Developing Time: Representing Historical Progression through Level Structures

Abstract

This article explores the use of historical events as a way to structure the narrative in historical action games. The author uses a comparative analysis to show how Call of Duty: World at War (2008) and Assassin s Creed (1) (2007) take different approaches in embedding the past in their stories. A constant representational opposition is at play in historical games. The games have to represent a historical setting, but also need to represent a passage of time within this setting to mark narrative progression. Mediating this opposition happens through the level-structure of these games. The analysed games take different approaches in establishing this passage of time. Both games refer to sequences of historical events to display their passage of time, but do so in a different way. Call of Duty re-enacts the historical events, and Assassin s Creed develops its story between historical events.