Abstract
The study investigates the history, culture, traditional music and folk chants of the Pirate Age during the European colonial period as portrayed through the medium of the videogame. The analysis focuses on how Ubisoft’s 2014 title Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag, which recreates 17th and 18th century musical and societal cultures from the British Isles and the popularization and usage of Anglo-Saxon Sea Shanties in oceanic voyages during the colonial period. Firstly, an investigation is carried of the types of socio-historical contexts depicted in the title covering the English and Spanish colonial endeavours during the 17th and 18th century across the Caribbean isles and the pirate lore centered around locations such as Nassau, Kingston, Havana and Port-Au-Prince. An analysis ensues of the representation of the cultural elements of these contexts and the ways through which the musical element operates. Observations are made of the music spectrum covered by the game from traditional Scottish and Irish tunes such as The Parting Glass to Sea Shanties sung such as The Drunken Sailor, The Sailboat Malarkey, Captain Kidd and the cultural environments in which it operates. The second part of the study focuses on the function of music in terms of gameplay, and great emphasis falls to the concept of the medium of the videogame as a historical document. Under scrutiny are the cultural, musical and historical elements the title offers and how this representation is accomplished in order to provide a type of experience which can be defined as video-ludic historical tourism.
Presenters
Marcello PicucciEAP Lecturer, English, Maynooth International Engineering College, Camp, Italy
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Media, Digital, Storytelling, Music, Video Game
