of Abstracts, 2021

The late 4th and early 3rd millennium BC saw the rise in popularity of the mehen board game in An... more The late 4th and early 3rd millennium BC saw the rise in popularity of the mehen board game in Ancient Egypt. Its circular shaped game board with its characteristic coiled serpent as spatial game design appeared in a number of royal burial contexts, as also in inscriptions and wall paintings. Anyhow, a visible decline of mehen’s popularity can be observed in the mid 3rd millennium BC, leading ultimately to the total disappearance from the material culture of the Egyptians in the late 3rd millennium. Even though the original rules of the game are obscured, academic scholarship had been not missing out on discussing the game for about a century. But the game’s religious and cultural meaning to the Egyptians is still the focal point of most discussions concerning the game, yet it is its disappearance from the archaeological record and apparently from the cultural memory of the Egyptians themselves that stays understudied. How can a game which seems to have been strongly embedded in a cultural memory disappear? And what does the disappearance tell us about the cultural and social entanglements of the game? It is therefore the aim of the paper to offer a comprehensive study on neither a game’s emergence, nor its popular existence but rather its unresolved disappearance in order to generate novel conclusions in the academic discourse of mehen.

EAA/Beyond Paradigms: Book of Abstracts, Sep 2019

CAA/Check Object Integrity: Book of Abstracts, Apr 2019

TAG/Power, Knowledge and the Past: Book of Abstracts, Dec 2019

MA Thesis, 2023

This thesis argues that moral complexity corresponds to moral competence and is fundamental in ex... more This thesis argues that moral complexity corresponds to moral competence and is fundamental in experiencing, analysing and optimising the phenomenon of morality in videogames. The goal of this research is to provide a novel empirical approach to the field of videogame ethics and new perspectives on player-centred design in game development. The thesis begins by providing a comprehensive historical state of the art of the field of videogame ethics. Georg Lind’s central work on moral competence is then introduced. This includes moral competence as a concept but also as an empirical device to measure the ability of translating moral orientations into action through the MCT (Moral Competence Test). Furthermore, moral complexity is defined on basis of moral competence, and a field study of selected videogames that exemplify the model. On the basis of the definition of moral complexity, a videogame prototype was built allowing for two degrees of moral complexity (low and high). The following chapter includes a report of the development process of the game and explains how moral complexity is used as a model to create a game in two versions, exhibiting different degrees of moral challenge. While results have not been able to confirm the hypotheses outlined in the introduction, which means that there is no statistically significant correlation between player satisfaction, moral complexity and moral competence, this research presents a novel approach to test statements that are considered conventional in the field of videogame ethics. Its significance can be seen in its interdisciplinarity which tries to go beyond theoretical claims in regards to morality in videogames.

BA Thesis, 2020

The late fourth millennium BC brought many developments in Egypt. Among these was the emergence o... more The late fourth millennium BC brought many developments in Egypt. Among these was the emergence of standardised board games. The earliest of these appearing in the archaeological record is the game mehen. This board game consists of a circular board with a racetrack in shape of a coiled serpent, zoomorphic playing pieces and marbles as counters. Even though the exact rules are not known it is suggested that the game must have been a race game with strategic elements. Besides its ludic functions the game seems to have had religious and ritualistic meanings for the Egyptians. Mehen appears in its characteristic form initially in the late Naqada period. Further game boards from the Early Dynastic Period indicate an elaboration of the board game and an apparent popularity. In the Old Kingdom mehen starts to appear on a wall painting, inscriptions and reliefs as well. With the fall of the Old Kingdom mehen too falls into oblivion and is evidently never played again. Due to the sparse archaeological evidence, it remains difficult to interpret the meaning and the biography of this board game practice, besides being religiously entangled. In this thesis, the cultural memory theory by J. Assmann shall serve as a framework to study the practice of mehen. The game’s incorporation into the culture of the Egyptians, its maintenance and elaboration as active part of the Egyptian’s culture and its ultimate disappearance shall be investigated under the concepts and terminology of the cultural memory. This thesis may be seen as an attempt to investigate in how far a theory may be applied on archaeological material in order to illustrate its cultural transformations. The role of mehen as a social delimiter and object of social identity-establishing shall be of greater concern within this thesis.

Press Start , 2022

Review: Alayna Cole and Jessica Zammit’s Cooperative Gaming: Diversity in the Games Industry and ... more Review: Alayna Cole and Jessica Zammit’s Cooperative Gaming: Diversity in the Games Industry and How to Cultivate Inclusion. 2020. CRC Press. xv + 95 pp.