Otherness of Place: Game‐based Interaction and Learning in Virtual Heritage Projects

Abstract

When we design digital places that represent the past using media such as game engines, it is all too easy to be taken in by the lure of technology and forget to concentrate on enhancing the user experience. In the case of virtual heritage, there are several important issues in the creation, construction or revocation of places of cultural significance. In this paper I will argue that while computer games do appear to be more successful learning environments than their critics give them credit for, the learning gained from using them is particularly dangerous in terms of the objectives of virtual heritage. I further suggest that computer games offer particular advantages over traditional virtual environment technology but that their typical modes of interaction must be re‐examined, especially in relation to the notion of place.

Keywords:

• Virtual Heritage
• Place
• Computer Games
• Serious Learning

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the following individuals for allowing him to mention their work and include their images: Jeffrey Jacobson, Demetrius Lacet, Dylan Nagel, Tim Germanchis, Andrew Dekker, and UQ (University of Queensland) Interaction Design students.

Notes

[1] QUÉBEC ICOMOS 2008 Conference website, ‘Finding the Spirit of the Place’ [accessed 7 March 2008], available from http://www.conferium.com/client/icomos

[2] ICOMOS, The ICOMOS Charter for the Interpretation and Presentation of Cultural Heritage Sites [accessed 7 March 2008], 10 April 2007, available from www.enamecharter.org/downloads/ICOMOS_Interpretation_Charter_EN_10‐04‐07.pdf

[3] Norberg‐Schulz, Architecture.

[4] Stallabrass, ‘Just Gaming’, 93.

[5] Walker, ‘Fallout 3’, 4 July 2007 [accessed 7 March 2008], available from http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=78871, 1–3.

[6] Bray, ‘Moral Choices are in Play in Faith‐based Left Behind’, 11 November 2006 [accessed 7 March 2008], available from http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2006/11/11/moral_choices_are_in_play_in_faith_based_left_behind/

[7] Anthony, ‘Yet Another “Video Games as Art” Essay’, 30 October 2006 [accessed 7 March 2008], available from http://www.destructoid.com/yet‐another‐video‐games‐as‐art‐essay. See also Pruett, November–December 2005, available from http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2005/07/pruett.php

[8] Thompson, ‘Playing Politics: How Dean's Web game is Like Pac‐Man’, 16 January 2004 [accessed 7 March 2008], available from http://slate.com/id/2094039/

[9] Crogan, ‘Games, Simulation & Serious Fun: An Interview with Espen Aarseth’, n.d., interview with Espen Aarseth dated 16 May 2003 [accessed 7 March 2008], available from http://scan.net.au/scan/journal/display.php?journal_id=20

[10] Buch and Egenfeldt‐Nielsen, ‘The Learning Effect of “Global Conflicts”’ [accessed 7 March 2008], available from http://www.seriousgames.dk/downloads/learning_effects_palestine.pdf

[11] Johnson, ‘Computer Games Rot the Brain’, December 2006, available from http://www.boris‐johnson.com/archives/2006/12/computer_games.php

[12] Light, ‘Games Can Make You Smarter … Source: Usability News’, 9 June 2003 [accessed 7 March 2008], available from http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article1121.asp

[13] Dreyfus, On the Internet.

[14] Wright, ‘Dream Machines’, April 2006 [accessed 7 March 2008], available from http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.04/wright.html

[15] Coyne, ‘Mindless Repetition’, 199–212.

[16] This is akin to Nietzsche's test for religions via his idea of Eternal Recurrence. See Löwith, Nietzsche's Philosophy of the Eternal Recurrence of the Same. Or, Nietzsche, The Twilight of the Idols, or, How to Philosophise with the Hammer.

[17] Johnson, Everything Bad is Good for You.

[18] Gould et al., ‘Performance on a Virtual Reality Spatial Memory Navigation Task in Depressed Patients’, 516–19.

[19] Addison et al., ‘Special Issue’, iii–iv.

[20] Parry, ‘Digital Heritage and the Rise of Theory in Museum Computing’, 333–48.

[21] Forte et al., ‘VR Applications’.

[22] Stone, ‘Serious Gaming’.

[23] Leader‐Elliott, ‘Community Heritage Interpretation Games’, 168–69.

[24] Blackman, ‘Serious Games … and Less!’, 12–16.

[25] Learning Sites, n.d. [accessed 7 March 2008], available from http://www.dignubia.org/explorations/excave.php

[26] Jacobson, ‘Planet Jeff’[accessed 7 March 2008], available from http://planetjeff.net/horus/Screenshots.html. For the paper see Jacobson and Holden, ‘The Virtual Egyptian Temple’.

[27] Lacet, ‘Games’, n.d. [accessed 7 March 2008], available from http://www.demetriuslacet.com/d/games.htm

[28] Germanchis et al., ‘Virtual Queenscliff’, 359–68.

[29] Nagel, n.d. [accessed 7 March 2008], available from http://www.paladinstudios.com

[30] Gutierrez et al., ‘Archaeological and Cultural Heritage’, 63–74.

[31] Champion, ‘Place Space and Monkey Brains’, n.p.

[32] Lidchi, ‘Culture and Constraints’, 93–114. See also p. 111: ‘In Culture and Imperialism Said ponders on the meaning of humanistic research in an increasingly globalised and fractured world. He proposes that only an interpretive method based on the investigation of the “disparate, but intertwined, and interdependent, and above all overlapping streams of historical experience” can create a contestatory intellectual force.’

[33] Mautner, The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy, 239: ‘Gadamer sees interpretation as a virtual dialogue.’

[34] ICOMOS, The Burra Charter: The Australia ICOMOS Charter for the Conservation of Places of Cultural Significance, 1999 [accessed 7 March 2008], available from http://www.icomos.org/australia/burracharter.html

[35] Ibid., 464.

[36] Ibid., 275.

[37] Dreyfus, On the Internet.

[38] Johnson, ‘Computer Games Rot the Brain’, December 2006 [accessed 7 March 2008], available from http://www.boris‐johson.com/archives/2006/12/computer_games.php

[39] Wright, ‘Dream Machines’, April 2004 [accessed 7 March 2008], available from http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.04/wright.html

[40] Boellstorff, ‘A Ludicrous Discipline?’, 29–35. An anthropologist, Boellstorff argues that games may become the dominant metaphor of interactive media: ‘As it gains in significance, gaming increasingly affects the whole panoply of interactive media, from television to movies to cell phones to the Internet in all its incarnations’, 33.

[41] Frachetti, ‘Digital Archaeology and the Scalar Structure of Pastoral Landscapes’, 128–48. Frachetti says on p. 129: ‘Most archaeologists are interested in the locations of human activity—which generally translates into a focus on mark‐able places.’

[42] Blas et al., ‘Collaborative Learning in a 3D Virtual Environment’, 127–33.

[43] Gann, ‘Can a Shared Virtual Heritage Help Rebuild a Sense of Place?’, 96–105.

[44] Doron et al., ‘Sharing and Analysing Presence Experiments Data’.

[45] Pujol Tost and Economou, ‘Evaluating the Social Context of ICT Applications in Museum Exhibitions’, 219–28.