How To Be A Video Game Archaeologist - A talk by Florence Smith Nicholls

Abstract

Video game archaeology, also known as archaeogaming, is a relatively new field. It can be broadly categorised into three main areas; the ethics of how the past is represented in games, archaeology of game code through reverse engineering and archaeological fieldwork in game worlds to record and interpret the traces left behind by players. In this talk I will present three case studies from my PhD research that broadly fall into the latter area. This includes; an archaeological survey of player messages in Elden Ring, in-game interviews in the MMO Wurm Online, and a player study of a procedurally generated archaeology game that I co-developed, Nothing Beside Remains. I will argue that games archaeology should be broadly considered as a form of HCI research that has transformative potential for play preservation and design.