The Middle Ages in Modern Games

It's time! The Middle Ages in Modern Games Asynchronous Conference 2026 begins TODAY, October 5th, at 9:45am UTC+1 with our opening address to kick off a fantastic programme of three days of papers. Everything you'll need is in the live programme here: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/middl...

If you missed any of the papers in this weeks @midagesmodgames.bsky.social Asynchronous Conference, you can still find them (and engage with them) over on the website: middleagesinmoderngames.net/category/mam...

And it's time for the closing remarks! Thanks to everyone who gave papers for #MAMG26! The conference chatter is still ongoing so please do go in and keep asking questions of our presenters. Thank you all so much and see you next year! middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/closi... #gamedev #games

And for our very last paper of #MAMG26 (though do stick around for the closing remarks!) we have @robehoughton.bsky.social on "The Problem with Paladins" - what effect do these pseudo-crusaders have on our gaming? middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/the-p... #Paladins #Crusade #Medieval #DnD

In our penultimate paper of #MAMG26, Marcus Jensen looks at the alchemical connection between the characters of Radagon and Marika in Elden Ring and asks how this reflects the gender division (or lack of it) between them: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/agend... #EldenRing #Gaming #Medieval

Our final session of #MAMG26 is on "Alchemy and deviance"! It starts with Peter Färberböck discussing the role of blood between the medieval world and modern gaming: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/the-s... #medieval #gamedev #gaming

In our final paper on presentisms and nostalgia, Yahuai Lu explores Fallout: New Vegas' competing ideas of a New Rome, and the use of contested anachronism to work through contemporary political anxieties: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/when-... #MAMG26 #FalloutNV #Gaming

In our second presentisms and nostalgia paper, Yaraslau Kot examines medievalism as propaganda and counter-propaganda in the Russo-Ukrainian War, looking at the clash of Russian state narratives of Slavic heritage and their Ukrainian deconstructions: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/virtu...

Our penultimate #MAMG26 panel has three papers on Nostalgia and presentism. We start with Kristina Wittkamp, discussing the binary of feminine hearth and masculine warrior identity in game reflections of medieval Rus: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/betwe...

Our second and last #MAMG26 gender panel paper has Hanjun Shi turning to Uncharted Waters IV where Huamei Maria Li's character provides a complication of narratives around colonisation and maritime control: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/i-do-...

We kick off our third and final day of #MAMG26 with our session on gender - in the first of our two papers Kurtis Pope looks at how Diablo IV's Lilith complicates medievalist ideas of the monstrous feminine: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/queen...

The final day of #MAMG26 is starting over on middleagesinmoderngames.net in just a few minutes! Please head over and join in the discussions - panels on gender, nostalgia, and ideas of deviance in game medievalisms all to come today!

That's me!

That's our last paper for today, but the floor is still absolutely open for comments and questions to all our speakers, so do head over to middleagesinmoderngames.net and ask any questions you might have to our scholars and experts! We'll be back tomorrow with the last day of #MAMG26 papers!

In our last paper of #MAMG26 day two, Ian Regueiro-Salcedo discusses agency, memory and micro-history in Pentiment, and how the game presents the player with choices around constructing historiographies: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/when-...

Last session of day two, and we're on lore and ingame histories, with Ricardo Santana arguing that trade and merchant caravans are a key part of building the sense of Tamriel as a medievalist world: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/some-...

For our next #MAMG26 paper, we move to the tabletop as Hannah Victoria explores how medievalism can be used as a stand-in for hegemonic institutionalism in a modern D&D context: middleagesinmoderngames.net/uncategorize...

In our next Morality and Ideology #MAMG26 paper, Quangang Lee looks at Wind Fantasy III and IV and argues that they take a distinct reappropriation of medievalist tropes to build unconventional narratives around faith: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/reima...

We now move to a session on Morality and Ideology, starting with Johansen Quijano on Final Fantasy XVI - he looks at whether its nature is more early modern than medieval, and why that might matter: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/betwe...

In our last Analogue approaches paper, Jakub Ivanecky looks at the medievalism and horror intersection in Magic: The Gathering's Innistrad and its evocations of gothic medievalism and the Cathars: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/the-d... #MAMG26

In our second paper on Analogue perspectives, Thom Gobbitt (@booksoflaw.bsky.social) explores his concept of "Lawplay", looking at the use of speculative and TTRPG style setups to explore the possibility space of early medieval law codes: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/from-... #MAMG26

In our first #MAMG26 paper on Analogue perspectives, Anastasija Ropa discusses the ways in which a long-running medievalist LARP group adapted and changed, including adapting to life and technology but also changing explorations for the players: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/possi...

