Recent posts of mine from BlueSky which read: “The recent uptick in ‘echo chamber’ rhetoric, alongside the weaponisation of ‘dialogue’ as a means of obscuring power dynamics between opposing sides of an issue in favour of ‘civility politics’, really needs to be watched carefully, tbh. People are reacting to collective rejection of right wing viewpoints…

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At the time of writing this, it is 10am in the United Kingdom on the 6th November 2024. As an American migrant over here, I’ve unsurprisingly been watching with dread as the results begin to trickle in and despite my deep criticisms of electoral politics, its hard not to feel very depressed and worried about…

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A photo of an anti-racism protest, with the backs of protestors facing the camera. In the centre of the photo is a sign being held by a person with long blonde hair that reads, “Silence is Violence”. (Photo Credit: Phil Roeder, Wikipedia) Over the past few months, I have found myself becoming increasingly frustrated with…

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Please note that this blog post contains spoilers for the game “I Am Dead”. An example of one of the memories accessed from the prehistoric past, showcasing family life back then. I’ve already written at length about how much I loved I Am Dead (Hollow Ponds, 2020) as an archaeologist and as a museum worker.…

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The following is a transcript of my keynote talk from the Zooarchaeology Saves the World conference held in May 2022. Some examples of what actionable animal archaeologies could be (from the original presentation) Introduction Does zooarchaeology matter? Perhaps this is an intentionally provocative question to ask zooarchaeologists but given the status of the world today…

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I am happy to announce the publication of my new book, Practical Archaeogaming, which was published by Berghahn Books in May 2024. Copies are now in stock and are being […]

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I have been meaning to write a proper blog post about my frustrations regarding some of the discourse within archaeology around making amends for the discipline’s contributions to oppression and violence – in fact, this post has probably been sat unfinished in my drafts for a few years now. But these frustrations have certainly reached…

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Please note that this blog post contains spoilers for the game “Heaven’s Vault”. As I wrote in a post almost a year (!!!) ago, I finished my second playthrough of Heaven’s Vault (Inkle Studios, 2021). And perhaps one of the things that struck me most on this replay was just how long the travel sequences…

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The archaeology of the senses and educational games meets in this post by Guy David Hepp, PhD where he ponders on the use of board games in higher educational settings.

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This is the transcript from a talk I gave in April 2022 for the Enabled Archaeology session of the CIfA2022 Conference. It is an extension of my original blog post on Digging While Depressed, which you can read here. A slide from the original presentation detailing how we can enable archaeology for everyone by ending…

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I’m sitting in a semi-dark room, the electricity has just cut out, and there’s a slight chill in the air. I love being in MohenjoDaro (Sindh, Pakistan) in December. It’s cold at night and it’s hot during the day, unlike the summer, where there is nowhere to hide from the heat. The winter is more…

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The title here says it all. I had my students play games in my class to interesting results. The class was Roman archaeology, I had my students explore reconstructions of […]

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In doing the research for my dissertation, I discovered Twine, the open source software for creating non-linear stories. Twine seems useful in making historical sources more accessible and fun for […]

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I watched a stream a few months back where I heard about a little game called Unpacking by Witch Beam Studio (https://www.unpackinggame.com). The gameplay was simple: unpacking boxes after moving. […]

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A recent thought has been on my mind when thinking about archaeologists making games. At conferences and in publications, the big discussion is virtual reality and first person experiences. Making […]

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Being able to play early access games is a good time. Buying the games early helps provide the developer money to keep making and improving the game, while also allowing […]

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