Fireside: Creating an immersive historical narrative through video games

Applied project submitted to the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, April 2019The emergence of educational video games have changed the perspective of many on video games as only an entertainment tool. Video games have been beneficial in improving language skills, reading skills and cognitive abilities of children. The traditional method of teaching and learning history in the classroom has made history boring and unlikeable for students. Although, methods like films and museums attempt to engage the student, they do not fully immerse them. To create an immersive learning experience for students, video games can be used as a technological tool. This project describes a video game: Fireside, which attempts to create an immersive learning experience for students in junior high schools for learning history.Ashesi Universit

Videogames in the museum:participation, possibility and play in curating meaningful visitor experiences

In 2014 Videogames in the Museum [1] engaged with creative practitioners, games designers, curators and museums professionals to debate and explore the challenges of collecting and exhibiting videogames and games design. Discussions around authorship in games and games development, the transformative effect of the gallery on the cultural reception and significance of videogames led to the exploration of participatory modes and playful experiences that might more effectively expose the designer’s intent and enhance the nature of our experience as visitors and players. In proposing a participatory mode for the exhibition of videogames this article suggests an approach to exhibition and event design that attempts to resolve tensions between traditions of passive consumption of curated collections and active participation in meaning making using theoretical models from games analysis and criticism and the conceit of game and museum spaces as analogous rules based environments

Display the gameplay but playfully

The term ’game museum’ refers to an institution that conserves, archives, and exhibits the history of games. This thesis qualitatively compares the case of the Finnish Museum of Games (FMG, Finland) and Nexon Computer Museum (NCM, South Korea), concentrating on their choices of the object and the aesthetical expressions in the exhibition space. The goal of this thesis is to find the influence of curators and potential game museum visitors on the game museum’s choice of object and aesthetical expressions. This thesis used a combined multi-method of Visual Discourse Analysis and Comic-Based Research. The research questions of this thesis are: 1) How do the FMG and NCM display games differently in the museum space? 2) How do curators and potential museum visitors’ gaming memories relate to the choices of displayed objects and aesthetical expressions in FMG and NCM? 3) How can comics, as a research tool, supplement the study of game museums and their potential visitors? The findings from the thesis indicate that the choice of the objects and aesthetical expressions in FMG and NCM were linked with the sociopolitical discourses upon their establishment and the personal gaming memories of curators. Another important factor discovered is that both game museum curators and potential visitors tend to reflect their memories when perceiving the topic of game museum and their exhibitions. Moreover, both the curators and potential visitors were motivated to establish a positive cultural message on gaming. The thesis suggests that game museums may have to update their exhibitions frequently in order to remain engaging for future generations. This would involve game museums to learn the trend and memories of potential visitors and the games that they enjoy. The use of educational comics, like this thesis research, could be one of those methods for game museums to learn potential visitor’s interest

Developing serious games for cultural heritage: a state-of-the-art review

Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result, the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented

Serious Games in Cultural Heritage

Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented

Pervasive Games: Theory and Design Eperiences on The Boundary Between Life and Play

Quickly emerging from the fast-paced growth of mobile communications and wireless technologies, pervasive games take gaming away from the computer screen back to the tree dimensional world. Now games can be designed to be played in public spaces like shopping malls, conferences, museums and other non-traditional game venues. Game designers need to understand how to use the world as a gamespace- both the challenges and advantages of doing so. This book shows how to change the face of play- who palys, when and where they play and what that play means to all involved. The authors explore aspects of pervasive games that concern game designers: what makes these games compelling, what makes them ponsible today and how they are made. For game researchers, it provides a solid theoretical, philosophical and aesthetic understanding of the genre

Learning computing heritage through gaming – whilst teaching digital development through history

This paper analyses the potential of computer games and interactive projects within the learning programmes for cultural heritage institutions through our experiences working in partnership between higher education and a museum. Gamification is cited as a key disruptive technology for the business and enterprise community, and developments in games technology are also driving the expansion of digital media into all different screen spaces, and various platforms. Our research aims to take these as beneficial indicators for pedagogic development, using gaming to support knowledge transfer related to a museum setting, and using the museum as a key scenario for our students to support the practice of game development. Thus gamification is applied as both a topic and a methodology for educational purposes

Impact of haptic 'touching' technology on cultural applications

No abstract available

'Breaking the glass': preserving social history in virtual environments

New media technologies play an important role in the evolution of our society. Traditional museums and heritage sites have evolved from the ‘cabinets of curiosity’ that focused mainly on the authority of the voice organising content, to the places that offer interactivity as a means to experience historical and cultural events of the past. They attempt to break down the division between visitors and historical artefacts, employing modern technologies that allow the audience to perceive a range of perspectives of the historical event. In this paper, we discuss virtual reconstruction and interactive storytelling techniques as a research methodology and educational and presentation practices for cultural heritage sites. We present the Narrating the Past project as a case study, in order to illustrate recent changes in the preservation of social history and guided tourist trails that aim to make the visitor’s experience more than just an architectural walk through