And in our second paper, ending this #MAMG26 Time and Death session, Baykar Demir looks at Graveyard Keeper and its mechanisation and economic construction of sacred processes: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/death...

Welcome back! Another two paper session, this time on Time and Death, to kick off #MAMG26 day two. We start by returning to A Plague Tale, where Ron Heckler discusses how the game mixes modern and medieval imaginaries of apocalypse and community: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/possi...

In a few mins we're starting #MAMG26 day two with a panel on Time and Death - stay tuned for more exciting engagements with games and medievalism. All of yesterday's papers are available on our middleagesinmoderngames.net website, and are still open for comments and discussion, so please do join in!

The second day of the Middle Ages in Modern Games Asynchronous Conference is starting shortly over on middleagesinmoderngames.net. Today's sessions include work on Time and Death, Analogue Games and Morality and Ideology - it looks like a great day.

From our @jubalbarca.bsky.social, a contribution to the blogpost-conference @midagesmodgames.bsky.social that looks at using randomisation-based exploration of medieval western Asian sources as a basis for creative historical explorations:

It's the @midagesmodgames.bsky.social annual virtual conference! Happy to be helping host this event once again :) It's all available online and for anyone interested in #GameDev or #Medieval history to head over and ask questions of the experts! Do take a look at their feed & links below:

My MAMG 2026 article is out! Check out the way in which counterfactual modding explores new layers of video game historiography through the CK3 The Winter King mod adapted from Cornwell's books. Don't hesitate to go and read other MAMG 2026 articles, I'll be answering questions in the coming days :)

Happy to say I’ve written a second academic paper on modding, this time for MAMG's publicly available (and ongoing) online conference! middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/skyri...

Last paper of #MAMG26 day one! Jéssica Iolanda Costa Bispo argues that the real-time temporality of The Longing (2020) allows it to reflect medieval western senses of temporality and meditation in a way few games allow: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/tempo...

For our second paper of this last day 1 #MAMG26 session, Poppy Tester discusses the strange individualism of Medieval Dynasty where players take a nominally medieval setting but using far more permissive forms of landscape engagement: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/the-w...

In our next #MAMG26 paper, "Tides of Pestilence", Blair Apgar explores how ecological anxiety is mechanised and gamified in the form and force of the rats of A Plague Tale, using medievalist aesthetics to reflect and explore a modern crisis: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/tides...

And in our second modding paper we have Andrew Griffiths talking about the puzzling question of why people use mods rather than building games when exploring historical and pseudo-historical puzzle building. Check that out here: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/skyri... #MAMG26 #Skyrim #Modding

We now have our #MAMG26 Game Modding panel! Two papers in this session: first, Maxime Kremer talks about mods as a way of exploring historiography, looking at the systems of Crusader Kings III and how requirements for modded historical events are shaped: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/recon...

Thank you so much to all of our presenters in this first panel for #MAMG26 👏👏 Stay tuned everyone as there is so much more to come today and over the next two days! We have a break now until the next panel at 4pm (UTC+1) which is all about modding and medievalism!

The next session is our first panel of papers, starting in just 5 minutes at 2pm (UTC+1), and it's all about 'Design Case Studies'! #MAMG26 Remember you can check out the full programme on our website, which is updated with links as we go: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/middl...

We have a break now then our first panel of papers begins at 2pm (UTC+1) on 'Design Case Studies' with three really exciting and insightful papers that really showcase possibility and new games and game ideas - see you then! #MAMG26

The #MAMG26 Opening Address by conference organisers Tess Watterson & Vinicius Marino Carvalho is now live, explaining how it all works and introducing our 2026 theme: ‘Possible Worlds / Possible Pasts'! Join us at middleagesinmoderngames.net?p=1512- now!

Just five minutes to go until the 2026 Middle Ages in Modern Games Asynchronous Conference #MAMG26 begins with our opening address at 9:45am (UTC+1)! Everything you need to follow along will be in the programme: middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg26/middle-

The programme for our next asynchronous MAMG conference is live! We are very much looking forward to a batch of incredibly interesting papers! As always, our conference is held virtually at the following address: middleagesinmoderngames.net