When Windmills Turn Into Giants: The Conundrum of Virtual Places

While many papers may claim that virtual environments have much to gain from architectural and urban planning theory, few seem to specify in any verifiable or falsifiable way, how notions of place and interaction are best combined and developed for specific needs. The following is an attempt to summarize a theory of place for virtual environments and explain both the shortcomings and the advantages of this theory

Playing With A Career in Ruins : game Design and Virtual Heritage

L'article esboça les diferències entre contextos virtuals convencionals i jocs de computadora, i discuteix que els punts forts específics i debilitats en l'ús de jocs d'ordinador per crear reconstruccions arqueològiques exigeixen una reflexió curosa i ben orientada. Aquests límits inclouen el problema de l'aprenentatge procedimental vs. el prescriptiu, el pensament conceptual, la càrrega cognitiva, la interacció no violenta i l'autenticitat històrica. Es proposen de forma breu possibles solucions que inclouen el desenvolupament de gèneres de jocs de rol, incorporant bioretroalimentació, l'adopció de límits difosos i de localització indeterminable, al·ludint a les creences culturals diferents per mitjà de la física basada en àmbits, i en l'ús de tècniques de joc d'estil detectivesc per ajudar a transmetre coneixements.El siguiente artículo traza las diferencias entre contextos virtuales convencionales y juegos de computador, y discute que los específicos puntos fuertes y debilidades en la utilización de juegos de computador para crear reconstrucciones arqueológicas exigen una reflexión cuidadosa y bien orientada. Estas limitaciones incluyen el problema del aprendizaje procedimental versus el aprendizaje prescriptivo, el pensamiento conceptual, la carga cognitiva, la interacción no violenta y la autenticidad histórica. Se proponen de forma breve posibles soluciones que incluyen el desarrollo de géneros de juegos de rol, incorporando bioretroalimentación, la adopción de límites difusos y de localización indeterminable, aludiendo a las diferentes creencias culturales por medio de la física basada en ámbitos, y el empleo de técnicas de juego de estilo detectivesco para ayudar a transmitir conocimientos prescriptivos (tal como se transmiten en los textos arqueológicos) a una audiencia más amplia.The following paper outlines differences between conventional virtual environments and computer games, and argues the particular strengths and weaknesses of using computer games for creating archaeological reconstructions need to carefully thought out and addressed. Limitations include the problem of procedural versus prescriptive learning, conceptual thinking, cognitive loading, non-violent interaction, and historical authenticity. Several possible solutions are briefly outlined, which include developing role-playing genres, incorporating biofeedback, adopting vague and indeterminable place-like boundaries, alluding to different cultural beliefs through realm-based physics, and emplying detective-style game techniques to help convey prescriptive knowledge (such as conveyed in archaeological texts) to a wider audience

Indiana Jones and the Joystick of Doom: understanding the past via computer games

In 1997 Jane Murray published "Hamlet on the holodeck: the future of narrative in cyberspace", which forecast the computer as a future platform for interactive drama. Yet a great deal of recent literature has focused on the failure rather than success of virtual environments (particularly three-dimensional ones) as an engaging medium of entertainment and education. In this article I will discuss three key problems in designing virtual environments that in some way depict the values of past cultures. The first problem is how to create a feeling of immersion or of presence in a virtual environment - how we make the past come alive for people so that they feel they are transported "there". This goal is often seen as limited by technical constraints such as the speed of the Internet or network connection, limited processing power, or the computer's capacity to render a large number of objects on the screen in real-time that are seen to impede the production of realistic virtual scenes. By contrast, this article emphasises the need to foster engagement not through realism but interaction. Secondly, our idea of what reality is may be at odds with understanding the past or a distant place from a local perspective. What does reality mean when we are trying to recreate and understand cultural perspectives? Is it useful, desirable or even possible to interact with digital reconstructions of different cultures in a meaningful way? Culture understood from the distance of a hotel or guidebook is obviously not the same as the culture that guides, constrains and nourishes a local inhabitant. I would like to bring the same distinction to culture experienced through virtual environments, and argue that a virtual traveler is not the same as a virtual tourist. Despite or perhaps because they have a goal to solve, and have more constraints and more direct immersion in the local way of doing things, people who travel rather than tour arguably have richer and more interesting experiences. Thirdly, if we do manage to create an engaging and believable virtual environment, will the novelty or entertainment value actually interfere with the cultural understanding gained by the users? In virtual heritage environments this is particularly evident in the conflict between individual freedom to explore and the more pragmatic need to convey historical information. We may for example create an entertaining game but will that allow us to convey varying levels of historical accuracy in reconstructing the past

