As part of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Curious Festival 2025, join our panel of expert speakers to explore how digital games and media invite us to play with the past, and shape how history is represented and reimagined.
Can video games help us understand the past more deeply – or do they distort it? What kinds of histories do games let us step into, and which ones are left out?
For many of us, video games and digital media are a gateway to exploring the past, allowing us to engage with collective, and often contested, histories. They offer immersive, often emotional experiences that bring historical events to life –especially those shaped by conflict, from global wars to national struggles. At the same time, these media frequently incorporate fantastical, science fiction, or other imaginary elements into their worlds, stories, and representations of the past, blurring the boundaries between “real” and “unreal” histories.
A collaboration between the Historical Games Network (www.historicalgames.net) and the Imperial War Museums Institute (https://www.iwm.org.uk/iwm-institute), this panel discussion explores how and why games do this, and what that means for historical game making and play – in the present and future.
This is a hybrid event and tickets are free, but booking is essential: https://rse.org.uk/event/unreal-pasts-playful-presents-history-and-fantasy-in-games-and-media/