Goths in Video-Game Media: A Study of Historical Realism in Video Games (pdf)
Abstract:
Although Gothic civilizations may be seen by those with only an academic understanding as an arcane subject of late antiquity, Gothic civilization is one that those in the general public encounter in their daily lives. In this paper, I conduct a historical analysis on the evolution of the portrayal of Goths in the video-game industry using primary research from video games as well as contemporaneous news articles, blogs, and fan-made wiki pages. Doing so, I argue that through the analysis of the history of Goths in video games, one can see two polar opposite portrayals in the attempted marketing of them as a group and/or marketing the time period in which they lived: one which portrays the Goths in an antiquated stereotypical manner and another which emphasizes historical authenticity.
Essay:
The first reference to any Goth in a video game is in Kasumi Ninja, a fighting game for the Atari Jaguar and released by Handmade Software inc. in 1994. Popularly considered as being a Mortal Kombat “clone,”[1] Kasumi Ninja sought to capitalize on the popularity of arcade fighting games in the early 1990s – such as Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II – as a flagship fighter title for the new Atari Jaguar console entering the market.
In Kasumi Ninja, the character “Alaric, King of the Goths” appears both as an antagonist and later as a playable character in this game.[2] Although Alaric is not the main character of the game, one can see his unattractive “barbaric” face peering into the consumer’s eyes with a savage grin on the front cover of the game. To the general consumer, the name “Alaric” may seem to be simply a stereotypically barbaric name. However, as this is a reference to the specific historical figure of perhaps the most notorious Visigothic king, it speaks to the common knowledge of the Goths that the developer still saw it necessary to portray this figure in the stereotype of a “savage” to presumably give the game a cultural stereotype for the sake of retaining the average player’s interest in the game. It is no coincidence that other characters in the game are cultural stereotypes that include a Scotsman whose special ability is to shoot fireballs from under his kilt.
Alaric appears on the game’s cover and in the game as having long, horse-like teeth and long curly hair wearing a white leather vest with brown pants and fur boots – most likely due in part to the financial constraints of Handmade Software in the development of Kasumi Ninja. The stage on which he and the player fight is a giant wooden deck in front of a giant statue wearing lamellar armor, a steppe fur hat, and wielding a sword surrounded by a palisade wall, reminiscent more of Conan the Barbarian than of late antiquity. While he is the first portrayal of a Goth in a video game, the knife-throwing hunched over brute that is Alaric King of the Goths in Kasumi Ninja is by no means representative of the portrayal of Goths in video games, as the history of Goths in video games is filled with the antithesis of realism to this thesis of generalist stereotypes.
The mid to late 1990s saw a rise in games with more realistic historical settings as opposed to the purely fictional settings that dominated popular genres of the past. The rise of video game franchises such as Sid Meier’s Civilization and Age of Empires saw a potential for demand in historical realism that had not been fully tapped into in the preceding decade of video gaming’s infancy. The genres in which historical realism emerged, both “Grand Strategy” and “City-Builder” games, would see attempts to meet demands for historical sophistication while still operating under the restrictions of both self-imposed game mechanics as well as technological limitations. The two games which sought to signal their historical legitimacy to historically inclined gamers via the inclusion of a Gothic faction during this era are: Caesar III and Age of Empires II.
Released in 1998, Impressions Games’s Caesar III was a sequel to its lesser-known predecessors that would become a classic city-builder game. A variety of barbarian factions are included in Caesar III, from Carthaginians to Scythians as players engage in different scenarios spanning a variety of geographic time periods to build a metropolis from open wilderness. The appearance of individual Gothic soldiers is limited by the game’s graphical restrictions; however, one can make out their military units (the man at arms and horsemen) wearing bear pelts, gold-colored helmets, and short spears. Combined with their programmed strategy of “penetrating” concentrated attacks into the city, the appearance of the Goths in Caesar III is a mixture of both common stereotypes with actual historical references merged into their collective characters.
The stereotype of penetrating into a city is one clearly inspired by Alaric’s sack of Rome, where game designers utilized this classic image of the brief sack of Rome to define the Goths rather than through imagery divorced from their role as foreign invaders. While the Goths appear in maps related to where the Goths had invaded, such as Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa, the dates in which these settlements were founded as well as the invasions by the Goths are not historically accurate with the Sarmizegetusa level being dated in the early 1st century ad.[3] Though there are a variety of flaws, this early appearance of the Goths achieves a degree of realism which anticipates further developments toward historical realism in later franchises.
