Jordan VoltzENGL 383- Eras Logics of History4/29Interactive Historical Narratives: Lets Talk About NazisPremises: 1. History is ultimately inaccessible. (Hutcheon. A Poetics of Post-Modernism)2. Any Historical representations contain elements of fictionality. (White, Hayden. Metahistory)3. History is perceived of as moments of agency and action. (Benjamin Harshaw, Fictionality and Fields of Reference)4. Individual and Consensus realities are composed upon Individual and Consensus histories. The rise in the popularity of interactive media is staggering. In the past decade, the American video game industry has grown tremendously, expanding both its demographics and its subject material. The European board game scene has begun gaining the type of academic and public recognition that is usually reserved for non-interactive media. However, within each of these fields, the question of historical games (games which contain direct historical references) has been met with a large amount of interest and controversy. For example, Brenda Romeros Train is a board game that has players assume the role of Nazi bureaucrats who must ensure that the deportation of European Jews via trains is executed as efficiently as possible.[footnoteRef:1] Although Train is arguably a well-intentioned game that provides an acute criticism of Nazi policies, other critics are concerned with the potential for interactive historical media to allow the player to play it out, as it should have been.[footnoteRef:2] Given the video game industrys fascination with World War 2, the introduction of playable Nazis raises many problems, especially in games like Axis and Allies and the Hearts of Iron series, where it is possible play as the Nazis and complete their domination of Europe. While the overwhelming majority of these games dont explicitly promote or condone Nazi ideology, its apparent that the potential for it certainly exists within the format. For example, Ethnic Cleansing, a Neo-Nazi video game, has become infamous for the virtual atrocities it rewards the player for, such as giving the player points for murdering Jews and homosexuals. Even Joseph Goebbels also recognized the power of interactive media, creating board games such as Judenraus and Bombers uber England, and wrote in his Diaries, To be perceived, propaganda must evoke the interest of an audience and must be transmitted through an attention-getting communications medium.[footnoteRef:3] Needless to say, there are a large number of public anxieties, justified or not, about the position of interactive historical media, even within the already controversial field of games. The potential for historical media to vindicate the audiences beliefs have been translated into the vindication of action (signaling the shift from audience to agent), which if the agent desires it, can seem like counter-factual wish-fulfillment. The potential for interactive historical media is, if anything, incredibly dangerous. [1: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/63933/train] [2: Flamethrowers, 361] [3: Joseph Goebbels, Diaries]

This, however, is not the focus of my paper. Rather, I am concerned with understanding the cultural context surrounding interactive historical narratives, as well as analyzing how their form separates them from other historical narratives. Like any historical narrative, interactive historical media (IHM, henceforth) requires fictionality to function. As it is impossible to accurately represent a historical situation within any form of media, fictionality must function to provide the agent with a sense of causality, as the result of the agents actions must have an effect upon the historical narrative. However, within IHM, this fictionality is privileged; it is under the pretence of fictionality that agents within IHM are permitted to engage with the medium. Since the agent is inherently ahistorical in the narrative, this anachronistic fictionality allows the agent to make meaningful decisions within the medias social context. As I will demonstrate later, regardless of whether or not the agent is participating in the media with other agents, IHMs are inherently social experiences. Because of this, the understanding the context of the IHM is perhaps the single most important facet to understanding the IHM as a narrative form.The Social Context: Mass and Individual HistoriesSince the IHM requires the agent to engage in a social experience, it requires a different understanding of the relationship between mass and individual histories within historical narratives. Most importantly, these histories are not diametrically opposed to each other and in fact require each other in order to function. Quickly, some definitions:Individual histories: Individual histories rely upon elements of personal value and meaning a person constructs towards a specific history that diverges from a Mass history (or, it can represent the convergence of 2 separate Mass histories). Furthermore, these individual histories play an integral constructing a fragment of the individuals perception of reality as divergent from a consensus reality. For example, in W.G. Sebalds Austerlitz, Jacques Austerlitz forms an individual connection with The Battle of Austerlitz, assigning meaning to both the historical event and his own reality in relationship to it. This individuality is based entirely upon the relationship between the characters identity and the historical event, supplementing his already growing interest in historical scholarship. Mass histories: Mass histories rely upon communication between more than one individual that concludes with them collectively assigning the same value and meaning to a specific historical event. These Mass histories construct a consensus reality in the form of a culture or sub-culture, as there is a predicated relationship between the historical referent and the signifier the culture uses to express it. Perhaps the best example of this is the American popular opinion of Nazism, which sees it as almost universally reviled, or as Ive heard it referred to as, proof that evil exists. However, Mass histories are not monolithic and are often in competition with each other- certainly there are multiple Mass histories surrounding the issues