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Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On: Shakespeare And The Cultural Legitimacy Of Video Games, Paul C. Bills

Student Works

In many ways, video games are fighting the same battle for cultural legitimacy that English drama fought in Renaissance England, a battle chiefly won by William Shakespeare. The video game industry is currently in much the same state that English drama was in when Shakespeare entered the scene, and game designers could learn much from his example, as he arguably innovated a new medium as much as he achieved anything else. Part of Shakespeare's success depended on looking backward to bring already culturally important stories to the stage in order to prove that this new medium could be a vehicle …