Briefly following Caesar III was Ensemble Studios’s Age of Empires II released in 1999, one of the most famous titles to include a playable Gothic faction. Represented by the Eagle Fibula, the Goths had been included in AoE II as an “infantry civilization,” meaning that bonuses and unique units of the Goths were mainly infantry oriented. They are playable both in computer-generated game campaigns or in a historical campaign devoted to Alaric’s exploits. Though AoE II does not attempt an approach at hard-historical realism, there are many mechanics implemented within the game which draw upon historical reference beyond simple stereotypes to give the Gothic faction a sophisticated, albeit cartoonish, portrayal. Beyond their Germanic aesthetic, the Gothic faction has access to gunpowder tech later in the game unlike some other faction of their time period in reference to Crimean Gothic culture. Monks are weaker for the Goths in reference to the marginalized Arian Christianity of the Goths, and “Huscarl” units which reference Gothic Gardingos; under a more popular name presumably for the game’s wider audience appeal.
While Alaric is the most commonly referenced of the Gothic kings in gaming culture, AoE II includes a diverse array of Gothic leaders referenced beyond Alaric. In a further nod to historical reality, players can build the “wonder,” a unique individual building programmed to each faction, the Mausoleum of Theoderic as well as play a ruler whose name is generated from an extensive list of Gothic kings and generals from the 4th to 8th centuries. As seen by a syncretism of historical reality from Arian Christianity to the inclusion of units from the historical record, this period saw the growth of bounded historical realism in videogames alongside a retainment of less historical (and more cartoonish) mechanics. These depictions of a group obscure to a wider audience show a gradual exploration of developers away from the general and abstract stereotypes of the Goths into more sophisticated, albeit still stereotypical, depictions.
The 2000s would see further usage of Gothic history and culture within two highly differing franchises at opposing sides of the historical-realism spectrum. While the expansion pack for the game Rome Total War, aptly titled “Barbarian Invasion,” would seek to maximize the historical realism of its Gothic portrayals, a fantasy title by the name of Heroes Might and Magic V would make use of the name of Alaric to depict a character which appears to be a stereotype of “Germanic” history as a whole.
In 2005, an expansion pack was released for Creative Assembly’s critically acclaimed title Rome Total War thematic of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire called Rome Total War: Barbarian Invasion. Taking place in ad 363, a player can play as the Goths with the objective to either expand their territory outside of present-day Romania or to migrate to a wealthier geographical location to avoid the encroaching Huns. Achieving a victory in the game requires the Gothic player control 16 settlements, of which two are Thracia and Northern Italy.
The developers of Rome Total War incorporated more research from more of the historiographical record on the Goths, incorporating an in-depth historical realism beyond that seen in prior video game titles. When one loads into the game, they will find themselves located in a settlement called “Colonia Dacia,” presumably a renamed Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa (being in a similar location), with 15000 denarii in the treasury and an “official religion” of Christianity. The king of the Goths, as well as the prince, coincide with their real historical counterparts during the year 363: Ermaneric and Vithimer.
One of the most unique features of the Barbarian Invasion expansion is the introduction of a religion mechanic to simulate the atmosphere of intense religious competition during late antiquity. When playing, one has the option to keep the buildings of the city’s official religion, such as the Christian shrine of Colonia Dacia, or destroy them and construct a building for an alternate religion. The Goths have the option to either retain their Christian faith or return to their traditional pagan religion by destroying Christian buildings and replacing them with shrines to Tyz or Agri in their settlements. The units that Goths can produce also attempt to reflect the historical religious reality of the Goths as under a Christian regime, in having the ability to produce Arian priests who bolster troop morale.
Some aspects of the campaign may also highlight debate over the vague pictures we have of Gothic society, such as the choice of the developers to make Ermaneric’s character a Christian while making Vithimer a pagan. While it might be deduced from this that the developers took an overreaching artistic license above what there is historical evidence for, such depictions may have use-value to scholars and lay historical enthusiasts alike as a simulative thought experiment for historical circumstances which may not have foundations for them beyond their hypothetical plausibility. Though the historical realism of Rome Total War: Barbarian Invasion is not perfectly accurate, with the inclusion of inaccurate developmental decisions like their iron cross logo and orange trimmed uniforms. The accuracies we can attribute to so-called barbarian invasion highlight the ever-growing encapsulation of a market concerned with historical realism that an external onlooker might write off as an “extreme niche” to economic and critical success.
