Tomasz Majkowski, Jagiellionian University, Kraków

In the talk I will employ Hobsbawm’s and Ranger’s concept of invented tradition to scrutinize the way contemporary games (both digital and non-digital) engage with legitimizing fairly recent practices, ideas and artifact as ancient, traditional and core for the national identity. Such practice not only contribute to the state-sanctioned, sanitized version of national history and identity, but also reinforce cultural essentialism, providing the community the sense of rightful ownership of certain cultural practices, ideas and artifacts: an important issue in contemporary online culture. The talk will be based on both original research by „National Video Games?“ project team, and results of the research seminar on the subject, held in Kraków in November 2023.

Tomasz Majkowski is an Associate Professor at Jagiellonian University in Krakow and the head of Jagiellonian Game Research Centre. Currently, he also serves as the vice-President of Digital Games Research Association. His research revolves around digital games as contemporary equivalent of 19th Century novel (understood as social practice), including the carnivalesque and comedic in games, as well as intersection between game and national cultures. He’s also interested in fairy tales, conspiracy theories, mythology, pornography and other aspects of vernacular cultures up until recently considered fringe and esoteric.