They Shall Not Mod!

This study investigates how modifications (mods) for action video games represent the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). This conflict, despite having an instrumental role as the testing ground for the tactics and weapons used in the Second World War, is underrepresented in the video game industry. The number of games based on the conflict is small, and badly received -especially those made in Spain- but the number of mods that the PC community have created about the topic is growing, and so are the communities playing them. Although scholars have separately focused on historical gaming, modding, or how we remember the Spanish Civil War, very few have covered them altogether. This thesis aims to fill this gap, by formally analyzing the content of two mods for action games. By filtering their content, and observing the paratexts that surround them, the narratives and memory discourses that they portray will be able to be understood.