Archaeologist Andrew Reinhard has dug through humanity’s past among ancient ruins in Greece. These days, though, he digs a little closer to home.
There’s a great interview on Motherboard with Reinhard — who has a Masters in archaeology from University of Missouri-Columbia — where he talks about how he’s moved his work into video games, in what’s becoming known as “Archaeogaming”.
Some examples of his studies: the coins of Elder Scrolls, how Destiny’s removal of Peter Dinklage has ancient precedence and a general sense of HYPE for the archaeological potential in No Man’s Sky.
“As I see it,” he says, “video games are human creations, and are thereby artefacts in and of themselves, but also contain a wealth of story and objects that lend themselves to archaeological thinking.”
“I’m staking what some might consider to be an insane claim: that there is no difference between cultures in either real or virtual environments.”
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2 responses to “Actual Archaeologist Is Digging Through World Of Warcraft, Skyrim”
Sounds interesting. The gaming world moves at such a fast pace.
I look forward to telling my grandchildren about the long, hard days spent spinmetal farming in Destiny during the dark days of 2014, the quaint light levelling up system outlawed in late 2015 and the great schism of 2025 when matchmaking was put into the RAIDs.
I can only imagine the horror in their tiny innocent eyes…
haha <3 this comment
“Son, I remember when the Gally would actually damage enemies, and using Thorn in PvP was the ‘in’ thing”