Based on the concept of ‘agonistic memory’, Agonistic Games reject an antagonistic ‘us’ vs ’them’ way of remembering in favour of a multiperspective approach to contextualising and learning from war and conflict.
We’re strong advocates of games as a means to promote critical reflection and tell important stories. In this article, we summarise how we developed a novel ‘agonistic’ approach to serious games that engages topics of dark heritage, and particularly, the events of World War II.
Agonistic memory
Agonistic memory is best characterised by its distinction to ‘antagonistic’ and ‘cosmopolitan’ modes of remembering. Antagonistic memory relates to group identity, and as such aligns often with nationalist thinking of ‘us’ as good, and ‘them’ as evil. Cosmopolitan memory emphasises the plight of the victim, and tends to assign concepts of good and evil to democratic and totalitarian ideologies respectively.
An agonistic mode of remembering, in contrast, takes a multiperspective approach - relying on the testimonials of not only victims to understand acts of violence and oppression (as in cosmopolitan memory) but also perpetrators, witnesses and bystanders. In this way, historical context is derived by attempting to understand the motivations of actors on all sides in an attempt to avoid moral categories of ‘good’ and ‘evil’. See Bull & Hansen 2016 for more about agonistic memory.
Underpinned by the concept of agonistic memory, our journey towards designing the world’s first Agonistic Games started with an invite to contribute to the Horizon 2020 project UNREST, which culminated in ‘Krieg. Macht. Sinn.’ - an agonistic exhibition held at the Ruhr Museum in Essen. Working with UNREST members and a small group of game design students at Bath Spa University, we developed two in-situ games for the exhibition: Endless Blitz and Umschlagplatz ‘43. For details of these games, visit our Feature Page.
The tenets
Both Endless Blitz and Umschlagplatz ‘43 deploy a framework for Agonistic Games that we developed to support the capacity for a game to sensitively and effectively engage dark heritage topics. Core to the framework are three tenets. The first is that players should be presented with difficult, even unsettling decisions across the game - done so to encourage them to reflect critically (and agonistically) on the situation depicted. In the multiplayer game, Umschlagplatz ‘43 for example, players must choose when and how to deceive each other in their attempt to be saved from deportation.
The second tenet is that Agonistic Games are multiperspective, offering the ability for players to interact directly with the motivations and actions of perpetrators, victims, witnesses and bystanders (typically through roleplay). An example of this is found in Endless Blitz where players attempt to achieve the synchronised yet starkly opposing goals of a bomber pilot and an evacuation officer.
The third tenet is that Agonistic Games should have a resonating context that's relevant to the player, and that sets out to establish the best possible conditions for critical reflection to take place. For Umschlagplatz ‘43, a resonating context is advanced by surrounding it with museum objects that relate to themes explored in the game. We also modelling game characters and their stories on accounts given by the descendants of individuals who experienced the events of the Holocaust. The Ruhr Museum's location is important too, especially for Endless Blitz. The setting of the game recognises that the Ruhr Valley was critical to the German war effort and the target of numerous bombing campaigns.
Research and outputs
Our development of the world’s first Agonistic Games has been well-documented, including via presentations and proceedings of a number of international conferences. As an early test, we presented the concept of AGs at CHI PLAY ‘18 in Melbourne, Australia, where delegates were also invited to play and offer feedback on Umschlagplatz ‘43.
Following the success of ‘Krieg. Macht. Sinn.’ we expanded on the concept of Agonistic Games in an Article for the Journal of Computing and Cultural Heritage. In this piece we detail the context of Agonistic Games and its tenets, as well as discuss the advantages of a post-play ‘debrief’ in enhancing the extent to which a player contemplates game content. We plan to continue this work by pursuing the use of generative AI to automate the debrief process - therefore facilitating critical reflection on the content of Agonistic Games (and other types of serious game) in cases where in-person discussions aren't viable.
Where next?
Although there is great scope in developing further titles that provide an alternative means of interpreting war and conflict, Agonistic Games are not limited to this subject matter, or indeed to looking backwards. The framework that underpins Agonistic Games may be applied to any topic deemed unsettling and/or divisive, including those that concern politics and governance, law and justice, cultural and social issues, and other targets of philosophical and ethical debate.
Games are often criticised for being ill-suited to handle challenging topics sensitively, and we propose Agonistic Games as an effort to encourage a shift in that perception. Through a combination of applying our core tenets, rigorous research, and a balanced handling of game content, we are confident that Agonistic Games have real potential to widen the lens through which we interrogate global events and challenges - both in the past and the present.
