Middle Ages as a game theme seems to be popular again in 2015. Although we now live in a comfortable time, we seem to be drawn by something in the past. What is it with you always?
I find it difficult to explain. Partly because I can’t fully explain it to myself. Might be a rather “romantic” mood that most documentaries convey. Might be the wish for a simpler life. Might also be that I/we got so used to the comfort I/we got, that we don’t know how bad it would be without the technology invented within the past hundred years.
5 Likes
I feel the same way, I also asked myself that question many times.
Connects us anything in the genome with the past? I dont know …
I suppose it would be connected to my childhood and all of the Walter Scott etc. romances and our children’s games. (I even love sailing because of Arthur Ransome and although I live in a landlocked country and rarely am able to sail.) And maybe even the romantic image of medieval knight with his coat of arms and his code of honour, his bravery and the damsel in distress topic 
. Eventually I learned a lot more about the period, I started to prefer Marcabru to the dull honorable knight and Brian de Bois-Guilbert starts to become more interesting character than Ivanhoe.
And I definitely prefer almost every other period of human history now. You see, medieval period was definitely the dark age full of scholastic nonsense. Universalia sunt realia was the topic of the day. Holy crap. Every attempt to live in peace with other cultures (Frederick II’s Sicily, Spain of Cordoba and Yacoub al-Mansour, the great birth of humanism in Languedoc destroyed by Innocent III. and the king of France’s power ambitions…) failed because of the dogmatism or the fail was at least facilitated by the dogmatism of the church.
Don’t get me wrong I can not and would not claim that everything what took place in 800-1450 Europe was bad or condemnable. We of course owe the medieval people a lot. The birth of renaissance especially 
.
1 Like
I think it has to do with the supposed (or romanticized) grittiness of the period combined with the grandeur of the scope. It’s a world where both mangy peasants, uncouth soldiery, and vicious bandits meets massive stone fortifications, skillfully crafted weapons, and epic scale conquests. Of course in reality the two weren’t as closely woven (example: most peasants never left a 50 mile radius) but we like to think that next to a poverty stricken hamlet there was a castle of spectacular design in which a grand tournament was held every week. The beauty was in the contrast.
That’s not to say that the image is completely wrong, it’s just exaggerated to a point that it makes modern life seem way more dull. In reality, modern life is much more exciting (at least visually) than pretty much any other period, especially the medieval times. Sure the danger of day to day life could be seen as intense but so would the internet or cars if you weren’t used to them. My point is that people love to romanticize history and right now gritty and grand is in.
I personally love it because medieval weaponry is incredible and I like me some gritty games. Knowing that game devs are going to make it dirty if it’s in this period, it’s a good bet I’ll at least somewhat enjoy most medieval games made nowadays. And fantasy bores me because most devs do it horribly (I’m looking at you, Bioware).
2 Likes
true, fascination of craftsmanship and admiration of the works in terms of the technology that was available at that time, makes a significant contribution.
Maybe even our kids games … I felt it all transparent, we had an overview.
What I find amazing is the strong trend towards archeology, especially of experimental archeology. Something we are looking for in the reconstruction of lifestyles of our ancestors …
In my case it’s just the “bond”. I’m from the country which was once center of all events, our kings were emperor’s and they left us many beautiful castles, monasteries and other structures from which you can feel the history itself even if the buildings was x times raided or rebuilt.
2 Likes
I just want to burn heretics, personally.
EHEHEHEHE
Im inerested in any history or culture. It just began with medieval thanks to these 3 reasons
1: My grandpararents lived near Prague Castle and so we used to go to walk there a lot. I was amazed by the cathedral, statues and all… also we used to visit Czech castles. There are many.
2: My real name is Václav (Wenceslas) and I was the smallest and youngest of our whole family - I love to hear stories where Wenceslas is duke or king
3: At my age of 8 I played “Dračà Doupě” (something like DnD). It is fantasy, but we tryied to be as historical accurate as possible (food, fashion, weapons…) and so I often ask parents for books about that…
4 Likes
Swords. The end?.. Yes.
3 Likes
There were or better are quite many things I think.
Swords yes.
But also the Knight Orders, especially the Templars, as well as the religious fanatasim of the time (which is also quite frightening but …yeah kind of fascinating). The lifestyle, as I imagine it, sounds interesting too, at least if you look at it from modern perspective, if you had to life in this period of time it would be quite hard and boring though…
Out of all the periods it’s probably the most romanticized and criticized period. However the truth is way more interesting than either of those two. I think this goes for most periods in history but people back in the day were way more advanced and similar to us than we think (or like to admit). But if you want me to name a few things I like about the period.
-Beautiful sculpture in metal (armors)
-Great leaps in architecture and art (just go inside any cathedral in France and look at the seemingly impossible high roof and stained glass)
-Castles
-generally cozy pre-industrial setting (fantasy is basically medieval European fantasy right?)
1 Like
could also imagine that it is the contrast to our present life to me. Sure arose and “learned” in childhood. But a look back at this time is palpable, because predominantly known. The present and future is an adventure every day. The Middle Ages or the past act as general as the adventure holiday present.
@Dekssan - you speak from europa or from a special Country (possibly France, or Rome?)
From Czech republic itself
2 Likes
Considering his avatar (statue of Jan Zizka - one of only seven never defeated war leaders / generals) he could even speak from Bohemia perhaps? I wonder if it’s the case. I would perhaps comprehend the point because at least two distinct periods of medieval age (rule of Přemyslid kings and the age of Charles the Fourth) were actually two of the high points of our history. (I would consider 1918-1938 and the sixties as other high points and perhaps even the Hussite wars + the rule of George of Podebrady.)
Is my impression correct?
Edit: It is as it seems.
2 Likes
Unfortunately, I’m barely familiar with the Czech historian, but that will change now yes 
To be honest even Wenceclaus was unknown to me before pledging to this game.
1 Like
But I understand, I would be actually surprised in case you knew more. (Don’t know where are you from.) In fact, why should you? Our history is rather peripheral, even marginal. But still it is quite precious for us as you would probably understand. (E.g. until the birth of the world empire even the history of England was rather peripheral and not so important from the European or general human point of view but it is still precious for the English, isn’t it? We probably tend to appreciate the underlaying thread of our existence much more than it deserves.)
When I used the notion of “our history” I meant the history of the Lands of the Bohemian crown of course. I would argue the only moment our medieval history significantly affected the history of Europe was the Council of Constance and the martyrdom of Jan Hus which preceded the reformation.
Didn’t Czechoslovakia form a border hop spot during the cold war?
Oh and Sudetenland, those are the things I recall.
There would hardly be Luther and Protestantism as we know it without Czech Reformation.
Also the evolution of warfare would be very different/significantly delayed if Žižka had not employed gunpowder weapons as one of the ground stones of his army.
Last but not least, the WW2 would be very different if German army wouldn’t seize the Czech weapons. Up to half of tanks and vast majority of machine guns used against Poland and France were Czech made (that changed later during the war, but it allowed the initial German advance). [I suppose everyone interested can read up on Munich Agreement, Appeasement and Polish&Hungarian complicity against Czechoslovakia which preceded it]
It is not marginal, just unknown, and that is mostly because the Western historians in the past 60 years ignored anything that was behind the Iron Curtain. IF you go through 1920s US sources (try google books), you will see that the knowledge of Czech impact on world’s history was actually higher than in 1970s.
And I could continue…
1 Like