In contrast to the more realistic Total War, the 2000s would also reference the Goths at a more stereotypical end of the spectrum. Referencing the ubiquitous Alaric are Nival Interactive’s downloadable content packs for Heroes Might and Magic V: Hammers of Fate and Tribes of the East. As the name implies, Heroes Might and Magic is a fantasy video-game series taking place in a Tolkienesque world of humanoid races: the likes of elves and orcs. The stereotype portrayed in Heroes V, however, is not one of a savage primitive barbarian seen in Kasumi Ninja but instead a portrayal reminiscent of High Middle Age Germanic culture. Reflecting the High Middle Ages, the character Alaric is both a knight as well as the archbishop of the “Holy Griffin Empire”. Ironically, the Alaric in Heroes V was a religious fanatic who performed an inquisition of those who did not follow his religious creed,[4] unlike his namesake who was a member of one of the first sects of Christianity to be castigated by Christian Orthodoxy. Even his physical appearance resembles the cliche Germanic physicality of blue eyes and flowing locks of blonde hair.
Why reference Alaric as a stereotype of a completely different time and culture? Though we could easily conclude that “Alaric” may simply be a useful name for an antagonist, in a manner of greater depth this reference shows that the public imagination of the Goths and their integral role to “Germanic” history runs deep in our cultural imagination. Stereotypical as the name may be, the link between a primitive stereotype of Germanic culture to its more “civilized” counterpart, shows that generalist stereotypes vary in their level of sophistication when referencing Goths and Germans. It is no coincidence that a Gothic name is also attached to a reference to the Holy Roman Empire, showing that what can inherently be dismissed as a generalist stereotype has more nuance in identifying and matching different periods of Germanic history. In doing so, the developer shows the pretended sophistication that even a generalist stereotype may contain.
Coming into the 2010s, while one still saw cases of generalist depictions of Goths for popular appeal, the genre of historical realism also saw some of the greatest progress to date in both authenticity and sales. This decade’s portrayals illustrate the spectrum in its entirety from the generalism of the widely popular Facebook game FarmVille to the more enigmatic, but still highly successful, Attila Total War. Furthermore, the competition between developers Creative Assembly and Paradox Interactive illustrates the ever-expanding market of historical realism of games in the current generation of strategy gaming, all while Firaxis’s Civilization V shows a median between historical realism and generality.
As its name might suggest, Zynga’s FarmVille, a widely popular Facebook browser game, harbors content to appeal to a general audience rather than any specific genre “niche”. Surprisingly, within this otherwise historically apathetic game one can find reference to Visigoths in perhaps their most superficial form of any video game. A promotion of Capital One,[5] players had the option to receive benefits to their farm’s productivity in return for placing a statue of a “Visigoth” with Capital One’s logo affixed to it. The statue simply depicts an unshaven man wearing a horned “Viking helmet,” fur armor, and wielding a broadsword. In addition to the statue, players also had the option to receive a promotional Visigothic costume, complete with fur armor and what appears to be a greatsword sheathed on the back. The inaccuracies of this costume, as well as Capital One’s Visigoth promotion, are maximal. It is doubtful that the maximality of this decision is accidental as it highlights a greater incentive for corporations who seek mass appeal to appropriate historical references and boil them down to their most superficial form. It was likely that this decision is an attempt to invoke nostalgia of the general viewers of what they learned in high school history class of the sack of Rome, as that is the broadest collective image the general American population would have of a Visigoth found when casting off as many assumptions of consumers as possible; i.e., removing the assumption that the viewer would have even basic collegiate-level knowledge of what a Visigoth was. From this, one can see it is in the form of mainstream advertising, more so than any creative media outlet, that there is the maximum incentive to reduce historical figures to an extreme level of superficiality on the spectrum of historical realism.
The three titles of the 2010s which occupied the spectrum of historical realism harboring the most realistic portrayals were of a common genre known as “Grand Strategy.” In this genre, depending on the intended setting of the game, developers have the most incentive to adopt approaches of historical realism to their game in an attempt to win the favor of “authenticity” from fans of this market. Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV, created by the same developer, Paradox Interactive, attempted a similarly high degree of historical authenticity to their games within their respective structures. While both take place during different time periods, CK2 taking place from the Early Middle Ages to the High Middle Ages and EU4 taking place from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, both incorporate Gothic culture as they had appeared during their respective time frames.
