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No freedom, no honour: Red Dead Redemption 2 and heritage as procedural rhetoric

Leighton Evans Orcid Logo

Mobile Heritage: Practices, Interventions, Politics, Pages: 25 - 37

Swansea University Author: Leighton Evans Orcid Logo

  • Accepted Manuscript under embargo until: 22nd October 2026

Abstract

This chapter explores how heritage experiences in games are shaped by the procedural rhetoric embedded in games as an expression of the intentions, biases, and visions of developers. Video games are an example of the mobility of ideas and concepts, enabling virtual as well as physical mobility. Thro...

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Published in: Mobile Heritage: Practices, Interventions, Politics
ISBN: 9781003400288
Published: London Taylor and Francis 2025
Online Access: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003400288-2/freedom-honour-leighton-evans
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69372
first_indexed 2025-04-30T12:25:09Z
last_indexed 2025-05-30T06:09:50Z
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spelling 2025-05-29T11:52:09.5347839 v2 69372 2025-04-30 No freedom, no honour: Red Dead Redemption 2 and heritage as procedural rhetoric cc05810f3465ddddd6814e131f4e9a79 0000-0002-6875-6301 Leighton Evans Leighton Evans true false 2025-04-30 CACS This chapter explores how heritage experiences in games are shaped by the procedural rhetoric embedded in games as an expression of the intentions, biases, and visions of developers. Video games are an example of the mobility of ideas and concepts, enabling virtual as well as physical mobility. Through a case study of the popular game Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2), the chapter examines how the experience of playing the game, and engaging with its underlying encoded ideologies, can shape understandings of a particular historical time and space as well as societal relations (in this case those of the ‘wild west’). By decoding the ideologies produced in playing RDR2, the chapter critically considers how ideological shaping in digital games affects players understanding of heritage, history, as well as our historical (and present) roles through, for example, particular characterisations of women and non-white figures. While the historical experience of Red Dead Redemption 2 is not the history of the West, it has become one understood by millions of gamers thanks to the virtual and physical mobility of digital games. The virtual mobilisation of a unique, partial, and culturally defined historical interpretation is, in this and many other instances, the mobilisation of a set of concepts, ideologies, and understandings that demand critical appraisal. Book chapter Mobile Heritage: Practices, Interventions, Politics 25 37 Taylor and Francis London 9781003400288 22 4 2025 2025-04-22 https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003400288-2/freedom-honour-leighton-evans COLLEGE NANME Culture and Communications School COLLEGE CODE CACS Swansea University Not Required 2025-05-29T11:52:09.5347839 2025-04-30T13:04:18.2374099 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Culture and Communication - Media, Communications, Journalism and PR Leighton Evans 0000-0002-6875-6301 1 Under embargo Under embargo 2025-04-30T13:24:35.8874686 Output 192160 application/pdf Accepted Manuscript true 2026-10-22T00:00:00.0000000 true eng
title No freedom, no honour: Red Dead Redemption 2 and heritage as procedural rhetoric
spellingShingle No freedom, no honour: Red Dead Redemption 2 and heritage as procedural rhetoric
Leighton Evans
title_short No freedom, no honour: Red Dead Redemption 2 and heritage as procedural rhetoric
title_full No freedom, no honour: Red Dead Redemption 2 and heritage as procedural rhetoric
title_fullStr No freedom, no honour: Red Dead Redemption 2 and heritage as procedural rhetoric
title_full_unstemmed No freedom, no honour: Red Dead Redemption 2 and heritage as procedural rhetoric
title_sort No freedom, no honour: Red Dead Redemption 2 and heritage as procedural rhetoric
author_id_str_mv cc05810f3465ddddd6814e131f4e9a79
author_id_fullname_str_mv cc05810f3465ddddd6814e131f4e9a79_***_Leighton Evans
author Leighton Evans
author2 Leighton Evans
format Book chapter
container_title Mobile Heritage: Practices, Interventions, Politics
container_start_page 25
publishDate 2025
institution Swansea University
isbn 9781003400288
publisher Taylor and Francis
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Culture and Communication - Media, Communications, Journalism and PR{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Culture and Communication - Media, Communications, Journalism and PR
url https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003400288-2/freedom-honour-leighton-evans
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description This chapter explores how heritage experiences in games are shaped by the procedural rhetoric embedded in games as an expression of the intentions, biases, and visions of developers. Video games are an example of the mobility of ideas and concepts, enabling virtual as well as physical mobility. Through a case study of the popular game Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2), the chapter examines how the experience of playing the game, and engaging with its underlying encoded ideologies, can shape understandings of a particular historical time and space as well as societal relations (in this case those of the ‘wild west’). By decoding the ideologies produced in playing RDR2, the chapter critically considers how ideological shaping in digital games affects players understanding of heritage, history, as well as our historical (and present) roles through, for example, particular characterisations of women and non-white figures. While the historical experience of Red Dead Redemption 2 is not the history of the West, it has become one understood by millions of gamers thanks to the virtual and physical mobility of digital games. The virtual mobilisation of a unique, partial, and culturally defined historical interpretation is, in this and many other instances, the mobilisation of a set of concepts, ideologies, and understandings that demand critical appraisal.
published_date 2025-04-22T05:28:00Z
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score 11.089386

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