Praise the Art Wie ‚Dark Souls‘ uns zu Kunsthistoriker*innen macht

Abstract

Using the example of the video game series ‘Dark Souls’, this paper analyses from an art historical perspective how players engage with religious art in digital games. I argue that we are invited to interact with fictional art in ‘Dark Souls’ as we would with real art in the real world. As players, we utilise the knowledge we accumulate in game to draw our own conclusions about the world, its religion, history, historicity, and art. Not only does this make the worldbuilding more believable, but it also makes art a focal point of the game, conveying an authentic experience of the world and drawing players into the role of art historians.