A tour through the playground of History: Commodification of Memory in "Discovery Tour" in Assassin's Creed (2017-2020)

• Grant number: 24/02459-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: August 01, 2024
• End date: July 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History
• Principal Investigator: Marcos Francisco Napolitano de Eugenio
• Grantee: Robson Scarassati Bello
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research project has, as its primary objective, the investigation of the educational mode known as the "Discovery Tour" in three main video games of the Assassin's Creed series between 2017 and 2020. These games have, in various episodes, represented various historical eras, and in these last three games, they presented narratives, settings, and gameplay related to events in Ancient Egypt during Cleopatra's time, the Peloponnesian War in Ancient Greece, and the "Viking invasions" in 9th-century Norway and England. The "Discovery Tour" mode highlights the game world and transforms it into a museum-like experience, where players interact with "points" providing archaeological and historical documentation and explanations about the period. The research continues the establishment of video games as a subject of historical study and aims to critically analyze the form and content of these representations to understand how this "Discovery Tour" re-presents the past educationally to a generation of young players. It seeks to comprehend this production within the developments across various material supports and other forms of this new media and place them in the context of the Culture Industry, which constructs historical memory and influences public discourse about the past. The hypothesis to be investigated is how and whether the connection between the museum-like experience, historical memory, and interactivity space is related to a logic of reification and commodification of the past. The role of historians and history teachers extends beyond merely making consumer products accessible; they play a crucial role in building a critical framework that equips people with the necessary tools to understand both the form and the representative content of these products.