In CK2, one has the option to play a Visigoth character with the objective of ensuring the survival of their family’s dynasty while managing their medieval state. Visigothic as well as Gothic cultures appear as a “culture group” in regions like the Visigoths of Asturias and Galicia on the Iberian Peninsula as well as the Crimean Goths of Cherson. All of which are based upon real historical narratives of Gothic culture during the game’s time frame from their geographical vicinities, to their political associations, to their ethnic appearances. Encapsulating the historical realism of Gothic culture, generally Gothic characters appear with Germanic “textures” (physical traits). Furthermore, the player has a choice of either real historical figures such as King Aurelio of Asturias or fictional characters that exist within the political realities of the time period like the Duke of Cherson (a vassal of the Byzantine Empire).
In a similar manner, EU4 attempts this same degree of historical realism within its own game structure. Though a more macro level “nation-building” game in which one must manage their realm at the level of a nation-state rather than the dynasties of CK2, EU4 still attempts to incorporate a similar level of historical realism in order to meet the expectations of their audience. Within EU4, the Goths make a humble appearance in 1444 as the last bastion of Gothic civilization – as the Crimean Gothic kingdom of Theodoro. The developers continued their quest for historical realism by incorporating realistic features within even this miniscule “one province nation” by providing them “tradition” bonuses that reflect their historical reality. For example, the Kingdom of Theodoro has tradition bonuses like “Komnins, Paleologs, and Gavras,” named after the real Byzantine dynasties associated with this kingdom during said time period, as well as “Principate Guards” and “Cave Monasteries,” all of which provide unique in-game bonuses to the player. Furthermore, EU4 contains the “Gothic Invasion” achievement, in which one gains a milestone of sorts recorded by the game if the player conquers all Germanic culture provinces as the Kingdom of Theodoro. Not only is this a fun exercise in historical imagination, but this achievement highlights the historical literacy of EU4’s fanbase by rewarding the player’s assumed literacy with milestones that one must be knowledgeable of history to fully appreciate. Both EU4 and CK2 recognize a growing market of historical realism in which incorporating more accurate depictions of history is incentivized by an ever-growing market demand which can only be satiated when a developer makes an honest attempt at authenticity – as their aforementioned diligence can attest to.
In the middle of this spectrum appears Firaxis’s Civilization V. Although usual campaigns in Civilization are known for being random scenarios, in the Gods and Kings expansion of Civ 5, released in 2014, a historical scenario was incorporated alongside new game mechanics and factions. Known as the “Fall of Rome” scenario, players can choose either a “barbarian” faction or a Roman faction with an objective of either conquering your opponent’s territory (in the case of barbarian factions) or preserving your empire (in the case of either Eastern or Western Rome). Of course, it is almost always necessary to incorporate the Goths in this time frame if a developer wants to retain a semblance of historical realism. As with all civilizations in the game, the Goths are led by their most famous leader as a sort of avatar for the player and opponent; in this case that being of course Alaric I. Similar to Age of Empires, the Goths are depicted with the symbol of the, in this context anachronistic, Eagle Fibulae with heavy focuses on their infantry units – no doubt reflecting their stereotype as the sackers of Rome for more general appeal. Though, there are more advanced references to Gothic culture than the strategy games of the 1990s and 2000s, such as their special units “Gadrauhts” and special buildings for their cities the “Hovs”.
Being a grand-strategy game in the same market as EU4 and CK2, the depiction of Goths in Civilization V illustrates the importance of intention before signaling authenticity to the audience. Unlike Farmville or Kasumi Ninja one understands that the generalism of Civilization V is not that of using the Goths as a symbol to portray a stereotypical barbarian. Rather, the intention of Firaxis is nuanced in trying to use the stereotype of a barbarian as a tool to present a more casual image of the Goths without excluding a general video game audience through the mental strain of complexity when depicting the hard-historical realism of Paradox games. In other words, it attempts to balance historical generality with realism to appeal to both general and niche audiences – as an effective popular historian would do when writing to a broad audience.