Experiential realism and digital place-making

Despite originating as practical aides for the design of real-world architecture, Computer-Aided Design and Draughting (CADD) software tools initially encountered a great deal of resistance, in part because of their initial expense and apparent technical complexity, but also because they were seen as blunt tools, crude instrumentation inadequate for the artistic expression of place. In March 2004, at an informal seminar hosted at the University of Melbourne in Australia, the eminent scholar Professor Marco Frascari argued that computer reconstructions of architecture were far too exact and thus too limited in conveying the mood and atmosphere of architecture. With all due respect to Professor Frascari, this article will argue the converse: that recent developments in interactive technology offer new and exciting ways of conveying ‘lived’ and experientially deepened notions of architectural place-making

Roleplaying and Rituals For Cultural Heritage-Orientated Games

Roles and rituals are essential for creating, situating and maintaining cultural practices. Computer Role-Playing games (CRPGs) and virtual online worlds that appear to simulate different cultures are well known and highly popular. So it might appear that the roles and rituals of traditional cultures are easily ported to computer games. However, I contend that the meaning behind worlds, rituals and roles are not fully explored in these digital games and virtual worlds and that more work needs to be done to create more moving rituals, role enrichment and worldfulness. I will provide examples from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda, 2006, 2011) to reveal some of the difficulties in creating digitally simulated social and cultural worlds, but I will also suggest some design ideas that could improve them in terms of cultural presence and social presence

A 3D pedagogical heritage tool using game technology

This paper will propose and address issues that contribute to a serious challenge for virtual heritage: that there are few successful, accessible and durable examples of computer game technology and genres applied to heritage. Secondly, it will argue that the true potential of computers for heritage has not been fully leveraged and it will provide a case study of a game engine technology not used explicitly as a game but as a serious pedagogical tool for 3D digital heritage environments

Worldfulness, Role-enrichment & Moving Rituals: Design Ideas for CRPGs

Roles and rituals are essential for creating, situating and maintaining cultural practices. Computer Role-Playing games (CRPGs) and virtual online worlds that appear to simulate different cultures are well known and highly popular. So it might appear that the roles and rituals of traditional cultures are easily ported to computer games. However, I contend that the meaning behind worlds, rituals and roles are not fully explored in these digital games and virtual worlds and that more needs to be done in order to create worldfulness, moving rituals and role enrichment. I will provide examples from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda, 2006, 2011) to reveal some of the difficulties in creating digitally simulated social and cultural worlds, but I will also suggest some design ideas that could improve them in terms of cultural presence and social presence

From Historical Models to Virtual Heritage Simulations

This chapter analyses the gap between digital historical models, and proposes that instead of developing stand-alone models that we design in terms of components, components of scholarly ecosystems and audienceoriented learning systems. The focus here is not on individual projects or technological limitations but on the lack of clear and replicable explicit terminology, methodology, assessable, replicable evaluation, and scholarly infrastructure. The success of virtual heritage projects as both a communication and preservation medium depend on community involvement, including scholars, students, the wider public, but also the original shareholders. There is also great potential for more focussed usability studies to verify the effectiveness of interaction and contextual learning. How interaction is intended, what actually takes place and how to archive it separately from the model are difficult issues, but they need to be solved. I will also briefly discuss four major themes potentially of great import to a virtual heritage repository: consumer VR; research groups attempting to avoid the problems of silo projects; publication of 3D models in journals; and real-time streaming of distributed components in a game engine. This chapter also suggests ten criteria to determine whether and to what extent virtual heritage models can solves these issues

Communicating the Past in the Digital Age: Proceedings of the International Conference on Digital Methods in Teaching and Learning in Archaeology (12-13 October 2018)

Recent developments in the field of archaeology are not only progressing archaeological fieldwork but also changing the way we practise and present archaeology today. As these digital technologies are being used more and more every day on excavations or in museums, this also means that we must change the way we approach teaching and communicating archaeology as a discipline. This volume presents the outcome of a two-day international symposium on digital methods in teaching and learning in archaeology held at the University of Cologne in October 2018. Specialists from around the world share their views on the newest developments in the field of archaeology and the way we teach these with the help of archaeogaming, augmented and virtual reality, 3D reconstruction and many more