1/12 #MAGM23 In 2014 R. van der Linden defined dungeons as “labyrinthine environments that offer structured gameplay progressions through interrelated rewards, challenges and puzzles.” This is a rather generic definition, enough to cover an array of different environments.

2/12 #MAGM23 To pursue our analysis, however, we need to identify a taxonomy of the environment ‘dungeon’ that could, at least partially, help us clarify the multitude of different environments that we find in games that may fall, one way or the other, inside this macro-category.

3/12 #MAGM23 A tentative one may include the following forms of dungeons: lair; fortress; ruin. Such a list does not aim at being comprehensive. Moreover, it should be kept in mind that categories may overlap. However, a form of classification is necessary to focus our analysis.

4/12 #MAGM23 Another taxonomy of dungeons may arise by looking at the actual ‘inhabitants’ of the site. The list is long: bandits, wizards, zombies, and so on. Here we will look at a specific kind of dungeon: the ruin of vanished civilizations inhabited by demons.

5/12 #MAGM23 We compare the ‘dungeon-ruin’ with late antique monastic texts such as the Sayings of the Desert Fathers (Apophthegmata Patrum) and other monastic Vitae, where the Fathers often move at the very outskirts of civilization, to ruins of temples/tombs long forgotten.

6/12 #MAGM23 These ruins are inhabited by demons, remnants of the ancient deities defeated by victorious Christianity. In this sense (and without forgetting they also have other meanings), demons become the symbols of those very forgotten civilizations whose ruins they occupy.

7/12 #MAGM23 Upon reaching his destination, the Desert Father engages in spiritual (sometimes physical) combat with the demon, at the end defeating it and leaving it powerless, the site now ‘purified’ and ready to be Christianized by the Father’s very presence.

8/12 #MAGM23 The parallel with many games is obvious. Think of the Ayleid ruins dotting the landscape of Cyrodiil in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Or to the Sith ruins of many a Star Wars planet on Knights of the Old Republic; or to the ruins of Horizon: Zero Dawn.

9/12 #MAGM23 Particularly in the latter examples the ruin often becomes a specific locus for different kinds of power: that of the spirits of long-dead Sith lords (very much resembling the Fathers’ demons), or that, more of a symbolic nature, of the ‘Old Ones’ in Horizon.

10/12 #MAGM23 Leaving aside SW (whose analysis should transcend the limits of the game), Horizon shows the player a context much similar to that of the Sayings: the ruins of the ‘Old Ones’ are veritable social sites, with their specific (negative) role inside the tribe’s world.

11/12 #MAGM23 Only by being a Seeker (that is, a liminal individual) can the protagonist interact with the ruins, and the ‘demons’ inhabiting them, in a socially accepted way. Others in the tribe cannot. This leads us to a set of questions, paving the way for further research.

12/12 #MAGM23 Could late antique hermits help us understand the social role of some ‘dungeons’, the ruins of past civilizations, in a way different from other well-known referents (i.e. Arthurian and Germanic ones)? Viceversa, could games help us better understand late antiquity?

The first PhD defence of a PhiBor PhD candidate is going on now! Our heartfelt congratulations to Arturo M. Iannace for his beautiful thesis on Beneventan Exultet rolls and their stratified social and political imagery.

Opening Statement by @markusmindrebo for the Middle Ages in Modern Games Asynchronous Conference is live, explaining how this works and introducing our 2024 theme ‘Conflict and Cooperation’: middleagesinmoderngames.net/?p=183- we're online and ready for your questions and comments! #MAMG24

First in this #MAMG24 session is Arturo Mariano Iannace (Arturo Mariano Iannace) on ‘Beyond Feudalism: how modern games can handle internecine conflicts in early medieval polities’ middleagesinmoderngames.net/?p=391