The second-most recent, significant title to feature the Gothic peoples is Creative Assembly’s Total War Attila in 2015. In Total War Attila, and its subsequent expansion packs, the Goths are represented by the division classically attributed to them by historians: Ostrogoths and Visigoths. Players have the option in the base game to either play as the Visigoths under the rule of Alaric or the Ostrogoths under Vitherigus (more commonly known as Vandalarius). Starting in the year ad 375, both factions appear as hordes in southeastern Europe, with the Visigoths located near Thessalonica and Ostrogoths located near Romula (within present Romania). This is an intentional choice as it reflects Alaric’s migration from Moesia to Greece during this time period. When it comes to historical realism, Total War Attila presents both an improvement from Barbarian Invasion, as well as attempting to further detail the realism in the game to appeal to historical-realist audiences that had been cultivated by Creative Assembly (and their competitor Paradox Interactive) in the years since 2001 – in both cases written here as well as titles not pertaining to Gothic civilization. Total War Attila features vast improvements in graphical realism since 2001, not only in the interests of making the game look better for simple aesthetic ends but also to accurately portray its time period to the best of their ability within the limitations of graphical capabilities, gameplay mechanics, and the historical and archeological record itself. The inclusion of units like the Gardingi cavalry and Gothic Palatina defectors reveal not only an intention to include a “tough looking barbarian” aesthetic in a game, a factor that even somewhat historically realistic games like Caesar III were guilty of, e.g., with its bear-skin, pelt-clad hordes, rather to hold its aesthetic standards strictly to historical realism.
As with other games, Attila Total War attributes traits to ancient civilizations. Both the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths hold the “Great Migration” cultural trait, making the costs to convert the main buildings of a settlement higher while providing benefits to population growth when initiating a migration. It is significant that unlike prior games taking place during late antiquity, there is a disincentive to players against abandoning Roman development, as the Goths did not destroy allmajor Roman civic institutions.
The two factions do, however, have differing cultural traits to correspond with the historical record of their collective behavior. The factional trait of “Blood Money” belongs to the more historically aggressive Visigoths, providing them more food when migrating through territories while also gaining income from their tributary states. This perhaps reflects the Visigothic overthrow of Roman Iberia and comparative strength in Western Europe as an international power in late antiquity. Contrary to the aggressive Visigoths, the contrastingly cooperative Ostrogoths harbor the “Inheritors of Rome” trait, ensuring that there is no instability when the Ostrogoths acquire a Roman city and allow the player to recruit Roman units in Roman settlements. This trait perhaps reflects the more gradual takeover of Italy largely through diplomatic wrangling rather than the blunt secession of the Visigothic kingdom. Another significant aspect of attempted historical realism within the game is the usage, as has become typical, of the eagle fibulae for the Visigothic faction and the bow fibulae for the Ostrogoths. However, it is important to keep in mind this symbol when used particularly to symbolize the Goths in the year 395, as did Civilization V, is a stereotypical anachronism simply using a popular symbol of Gothic history. Though there are some historical flaws, such as the improper use of the eagle fibulae as well as the depiction of Visigoths as Germanic pagans rather than Arian Christians in the year 395, such flaws are more trivial when put in perspective to the wider realism attempted by Creative Assembly in the construction of Total War Attila.
In Crusader Kings III, released in September 2020, Paradox Interactive attempts to portray the Visigoths with the updated realism capable with technology developed since CK2. Represented as a sovereign culture within the Kingdom of Asturias as well as a subject culture within the Umayyad Caliphate of Al-Andalus, the Visigoths are a major political entity representing the transition from late antiquity to the middle ages just as in CK2. While so far in the game’s development, there is yet to be a Crimean Gothic culture (as both CK2 and EU4 include), there are other aspects of the portrayal of the Goths in CK3 that have improved from previous titles. One aspect of this is the inclusion of a realm-history tab for the player to track and catalogue their dynasty’s position in the span of both their specific game’s canon as well as the prior historical canon preceding the starting date. The realm-history tab of Asturias is one which spans one of the longest time frames of any other in the game – highlighting the voluminosity of the Visigothic historical record in comparison to many of their historical contemporaries that is not often thought about in non-academic circles. Spanning from King Fafaliz to King Aldefanso III, the Kingdom of Asturias is presented in its final centuries as a unified Visigothic-Catholic kingdom to its eventual political and cultural fragmentation into Castille, Aragon, and Leon. The portrayal of this rich political history within the exciting timeframe from Charlemagne to William the Conqueror help the game both attain its goal in historical realism as well as attract audiences enthusiastic of Iberian history because of cultural heritage.
