The Use of Serious Games as an Educational and Dissemination Tool for Archaeological Heritage. Potential and Challenges for the Future (original) (raw)
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Learning cultural heritage by serious games
Journal of Cultural Heritage, 2014
Immersive technologies such as virtual environments and augmented reality have a clear potential to support the experiencing of cultural heritage by the large public, complementing the current tools and practices based on tangible goods such as museums, exhibitions, books and visual content. Serious games-videogames designed for educational objectives-appear as a new tool to learn cultural content in an engaging way. In this paper, we will provide an extensive portrait of the current proposition of serious games in the cultural sector, highlighting the educational objectives of games in this domain and analysing the complex relations between genre, context of use, technological solutions and learning effectiveness. We finally identify and discuss the most significant challenges in the design and adoption of educational games in cultural heritage. 1. Research aims This paper aims at providing the state-of-the-art of serious games in the humanities and heritage field, highlighting the educational objectives of games in this domain and analysing the complex relations between genre, context of use, technological solutions and learning effectiveness.
The Potential of Collaborative Video Games for Archaeology and Heritage
University of York MSc Dissertation, 2023
Archaeologists have recently recognised the value of video games to create engaging and multilinear narratives about heritage. Currently, almost all archaeology and heritage games are designed to be single-player, however archaeology is a discipline that relies on the collaboration of multiple people. This dissertation will explore the use of video games that require two players in challenging and facilitating learning about archaeological practices. A prototype of a collaborative archaeological video game was created in GDevelop (playable here: https://gd.games/kennacrowe27/a-season-in-torrem). The premise and mechanics were inspired by an ethnographic observation of the University of York Department of Archaeology field school at Skipsea Castle, as well as previously developed archaeological and collaborative games. The resulting game, “A Season at Torrem,” allows two players to step into the shoes of archaeologists and excavate a site while making interpretations. A small sample of individuals of various backgrounds were given the opportunity to play the game and complete a supplemental survey. The results indicate that the game had changed some players’ perspectives on archaeology, and that players experienced uncertainty, exploration, and disenchantment. Notably, the discourse between teammates during gameplay affected their personal interpretations of the fictional archaeological site. The study raises issues relating to the challenges of creating a game with limited time and resources in addition to the potential for future applications of collaborative archaeological games.
Raising Awareness for Digital Heritage through Serious Game
In this study, the serious game is conceptualized as a digital medium to convert archaeological knowledge into playable interactions via a case study in the ancient city of Teos. The Teos of Dionysos Game is a digital platform that allows players without specialist computer skills to explore the archaeological knowledge and experience an ancient urban setup. A mythological story about the God Dionysos has been verbally and visually transcribed and adapted for four distinctive settings of this ancient site. The familiar realm of an interactive space, navigated by intuitive behaviours in a game setting, conveys archaeological data, allowing players to build an empathic understanding of ancient architecture. Diverse stakeholders have already tested a mobile game prototype in a workshop, which explored whether those without a prior historical background can advance their existing knowledge through activities that aim at providing entertainment.
Serious Games & Cultural Heritage: A Case Study of Prehistoric Caves
Virtual Systems and Multimedia, 2009
The creation and development of multimedia devices destined for the general public pose many questions for designers. In this article we present two multimedia applications -a Serious Play and a Serious Game -which were part of an experiment performed in 2006. This article will present both devices designed specifically for the promotion of a prehistoric heritage site -the Gargas caves -and describe how they were received by the general public. The aim of this task was to identify the added value of video play and video game items within the context of everyday use by the general public, and particularly by children.
Our research deals with the development of a new type of game-based learning environment: (M)MORPG based on mixed reality, applied in the archaeological domain. In this paper, we propose a learning scenario that enhances players' motivation thanks to individual, collaborative and social activities and that offers a continuous experience between the virtual environment and real places (archaeological sites, museum). After describing the challenge to a rich multidisciplinary approach involving both computer scientists and archaeologists, we present two types of game: multiplayer online role-playing games and mixed reality games. We build on the specificities of these games to make the design choices described in the paper. We also present three modular features we have developed to support independently three activities of the scenario. The proposed approach aims at raising awareness among people on the scientific approach in Archaeology, by providing them information in the virtu...
Serious Games & Cultural Heritage: A Case Study of Prehistoric Caves
2009 15th International Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia, 2009
The creation and development of multimedia devices destined for the general public pose many questions for designers. In this article we present two multimedia applications -a Serious Play and a Serious Game -which were part of an experiment performed in 2006. This article will present both devices designed specifically for the promotion of a prehistoric heritage site -the Gargas caves -and describe how they were received by the general public. The aim of this task was to identify the added value of video play and video game items within the context of everyday use by the general public, and particularly by children.
Serious Games: Valuable Tools for Cultural Heritage
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2016
Wishing to connect cultural heritage, games and social networks, the present work describes games to be used within the framework of a European H2020 project. For the purposes of supporting the museum visit, before, during and after, 5 games were designed for social networks to accomplish user profiling, to promote the museum and the application through social network dissemination, to introduce museum items and themes and to also function as visit souvenirs. The games are also presented in a generic framework for games in cultural heritage, which has been used successfully in the past.
Developing Serious Games for Cultural Heritage: A State-of-the-Art Review
2010
"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 at the Service of Cultural Heritage and Tourism
Recent advances in contemporary technologies have greatly affected everyday life. In the field of cultural heritage, ICT (Information Communication Technologies) have enabled applications for the thorough multi-dimensional geometric documentation and consequently for the realistic visualization of monuments and artifacts. At the same time the driving force of technology is the game industry. Games and especially Serious Games can be put at the service of cultural heritage, education and tourism exploiting the aforementioned advances and especially the textured three dimensional models. They constitute an attractive platform enabling people to get acquainted with the heritage treasures and get motivated to visit the place and admire the treasures live. In this paper this technological merger is explained and three interconnected applications are presented in order to prove the concept through these implementations. They concern the development of Serious Games for an archaeological site, which aim at the trivial or more specialized information dissemination about that site, while familiarizing the prospect visitor with the environment and the monuments of the site offering the possibility of virtually visiting them. Moreover the development of a virtual museum within a game development environment is presented, which provides the possibility to learn about each exhibit, but also it offers the opportunity to the user to closely examine the exhibits through rotating their three dimensional models. All these examples use realistic models produced for documentation purposes, which convey the real impression of the monuments visualized to the user
The Royal Road to Learning: The Role of Video Games in Archaeological Education
Whilst the use of technology in schools, and the number of people buying video games is increasing, the number of students taking an archaeological or historical subject in school is decreasing. This essay highlights the benefits of the increasing engagement, exploration and creativity, and critical thinking that comes whilst playing games such as the Assassin's Creed series, as well as outlining some of the negative aspects of using video games. Crucially, the essay underlines the importance of archaeological education and the need to stop the decline in students opting for archaeological and historical education