– February 19: The Journal of Guy Josselyne ( Age of Empires II)Įach of the six missions in Age of Empires II's Joan of Arc campaign is decidedly heavy on combat, while the more intricate political and personal details behind the story's major players are told through short, storybook style cutscenes that bookend the game's interactive segments. 'Death is by now an old companion, but for Joan, we will face it again.' This leads me to the driving question behind my research: among the various portrayals that have been made of her since the 15th century, from the popular to the theological and from the political to the scholarly, which canonical representations of Joan of Arc influenced the depiction of her in Age of Empires II's campaign about her? Joan of Arc: The Saint With Recharging HP To say that Joan - who was condemned to death at the stake by the English in 1431 and later canonized by the Catholic Church in 1920 - is a controversial figure would be an understatement at best, leaving the game's developers in something of a predicament: what is the best way to represent a person as complex as Joan of Arc using an interactive medium?

The second entry in the multimillion-selling series is a real-time strategy game for Windows/Mac-based computers, and it allows players to control hundreds of on-screen units at once with the swipe of a mouse.Īlthough many players flock to the game for its competitive multiplayer component, the core of the experience lies in a selection of five separate military campaigns that push players through battles and significant events connected to popular historical figures like Genghis Khan, Barbarossa and (of course) Joan of Arc.Īs with several of the campaigns, the creators of Age of Empires elected to pull not only from the image of Joan that historians generally agree upon, but also from myth and legend.

Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings is one such video game that attempts to once again weave the story of the Maid of Orléans.

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