in Ferguson, with the sides opposed to each other perhaps being the largest rallying point (it is impossible to talk about Mass histories and not talk about Mass Media). This is meant to be an intentional divergence from 20th century cultural theorists like Siegfried Kraucauer, when Mass Media is no longer an explicitly state controlled endeavor (regulated, perhaps, but not controlled). As I said previously, these histories usually require each other to function. Individual histories typically require a degree of mass historical knowledge before the individual is able to diverge from the mass historical narrative, while mass history requires the creation of Individual histories for new mass histories to be created- most shifts in historical scholarship are usually achieved in this manner (i.e. Paul Fussells The Great War and Modern Memory).The format of the historical media also largely depends upon the interplay between individual and mass histories. In most of these formats, the relationship involves one history subsuming the other, playing a dominant role in the narrative. -Mass > Individual: History textbooks, Chronicles, etc.Narratives which privilege mass history are concerned with explicating the meaning which the culture has assigned to it and are usually designed to be informative of that cultures ideology. This isnt to say that theres no room for individual histories within it, but they are always subservient to the groups narrative. -Mass < Individual: Historical Fiction with one author, Historical Criticism, etc.Narratives with an emphasis on individual history are almost always written by a single author unpacking their values regarding the history. They will frequently include elements of mass history which are juxtaposed with elements of their individual history, but the individuals values will always be champion over the collective.-Mass = Individual: Interactive Historical Media, Historical Fiction with multiple authors, Wikipedia Articles, etc.Finally, narratives which attempt to balance or mediate between mass and individual histories compose this final category. All of these media require the author/agents social interaction with another individual history in order to complete the production of the narrative. This requires the collision of individual histories which, in turn, creates a form of mass history which instead privileges the individual history, or vice versa.Within IHM, this manifests through the agents decisions made in response to the historical situation. It requires collaboration and interaction with the author or other agents in order to function. In the video game Victoria II, the agent manages a nation from 1836 to 1930, dealing with war, politics, population management, and the revolutionary tide of liberal democracy and socialism. In doing this, the agent navigates a series of mechanics which mediate between the game and them- elements the designers of the game considered important enough to create interactive abstractions of within the game. Creating a sense of historicity, the decisions the agent makes are meant to provide a simulation of that historical period. However, the agents interactions with the past are entirely mediated by a series of mechanics created by the designers, requiring the agents acknowledgment of and collaboration with the designers product. What differentiates this IHM from a depiction of mass history lies within the role of the agent who is able to create their own narrative given the tools supplied by the designers. One of the critical pieces of structural difference between interactive and non-interactive media is the destruction of the dichotomy between the author/audience. In the case of Victoria II, the designer constructs a playground of possibilities, yet places the agent in the role of both the author and the audience. The format of IHM implies that the agent is a form of historical actor, able to take any number of actions and have the results of them represented. This collaboration privileges the agents narrative over any of the other potential narratives within the game, creating a mass history with a special focus on the individual history, even though all of the possible experiences are already programmed into the game. A similar, but inverted dynamic can be seen in more performatory, live-action IHM, such as Barnards Reacting to the Past program, Model United Nations, and historical tabletop roleplaying games. These types of IHM have more than one agent within the historical setting and (usually) none of them have an especially privileged role. They require active collaboration between individuals in order to perform the reality which composes the media. For example, the Weird War 2 setting for the tabletop historical fantasy roleplaying game Savage Worlds, has agents adopt historical personae (like werewolf Nazis, mecha-Americans, psychic Russians, you know) with a system designed to streamline any interactions with the games mechanics, as these IHM typically substitute more complex mechanics with the challenge of collaboration. While there is a mass historical narrative that is constructed amongst the interactions between agents, creating a mass history, each individual experience of that narrative is markedly different and pronounced from others based upon their individual history.What has caused most of the controversy surrounding IHM is its ability to vindicate the agents actions so long as they conform to the abstractions created by the designer. The format is able to validate or invalidate specific historical opinions in a way that previous historical media have been unable to aspire to. These media require a unique social interaction with the designers of the historical media, who are able to populate their media with abstractions that meet their own values regarding the past. The individual histories which can be derived from this reenactment or performance of the past are potentially terrifying and lend themselves to a greater application of the past within our daily lives. While the glorification of militarism depicted in Fredicus Rex is not nearly as effective as it is in Call of Duty, empathy with the past has never been more accessible then through games like Brenda Romeros Train.