The Total War franchise and Paradox Interactive grand strategy games illustrate the end result of a long journey in the development of historical video games, from being the bearskin-clad pixelated blobs of Caesar III and the mass appeal caricatures of Kasumi Ninja to a renaissance of historical realism market. There are patterns that one can find illustrated in depictions of Goths across titles spanning the entire spectrum: particularly the popularity of Alaric. It is also unavoidable that the Goths will be portrayed in gaming, as in most entertainment industries, by their more romantic achievements like the sacking of Rome or their conquests. However, while there may not be an incentive to portray an absolute history of daily Gothic life in gaming, there still is incentive driven by the surprisingly large market of historically inclined gamers to depict the romantic time frames of Gothic history as realistically as possible. It is not an exaggeration to state that the inclusion of one or two historical references is a sign of market demand, as has been illustrated by the amount of detail implemented by game developers in portraying the Goths, much time and resources must be devoted by a developer to be competitive in a genuinely popular market.
The wider sociological implications of these data lead to a conclusion that there is a large craving in Western entertainment for authentic historical realism. This can also be seen in attempts of historical realism made by movies such as Netflix’s The Outlaw King, television shows like HBO’s Rome, as well as the growing popularity of educational history channels on YouTube including the popular Lindybeige. It is likely the case that many college-educated Westerners seek an outlet for the interest in the humanist education that they have been encouraged to cultivate into their adult lives. As the author David Foster Wallace said, “There is an entire class of upper and upper middle class kids whose parents could afford to send them to very good schools and got very good educations, who are often working in jobs that are very financially rewarding, but don’t have anything to do with what they got taught was worthwhile in school.”[6] The empirical data show, however, that this may not only be upper- or upper-middle-class individuals who crave intellectualism in entertainment but rather a larger and growing mass of college-educated young adults irrespective of class, as well as younger audiences within the educational system. While not the most popular historical civilization, the portrayal of Goths in video games presents to the observer a broad overview of the development of the historical-realist market in gaming, thereby providing empirical data to the growing market demand as well as the refined palette of Western young adults in what media they consume.
For historians, these data show the positive implications that their research is permeating into the larger zeitgeist of entertainment culture, albeit while still romanticizing historical narratives to entice consumers. Furthermore, these developments may also provide a boon to the academic field as both an aide in historical research as well as an inspiration for young minds to enter the field of history and keep the discipline fresh. Just as the field of economics has gained valuable information from observing data in video games like Eve Online,[7] historians could to tap into the academic potential of games by utilizing them as simulations to help understand the socio-economic implications of historical events with interactive, quantifiable, and replicative data. One should not let a game’s romanticism get in the way of its value as a tool to virtually observe history just as one must not let the biases of a primary text cloud the observer’s view of the past: both provide use-value toward the end of defogging our perspectives.
As the Gothic case-study has illustrated, video games contain a cache of untapped potential for historians, sociologists, and market researchers, whether to conduct virtual simulations of historical events and analyze and visualize their outcomes, observe the effects of widespread college education on the Western mind, or to capitalize off a surprisingly large market enthused by historical realism, the phenomenon of the historical-realist market in video games is worthy of both further investigation and further investment. In the past, academics like CS Lewis have had to remind themselves that their research has real-world implications and application, but today the academic can see this by easily glancing at the websites and apps their students are using.
NOTES
[1] Kasumi Ninja (Game). Giant Bomb, December 31, 1994. https://www.giantbomb.com/kasumi-ninja/3030-719/.
[2] Loading Geek, “Kasumi Ninja (Atari Jaguar / 1994) – Thundra [Playthrough] [Hard]”. YouTube, February 19, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7omSxsApOY.
[3] Angel Reckless Rodent, “Sarmizegetusa Walkthrough” Caesar III Heaven, October 1998. https://caesar3.heavengames.com/strategy/walkthroughs/sarmizegetusa/
[4]“Alaric (HoF)” Might and Magic Heroes Wiki. https://mightandmagic.fandom.com/wiki/Alaric_(HoF)#articleComments
[5] Tanya Gazdik, “Capital One Visigoths Invate Farmville,” MediaPost. June 3rd, 2011. https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/151631/capital-one-visigoths-invade-farmville.html?edition=2181
[6] David Foster Wallace, “David Foster Wallace: The Big, Uncut Interview (2003),” ZDF TV. https://www.openculture.com/2012/02/david_foster_wallace_the_big_uncut_interview_2003.html.
[7] Andres M. Belaza, Jan Ryckebusch, Koen Schoors, Luis E.C. Rocha, and Benjamin Vandermarliere, “On the Connection between Real-World Circumstances and Online Player Behaviour: The Case of EVE Online,” PloS one 15, no. 10 (2020): e0240196–e0240196.
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Visigothic Symposia 