Visualisations of War in Online Gaming with Iain Donald

In this week’s podcast, Alice and Nicolas talk with Dr Iain Donald. Iain is a Senior Lecturer in Game Production at Abertay University. His research explores commemoration and memorialization in videogames and interactive media as well as the intersection of games, digital media and history. Iain is also a skilled developer of video games. He has been involved in several award-winning Applied Games projects, and has written and presented on creating and developing games for digital health, education, cybersecurity and social change. 

Among other topics, we discuss

–      the possibilities, limitations and challenges of representing war and battle in video games

–      the significance of historical accuracy in video games based on real conflicts

–      the complex interplay of technical, aesthetic, economic and historical interests in the creation of games

–      the ethical aspects of video gaming and player immersion, especially with regard to the representation of violence and injury

–      the risks, challenges and consequences of representing real-life wars, battles and conflicts in games 

–      the role and ethics of player agency

We hope you enjoy the episode!
 
 For a version of our podcast with close captions, please use this link. You can find out more about Dr Iain Donald’s work on his website at Abertay University. For links to some of the games Iain mentions in the podcast, you can read this blog.

For more information about the Visualising War project, individuals and their projects, access to resources and more, please have a look on the University of St Andrews Visualising War website. 

Music composed by Jonathan Young
Sound mixing by Zofia Guertin