The Aggressor Mount & Blade: Warband

The game “Mount & Blade: Warband” was developed and published by “TaleWorlds Entertainment” in 2010.

It belongs to the genre of “Role-Playing/Local Strategy.” It is part of the series "Mount & Blade".

It features both single-player and multi-player mode.

The game is classified by the database as one with a “Dynamic Aggressor,” a “Fictional Setting,” and an “Active Player Role."

To the developer's website

Aggressor Type: Dynamic

• This game features the “Dynamic Aggressor.” This means that the game allows for a flexible engagement with the Aggressor role, i.e. that actors within it change whether or not they are perceived as an aggressor. This type of game often features a way in which aggression is measured by a game-internal parameter and makes aggression a conscious decision that players can choose.

Setting Type: Fictional

• This game has a fictional setting that, nonetheless, is strongly influenced by historical events or processes. This can serve to provide a layered sense of meaning or separation between darker or more serious topics of history and sometimes requires the player audience to do more decoding in order to grasp the historical commentary.

Player Agency: Active

• In this game, the player's agency towards the Aggressor(s) is enabled by the game and they are able to take actions. This can include resisting the Aggressor or acting as one themselves.

  To the Analytical Categories

In “Mount & Blade: Warband," the player is thrown into the fictional medieval world of Caldria to make their own adventure in a world of constant wars between different kingdoms and factions. It is optional whether or not they want to enlist in an army, become a bandit or trade goods between towns, yet the kingdom path is arguably the most thought-out. Thereby, players first act within and under different Aggressors, yet ultimately is able to defend themselves and later even take up matters into their own hands, as nothing really holds a player to one faction. It is therefore an interesting case of showing a progression for the player's impact on the Aggressor as they rise to being able to become one themselves. Also, it differs from many other dynamic Aggressor games as it includes a personal, close perspective of the character and not just the abstract view of a map.

“Mount & Blade: Warband” is a good example of a fictional knock-off of the medieval that still retains some of its tropes quite closely - if players select a female character for the game, a warning is displayed that being a woman in a patriarchial society like the medieval one is significantly harder sometimes. However, it should be noted that some expansions, like the “Viking Conquest Reforged” one, directly put the player into a historical setting of the 9th century Viking Age.