Beyond Museum Walls: Games That Let You Step Into History

• EU-funded MEMENTOES project uses video games to present traumatic historical narratives, fostering empathy and engagement beyond museum walls.
• The initiative includes titles like We Grew Up in War, Those From Below, and Gulag Diaries, all developed with historians, curators, and survivors.
• Early research suggests these interactive experiences improve historical understanding and can positively influence student attitudes toward complex social issues like the refugee experience.

MEMENTOES Project and Goals

• Collaborative effort between institutions in Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Greece, Ireland, and the Netherlands to digitize and gamify history.
• Focuses on making difficult histories tangible and accessible to younger, wider audiences.
• Aims to avoid "gamifying" trauma while prioritizing educational value, accuracy, and respectful storytelling.

Game Titles and Focus Areas

• We Grew Up in War: Developed by Charles Games and the War Childhood Museum (Sarajevo); shares personal testimonies of children in conflict zones like Bosnia and Ukraine, emphasizing daily life rather than just victimization.
• Those From Below: Utilizes virtual reality to recreate the 1956 Marcinelle mining disaster in Belgium, created in collaboration with the Le Bois du Cazier museum.
• Gulag Diaries: Created by ICS-FORTH and Gulag.cz, this game follows a researcher investigating the remains of a Soviet-era Siberian labor camp, using digital reconstructions and historical artifacts.

Impact and Future Outlook

• Games are designed to serve as tools for empathy, allowing players to inhabit the perspectives of individuals from the past.
• Preliminary findings indicate that such games can shift student attitudes toward refugees and promote the importance of peace.
• The project seeks to extend museum outreach by providing digital, accessible experiences that can be used in classrooms and at home.