Interactive Pasts: Video games in archaeological researchERIK CHAMPION, MCCA, CURTIN UNIVERSITY, 04.04.2016

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

https://boardgamegeek.com/image/2805898/archaeology-new-expedition

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Archaeological Game Genres, MechanicsClassify & predict range and success of games in archaeological research? Mechanics can convey archaeological method+ interpretations? Flexible mechanics for archaeological discovery to engage /educate ?Interaction to reconfigure narrative, interpretations, other evidence?

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Aim: Help Communicate Archaeology

“waste of time, energy and money, no relevance to now and the future.”

“The comments show a distinct misunderstanding of what archaeologists do & why, & basic archaeological chronology..”

“As archaeologists, it’s eye opening: these comments reflect a lack of basic but authoritative info we should have on Wikipedia, at least” tweeted @lornarichardson.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/mar/17/hugely-important-iron-age-remains-found-yorkshire-site

Bronze bracelet with coral decoration discovered at the site in Yorkshire. Photograph: MAP Archeology

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Virtual Heritage Now More Game-basedGame advantages Specific Features Relevance

Interaction Challenge-based feedback system: Obstacles, Rewards, Punishment

Learn by failure, inbuild tracking mechanisms

Game-specific technology Joysticks, thematic peripherals (driving, shooting), 3D tracking

Thematic, mobile, robust, usability but anti-archival, reactive,

economical

Audience-specific Specific audiences, tailored levels of difficulty

Understanding and sharing between specific types of playing styles and

user preferences

Game-genres Finding, digging, building Mostly point and shoot, violent, backstories not narative

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Classifications Of Virtual Environments

We need game interaction typologies. In previous writings (Champion and Dave, 2002, Champion, 2011) I suggested that virtual environments could be usefully classified in terms of their purpose:

1. Visualisation.

2. To support activity.

3. Or as hermeneutic environments. Skyrim Hearthfire diary: The Beginner's Guide to

Homesteading and Mass Murder

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Revealing Games/ Virtual Environments

2 types of hermeneutic VEs?

i. Reveal things about ourselves to ourselves.

ii. Reveal the intentions and beliefs of others (past or present) to us.

New addition

iii. Activity-based VEs/games: reveal culturally specific ways in which people created, modified and experienced past environments. Ancient laptop, anon?

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Mechanics: Actions Controlled By Rules?

Sicart (2008) “A game mechanic, then, is the action invoked by an agent to interact with the game world, as constrained by the game rules.”

But game rules<>user understanding!

Can we design flexible, situated, effective + engaging mix of archaeology + games by leveraging mechanics to teach archaeological methods, approaches & interpretation?

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Mechanics Dynamics & Aesthetics framework

Mechanics are the agents, objects, elements and their relationships in the game. They define the game as a rule-based system, specifying what there is, how everything behaves, and how the player can interact with the game-world.

Dynamics are the emergent behavior that arises from gameplay, when the Mechanics are put into use.

Aesthetics are the emotional response from the players to the gameplay.

MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research, R. Hunicke, M. LeBlanc, R. Zubekhttp://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/pubs/MDA.pdf

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Tools, Rules, Chunks, Options, Levers?

“..tools, techniques, and widgets that are used as building blocks for gamifying a website or application."https://badgeville.com/wiki/Game_Mechanics

“constructs of rules or methods designed for interaction with the game state, thus providing gameplay. All games use mechanics; however, theories and styles differ as to their ultimate importance to the game.””https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_mechanics

“When I say "game mechanic" I'm referring to any major chunk of gameplay in a video game.” Michael Stout, http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/134273/evaluating_game_mechanics_for_depth.php

“The rules that require players to posses a red sphere make up a game mechanic. It is a little machine or subsystem that is fixed and unchanging. Sphere or death.” Al Nelson, https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-difference-between-game-mechanics-and-game-dynamics

“The mechanics of a given software title are the means by which you interact with the game dynamic…For example, the dynamic in Skyrim can be said to involve leveling up skills, acquiring rare items, and completing quests. The mechanics available to you are melee combat, spellcasting, character interaction, resource gathering, and exploration, among others.” Ryan Allen

*Mechanism or mechanic* -- game rules (or game programming for video games) generally describe methods by which the game moves forward, and these methods are the mechanics of the game..” http://www.bgdf.com/node/14642

