Video Game Archaeology

@“yeso”#p41506

Yes and no. I don‘t think anyone would actually ever refer to themselves by this term, but I’m using it as a catchall for different groups that are interested in finding and either owning or selling artifacts without any concern for their scholarly or heritage value. Anything from the guy metal detecting your local park (not terribly harmful) to ISIS raiding cultural heritage sites with the intention of selling artifacts to bad actors (Hobby Lobby) to finance violent activities.

@"Funbil"#p41507
Thank you so much! I'm definitely trying to experiment with different styles with the hope of giving different sorts of entry points for different audiences. I got some feedback on my Uncharted video from friends who said that I sounded unnatural and overly academic (absolutely 100% the style I was going for). Others really liked that tone, seeing it as someone taking games as seriously as others take film, books, or scholarly subjects. So I wanted to do a looser, more natural let's play style for the first group. Also - these videos take literally 1/80th the amount of work to produce!!

@“fridgeboy”#p41579 I haven't watched the latest one yet (cued up, will watch tonight most likely) but I enjoyed the Uncharted one. I came in to it expecting and academic/scholarly tone, and you hit the mark!

@“rejj”#p41636 Thanks so much! That video has gotten two dislikes. I'm so excited to have my first haters!

I think you'll see with these let's play dudes, even though I'm (some of the time) talking about archaeology, they're much looser and less academic. Maybe that's good, maybe that's bad - it seems like some of my audience wants one thing and some the other. So I'm just going to keep doing whatever.

If you are at all interested in fielding extra questions for these sorts of videos in the future:

Over the last 10-20 years we have seen it become somewhat normalised that films, particularly science fiction, will utilise a "science advisor" (usually a physicist) to try and find a balance between fiction and story telling and scientific plausibility. Do you think games would benefit from developers doing the same with archaeology advisors? _Should_ they?

What are some things we as modern civilisation are doing presently that are likely to make future archaeologist's work more difficult than it possibly needs to be? (not including racing towards armageddon, making their life difficult by nuking everything and them not existing)

Do any examples come to mind of games "getting it right"?


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@“fridgeboy”#p41646 So I’m just going to keep doing whatever.

The only way to live

@“rejj”#p41736 These are excellent questions! I'll definitely tackle these in my next one. Please do share any other questions you have everyone?

@“fridgeboy”#p41742 yes I would be curious to know what vg locations would be interesting or challenging sites for excavation and study.

Also how you might approach alien archeology like the dig or whatever

@“yeso”#p41758 ooh this are good questions too I’ll add these to my list.

Part 2: Let's Play Dark Souls 3 and talk about archaeology

https://youtu.be/AMtpfKxPUEU

https://twitter.com/ArchaeologyGame/status/1437088431427960841?s=20

Thanks to @"yeso"#385 and @"rejj"#455 for providing some of the questions I tackle in this episode!

@“fridgeboy”#p43080 Thanks for answering my questions so thoughtfully. The garbage dumps thing is somewhat obvious in retrospect, but it never crossed my mind.

@“rejj”#p43100 I wasn’t kidding about being able to blab on about that for 30 more minutes. It’s a good question!

if I understand correctly, rolling stones bassist Bill Wyman is also a “treasure hunter”

https://billwyman.com/2012/11/bill-wyman-signature-metal-detector/

also I have another q: is there a Higgs Boson potential discovery in the field? In other words a highly anticipated and sought after discovery that is as yet to be found? @“fridgeboy”#446

@“yeso”#p43231 ooh that’s a good question. Gotta add it to my list

https://youtu.be/v136VSh1wMM

https://youtu.be/wcjIQtch90k

First new video in a very long while. I'm hoping to have at least one more by year's end.

getting VGA recommendations on YT so it's officially part of my algorithm

@“dry cleaner for dogs”#p50353 Ooh this is good news! I‘ve read a few different places that that’s a bit of a breakthrough point when you actually start to muscle into people‘s algorithm, even your own subscribers. It’s got an internal technical name: Influence or something like that.

Also I threw up another artifact cleaning and identification video yesterday:

https://youtu.be/oOBGrLBP-Ww

@“Syzygy”#p51082 Huh! Interesting idea for a quick reaction video. I‘ve never played any of FF14 and would love to someday (though lets be honest I almost certainly won’t). I'll check this out though.