Heritage destruction and videogames: ethical challenges of the representation of cultural heritage

Representations of historical or cultural sites in videogames have
always been contested by videogames scholarship, arguing that
historical games often court controversy. This paper examines
the history of the National and University Library in Sarajevo,
particularly the destruction of the site and how it has been
represented with different meanings across various media. The
second part of the paper will analyze the representation of the
library (post-reconstruction) in the videogame, Sniper: Ghost
Warrior 2’s Act 2 (called ‘Ghost of Sarajevo’), in order to raise
issues about the ethical challenges of the representation of a
heritage site that has not only been destroyed and reconstructed,
but that it is part of a national heritage.The analysis shows that
there are important pressures derived from the ways in which
videogames represent heritage which has gone through a process
of destruction, and how videogames adapt a historical event
following formal videogame conventions. The paper concludes by
pointing out the benefits of studying cases such as the National
and University Library in Sarajevo, as well as new avenues of
research regarding the representation of contested cultural sites in
videogames.