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General Problemsa) “Can we define "Game mechanic?" Not Really.” http://www.bgdf.com/node/14642 (or

http://pulsiphergamedesign.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/game-descriptions-rules-and-mechanics.html)

b) Mechanics means so many things: “The act of reflection is incorporated into both the core mechanics of the game, and the fantasy experience of the game world”, Brad Paras, DiGRA 2005: http://summit.sfu.ca/item/281

c) Components confused with mechanics: “Outdated game mechanics that SHOULD NOT be in current gen games…unskippable cutscenes. respawning enemies…Save game blocks/limited game saves/save points.. Fixed camera angles”…http://www.gamespot.com/forums/system-wars-314159282/outdated-game-mechanics-that-should-not-be-in-curr-26859012/

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Fun Inherent In Games, Not Gamification

Games inherently fun, but gamification makes (or tries to) make things fun

Games have spaces, actions, movements and verbs.

Gamification: actions are tasks, duties, or work.

>We can’t directly apply game mechanics to gamification.

http://www.epicwinblog.net/2013/10/can-we-use-game-mechanics-for.html

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No Inherent Fun In Point + Click sGames?HTTP://WWW.PLAYINGHISTORY.EU/ PLAYING HISTORY: PLAGUE

HTTPS://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=1IBETUFUKIU

TIME MESH

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Solution: Roger Caillois’ Forms Of Play?Forms of Play really elements

Stimulates because it is Archaeology Advantages / Disadvantages

Competition Agon (competition / strategy)

Compete against people, long-term decision making

Civilization? All those build empire games..

-Means to end+Strategic

Chance Alea Handling unpredictability, humour

Could Spore be an archaeoogy game?

-No causality-Easy to design

Vertigo IlinxMastery of commitment, mental focus, multi-tasking

The extreme parkour of Assassin’s creed?

-Distracts+Ergodic appreciatio

Mimicry mimesis Observation, control and humour and roleplaying

Sims 4: anthropological machinima?

-Difficult granularity for interfaces+Build empathy

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Forms == Motivators of play? Competition motivates people as against others and involves long-term strategy making-perhaps actually two forms of play?

Chance stimulates people to play but frustrating unless handled well with suitable game balance.

Vertigo is an interesting one, in dance-based games, seldom in computer games dangerous in VR-HMDs?) due to the potential for nausea.

Mimicry: so many cultural rituals and games using this, yet so rare in computer games (yes, Spy Party but in beta). http://www.spyparty.com/

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OR: Pulsipher’s 9 Structural Subsystems

1. Theme/History/Story/Emotion/Image. 2. Player Interaction rules. 3. Objective/victory conditions. 4. "Data storage" (Information Management). 5. Sequencing. 6. Movement/Placement. 7. Information availability. 8. Conflict resolution/interaction of game entities. 9. "Economy" (resource acquisition/conversion).

http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/730/twenty_essential_design_.php

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/02/29/far-cry-primal-review/

Distinct / Spectral Questions : How Not What!What is the genre of the game? Is it competitive or cooperative? Is it Symmetric or Asymmetric? Is it Zero-sum (ZS) or Non-zero-sum? How many (human) "sides" (generally, 1, 2, or many) and (human) players? “Emergent"/rules-dominant game or a "role-assumption"/story-dominant game? What is the outstanding mechanism involvedWhat are the dynamics of being ahead /behind in the game? What phases does the game naturally fall into? Is the game "serious" or "just for laughs"? Is the game "ruthless" or "nice" (a competition or an entertainment)?

How "big" and how long will the game beHow complex is the game? What is the level of action or "granularity”What is the role of chance, how much does chance play a part in the game? How strongly will the decisions of the players influence the outcome of the game? Which kind of skill does a player need to use, adaptability, or planning? Which kind of skill does a player need, quick reactions (typical in shooters, for example), or careful deliberation? What is the level of Fluidity or Chaos? Is the game largely "mechanical" or "psychological"?

Lewis Pulsipher, http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/730/twenty_essential_design_.php

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Converting The Discipline Into MechanicsArchaeology: The New Expedition (2016)

In Archaeology: The New Expedition, you want to find treasures and make the most money possible by selling them to the museum. Players start with four treasure cards in hand; one monument tile is chosen at random, then the chambers of the monument are loaded secretly with treasure cards.

On a turn, a player digs for treasure by drawing from the deck. If they find treasure, they don't show anyone and keep it; if they find a thief, they steal a card at random from an opponent; and if they find a sandstorm, all players lose half of their cards in hand to the marketplace, which starts the game with five face-up cards. (Each player has a tent that they can discard to avoid the effects of one sandstorm.) After digging, a player can:

Discard one or more maps to explore one chamber of the monument, looking at all the cards there and keeping some number of them.

