"Know Your History!" The Cold War in Video Games and its function.

Digital games are products of our society, products of our culture; they are not created in aseptic underground laboratories without contact to the outside world. Whether consciously or not, developers are always inspired by their environment, their experiences and worldviews in the creation of their game worlds. Fantasy game worlds, just like “historical” ones, therefore always transport political statements. Ideas of domination, gender and economy thus find their way into global strategy games, role-playing games and economic simulations. These communicated worldviews, however, do not remain static. On the contrary, they evolve with our societies. This becomes particularly clear in the case of historical settings. The Cold War is particularly interesting for this type of research for two reasons: First of all, the Cold War was a geopolitical, but at the same time also a political and a cultural conflict that potentially had an impact on people's everyday lives. And second, we have here the rather unique opportunity to compare how one and the same medium first processed a contemporary conflict (until 1989/1990) and later went through a similar process but with a now historical phenomenon (from the 1990s to today

Why we thought it was a good idea to build a DACH games database

Eugen Pfister and Adrian Demleitner held a presentation at the German Literature Archive (DLA) in Marbach on the topic of building a database for digital games that were developed or are related to the German-speaking countries

"Wie lernt man die Welt am besten kennen? Man macht sie sich untertan": Zur Ideengeschichte von Herrschaft in digitalen Spielen

The history of ideas of the late twentieth and early twenty-fist centuries requires to take into account new forms of media expression such as video games. Video games have been an integral part of our entertainment culture for more than 40 years and are an international billion dollar business. Questions like “What is power? What does justice mean in politics? Who should govern whom?” are not only encountered in political essays and parliamentary debates. In order to understand how people have thought about domination in concrete societies over the past 40 years, we also have to examine the games that were played. Games cannot be imagined as an element of our societies and cultures independently of them; they are spaces of discourse where statements are constructed and communicated, and political ideas can be tested and applied in a playful way. As a medium, they thus provide a necessary space of communication within our highly complex societies, and as models of abstraction they also offer very specific access to a (very specific?) political reality

“What is the Best Way to Discover the World? To Subdue It”: On the History of Ideas of Domination in Video Games

The history of ideas of the late twentieth and early twenty-fist centuries requires to take into account new forms of media expression such as video games. Video games have been an integral part of our entertainment culture for more than 40 years and are an international billion dollar business. Questions like “What is power? What does justice mean in politics? Who should govern whom?” are not only encountered in political essays and parliamentary debates. In order to understand how people have thought about domination in concrete societies over the past 40 years, we also have to examine the games that were played. Games cannot be imagined as an element of our societies and cultures independently of them; they are spaces of discourse where statements are constructed and communicated, and political ideas can be tested and applied in a playful way. As a medium, they thus provide a necessary space of communication within our highly complex societies, and as models of abstraction they also offer very specific access to a (very specific?) political reality.The history of ideas of the late twentieth and early twenty-fist centuries requires to take into account new forms of media expression such as video games. Video games have been an integral part of our entertainment culture for more than 40 years and are an international billion dollar business. Questions like “What is power? What does justice mean in politics? Who should govern whom?” are not only encountered in political essays and parliamentary debates. In order to understand how people have thought about domination in concrete societies over the past 40 years, we also have to examine the games that were played. Games cannot be imagined as an element of our societies and cultures independently of them; they are spaces of discourse where statements are constructed and communicated, and political ideas can be tested and applied in a playful way. As a medium, they thus provide a necessary space of communication within our highly complex societies, and as models of abstraction they also offer very specific access to a (very specific?) political reality