Trade at the marketplace by laying down one or more treasure cards and picking up cards with equal or lesser trading value.

Sell to the museum by placing sets of treasure cards in front of them; in general, the more cards you have of a type, the more the set is worth.

Players can explore only once, but they can do the other actions repeatedly, and they can take these actions in any order. Once the deck is empty, players keep taking actions until they all pass in turn, after which they sell treasures to the museum. Whoever ends up with the most money wins!

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Review: Archaeology: The New Expedition, Quintin Smith on Feb. 24, 2016

Archaeology casts 2-5 players as the worst kind of 1930s archaeologist, rummaging through a central deck of Egyptian antiques, collecting sets of cards and selling them to museums back home. You’re absolutely not the good guys. You’re burglars with diplomas. But if it’s any consolation, you’re going to be stressed out of your tiny mind.

On your turn, you draw a card off the deck and into your hand. Perhaps it’s a crappy pottery shard, or perhaps you unearth a stunning, golden pharaoh mask, or a portion of a secret map!

You then have the option of trading anything you're holding at a central market of face-up cards using their “trade value” printed at the top. Drawing - say - a pot shard is worthless if you’re not collecting them, but you could swap two of them (value 1) for a coin (value 2) if you're collecting those. That kind of thing.

Finally, you can cash in any cards you’re holding, shipping these treasures off to a museum where tourists will enjoy their god-given right to look at them for a few seconds and maybe post an instagram. But as you can see from the numbers at the bottom of these cards, full sets are worth exponentially more points, so why would you ever cash in an incomplete set... ?

Because of the sandstorms hidden in the treasure deck, that’s why..When someone draws a sandstorm everyone has to discard half of their entire hand to the central market.

http://www.shutupandsitdown.com/blog/post/review-archaeology-new-expedition/

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Should Convey Process + Inspire Query?

“But have we answered any of the questions that we set out to examine? Possibly, and possibly not. What I am clear on is that we have certainly generated one hell of a lot MORE questions. Things that would never have occurred to me, or probably anyone else for that matter, when we first began staring at the stones all those years ago…

We have traced the tragedy of seemingly insignificant deaths; so significant to those around them, those who loved them, that they etched the very stones themselves. These questions we have answered. And yet, the bigger questions remain…The question of Why?

..To go beyond the treasure hunting and gathering of individual marks on the wall. To understand not just the who, when and how - but also add a little flesh to those cold stone bones... there will undoubtedly be demons along the way...”The Project Director's blog for the Norfolk Medieval Graffiti Survey.

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Suggestion: Types of Mechanics1. Game progression mechanics (mechanics to progress the player through the game).

2. Performance mechanics / Rewards and skills mastery mechanics (mechanics to encourage the player to improve and extend their range of skills and judgement).

3. Narrative mechanics (tools to progress /unfold or bring together one or more apparent story threads in relation to game play). Are dramatic mechanics a subset?

4. Behavioural and Role assimilation mechanics (mechanics which become habit through repeated game play, and accustom players to see things in certain ways).

5. Insight and reversal mechanics (mechanics that disrupt the in-game or real-world expectations and presumptions of the player acquired previously or during the game in order to reveal to them a viewpoint they may take for granted, or to supplant the view created by game play but a view the designer wants them to suddenly by alienated from).

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Extrapolating to Evil Archaeology

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Indiana Jones: A Bad Archaeologist?

On a dig in Iraq, one student dressed like Indy, minus the whip, and whenever the team made a notable find, they would play the "Indiana Jones" fanfare, Zimansky said. ”..They got their initial interest in archaeology from Indiana Jones..”

”…Most of us do archaeology because we love the opportunity to explore, to discover, to search for clues," said Awe, who appears on the Sci-Fi Channel documentary "Mystery of the Crystal Skulls," premiering May 18. "It's like having a big sandbox. Like Indiana Jones, we keep being kids at heart.”

Indiana Jones" and other productions such as "The Mummy" and "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" flicks benefit archaeology by getting general audiences thinking and talking about the ancient world, said Bob Murowchick, associate professor of archaeology at Boston University. But the movies emphasize the tomb-raiding aspect, leaving the impression that artifacts are there for the taking by whoever stumbles on them first, he said.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/24595365/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/indiana-jones-would-make-bad-archaeologist/#.Vv6g0eckjuA

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Do Archaeology + Video Games Mix?

Conflict between objectives of archaeology as a science and heritage studies as communication medium (Harvey, 2001, Addison, 2001)

In the words of Katy Meyers (2011): ◦ Distant lands, searching for lost treasures, the

threat of competing looters and foreign governments, the possibilities of cursed tombs, with only the lone archaeologist to right the wrongs and triumph … But this is a far cry from reality, where the only epic battles of archaeology are between the professors and the funding agencies, and the quest for relics is a long, slow, well researched one. Real archaeology involves working closely with the cultures under investigation, collaborating across nations, and detailed planning. https://www.archaeological.org/news/aianews/282

Harrison Ford Elected to AIA Board, 2008

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http://i.imgur.com/iYc4zYA.jpg

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I defy you to find a story problem

Indiana Jones plays no role in the outcome of

the story

http://i.imgur.com/iYc4zYA.jpg

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Solution: Concentrate on Resolving Interaction Issues

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OR: simulate the games and hobbiesTouchscreen taoism games, Li Wang

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Or, public =the designer

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Indigenous Heritage Machinima‘In game’ footage: Sims 4 machinima -3rd Person-Susannah Emery Honours

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Biofeedback middlewareErik Champion and Andrew Dekker, UQ, 2006 & 2013

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Using a Turing TestDisguise yourself as an NPC or take over their role in society and see how long you last before being discovered.

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Curtin HIVE

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Kinect tracked 3D: avatar mirrors you and points for youActive Classrooms

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Infrastructure: UNESCO Chair

Create a Cultural Heritage & Visualisation network to use & advise on 3D models of World Heritage Sites & show how 3D models can be employed in teaching & research.Build capacity through community workshops, learning materials, distributing teaching resources digitally at no end-user cost, train research students post-docs & visiting fellows.Recommend long-term archive guidelines + ways of linking 3D models to scholarly publications, resources & infrastructures.Disseminate results of research activities at conferences & workshops, via online papers, applications & learning materials.Coordinate with UNESCO programmes. cultural heritage tools and archives 2013 workshop

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To Conclude Via Harrison Ford1. "Knowledge is power, and understanding

the past can only help us in dealing with the present and the future."https://www.archaeological.org/news/aianews/282#sthash.4i8r7T93.dpuf

2. Definitions are contested and contradicted.

3. We should clarify mechanics so we can preserve design patterns.

4. Archaeology mechanics: loops that forward and change game states ALSO as tools and techniques to reveal different perceptions.

5. How can mechanics engage with content?“Worst girlfriend ever. She ruins Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

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Referenceshttp://pulsiphergamedesign.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/when-you-start-conceive-game-not-wish.html

http://pulsiphergamedesign.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/game-descriptions-rules-and-mechanics.html and http://www.bgdf.com/node/14642

http://gamasutra.com/blogs/LuizClaudioSilveiraDuarte/20150203/233487/Revisiting_the_MDA_framework.php

Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design (Voices That Matter), Ernest Adams and New Riders Publishing, page 4.

http://www.technobuffalo.com/2014/07/14/5-excellent-indie-platforming-games-influenced-by-indiana-jones/

http://whatculture.com/history/10-real-life-archaeologists-more-badass-than-indiana-jones.php

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/28/indiana-jones-lost-mayan-cities-ivan-sprajc

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/132022/fewer_mechanics_better_game.php John Rose, 2008

http://www.salon.com/2014/11/09/indiana_jones_would_be_considered_a_looter_why_were_obsessed_with_glamorizing_archaeologists/

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References Addison, A. C. 2001. Virtual heritage: technology in the service of culture. Proceedings of the 2001 conference on Virtual reality, archeology, and cultural heritage. Glyfada, Greece: ACM.

Champion, E. 2011. Playing With The Past, London, Springer.

Champion, E. & Dave, B. Where is this place. Proceedings of ACADIA 2002: Thresholds Between Physical and Virtual, 2002. 87-97.

Harvey, D. C. 2001. Heritage pasts and heritage presents: temporality, meaning and the scope of heritage studies. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 7, 319-338.

Meyers, K. 2011. The Advernturing Archaeologicist Trope. Play the past [Online]. Available: http://www.playthepast.org/?p=1635 [Accessed 15 January 2016].

Sicart, M. 2008. Defining Game Mechanics. Game Studies, International Journal of Computer Game Research [Online], 8. Available: http://gamestudies.org/0802/articles/sicart [Accessed 14 January 2016].