Grenzen - Kulturhistorische Annäherungen

Con autorización de la editorial para este libro.Grenzen haben wieder Konjunktur trotz Globalisierung und Vernetzung. Seit jeher bergen sie die Ambivalenz von Anziehung und Abstoßung, von Trennung und Überschreitung in sich. Doch wie werden und wurden Grenzen konstruiert und gedacht? Welche sozialen, politischen und kulturellen Auswirkungen haben sie? Im vorliegenden Band beschäftigen sich AutorInnen aus geschichts- sowie kulturwissenschaftlicher Perspektive mit unterschiedlichen Phänomenen von Grenzen und Grenzziehungs­prozessen vom 16. bis zum 21. Jahrhundert. Thematisiert werden Konstruktionen und Imaginationen von Souveränität und Identität, Nation Building, Grenzräume als interkulturelle und ökonomische Kontaktzonen im Spannungsfeld von Zentrum und Peripherie, spezifische Funktionen von Grenzräumen sowie die Rolle und Situation von Grenzbevölkerungen. Die Fallbeispiele stammen aus Europa, den Amerikas und den Philippinen und beschäftigen sich auch mit der Symbolik von Grenzen in Film, Computerspielen und Architektur.Eberhard Crailsheim: Die vorliegende Untersuchung ist Teil eines Projekts, das vom Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme der Europäischen Union unter dem Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement Nummer 653508 (Phil-Threats) finanziert wurde.Peer reviewe

Omecamtiv mecarbil in chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, GALACTIC‐HF: baseline characteristics and comparison with contemporary clinical trials

Aims: The safety and efficacy of the novel selective cardiac myosin activator, omecamtiv mecarbil, in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) is tested in the Global Approach to Lowering Adverse Cardiac outcomes Through Improving Contractility in Heart Failure (GALACTIC‐HF) trial. Here we describe the baseline characteristics of participants in GALACTIC‐HF and how these compare with other contemporary trials. Methods and Results: Adults with established HFrEF, New York Heart Association functional class (NYHA) ≥ II, EF ≤35%, elevated natriuretic peptides and either current hospitalization for HF or history of hospitalization/ emergency department visit for HF within a year were randomized to either placebo or omecamtiv mecarbil (pharmacokinetic‐guided dosing: 25, 37.5 or 50 mg bid). 8256 patients [male (79%), non‐white (22%), mean age 65 years] were enrolled with a mean EF 27%, ischemic etiology in 54%, NYHA II 53% and III/IV 47%, and median NT‐proBNP 1971 pg/mL. HF therapies at baseline were among the most effectively employed in contemporary HF trials. GALACTIC‐HF randomized patients representative of recent HF registries and trials with substantial numbers of patients also having characteristics understudied in previous trials including more from North America (n = 1386), enrolled as inpatients (n = 2084), systolic blood pressure < 100 mmHg (n = 1127), estimated glomerular filtration rate < 30 mL/min/1.73 m2 (n = 528), and treated with sacubitril‐valsartan at baseline (n = 1594). Conclusions: GALACTIC‐HF enrolled a well‐treated, high‐risk population from both inpatient and outpatient settings, which will provide a definitive evaluation of the efficacy and safety of this novel therapy, as well as informing its potential future implementation

“The Führer’s facial hair and name can also be reinstated in the virtual world” Taboos, Authenticity and the Second World War in digital game

History is not only the construction of a past, but is also its interpretation. In this paper we study examples of taboos in historical representations of World War II in digital games as sources for contemporary collective identities. To this end we analyze two distinct phenomena: legal and cultural taboos determining what can be shown and what can be said in these games. We will show how a cultural and political paradigm shift has occurred in Austria and Germany in recent years. Thus, the portrayal of the Holocaust is no longer only under- stood as a taboo but also as a necessary part of our culture of remembrance. In a second part, we will look at how taboos are not only discussed but also co-con- structed within the gaming community on the occasion of authenticity debates

Kapitel VII, in welchem die Herren Görgen, Huberts, Inderst und Pfister eine Geschichte von der Armut im Spiel erzählen

Arno Görgen*,  Rudolf Inderst** und Eugen Pfister im Gespräch mit Christian Huberts*** [Auftritt Arno Görgen und Eugen Pfister. In einem schäbigen Londoner Wirtshaus “Zum Bullen” wirken die zwei fein gekleideten Gentlemen merkwürdig deplaziert. Da hilft es auch nicht, als sie sich bemühen einen möglichst “authentischen” Slang zu simulieren:] "Das is wohl das Gepäck von deinem Freund, Eugen?" fragte Mr. Görgen den jungen Pfister, als dieser mit einer Reisetasche und einem kleinen Mantelsack de..