Rituelen - Proposal

After 3 months of research, user tests and a workshop, here is my proposal for Rituelen. Working on this project with you was a special and exciting experience for me. Thank you again, Dick, Kristel and Ronald!

Proposal

Games Atelier paper

Here is the final version of my research paper on Games Atelier:

Games Atelier - A Challenge for Collaborative Experience

Heritage for Rituelen

I did some research on heritage objects/stories we could possibly
include in the walk. And I found the theme of the mirror to be very
applicable to all of them...

1) for Buddhism

In Buddhism, the symbol of the mirror means wisdom, an intuitive wisdom,
that represents a 'clear view'. In Buddhism, a mirror is said to show
everything without deformation and falsification. That being said, the
story about the Buddhist mirror could be a nice contradiction to the
mirror we discovered inside the metro  

- In the Buddhist temple, we could either hang up the frame of a Buddhist
mirror (maybe the one we found in the Chinese shop, but without the inside
glass…) and make people stand in front of it while we tell them the story
about the ‘clear view’.

- Or we could tell them about the 3 virtues that lead to enlightenment
(wisdom, compassion, and skillful means) that represent the architecture
of the building and link the first virtue "wisdom" to images about Chinese
art (including the theme of mirrors) in the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam:

http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/collectie/aziatischekunst?lang=en

2) for Judaism

After getting out of the metro, people reach the Jewish spot. Perhaps we
could show some images here and tell people about the history of Jewish
image interdiction (which used to be about “not praising pictures”), also
a nice thing after people have made their self-portrait 
There is a permanent exhibition in the Jewish museum that deals with
Jewish religious rituals. We could maybe use images from them. Also, Dutch
Jews talk about their religious experiences:

http://www.jhm.nl/exhibitions.aspx?ID=108

3) for Catholizism

At the Onze Lieve Heer op Solder, people could listen to a poem from most
famous Dutch Catholic poet Vondel. His poem “Peter en Paulus” (1641) is
about the founding of a church:

http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/vond001dewe04_01/vond001dewe04_01_0035.htm

Rituelen route

route-and-details

Rituelen - User tests

Rituelen Project - Background Info

We decided to come up with a route that is very similar to a procession, a ritualistic experience in itself. Some background information about previous projects that dealt with the notion of walking as a collaborative ritual and as a mixed-reality performance between people of different cultures might be helpful:

Presentation Background

GA - User test phase

GA - Theses of paper

Design principles and examples

Design Principles for GA - Overview

GAMES ATELIER – DESIGN PRINCIPLES

I Questions for the workshop: Create the sense of uncertainty as a design principle of choice for pupils

1. How could you height the sense of being watched?
(i.e. text message saying that someone is watching you and you have to hide/you have to follow a passer-by as well)
2. How could you implicate passers-by in the game?
(ask them for hints with respect to a specific solution for a task, ask them if the information given at a specific location is true, ask them to perform in their video)
3. How could you include misleading hints in the game?
(online players could also text message other street teams misleading hints - in order to avoid disorientation pupils would have to create a stronger bond with their respective online player i.e. by including secret signs in the text message)
4. How could you make players question the validity of information in a task?
(either present information over-precise or leave space for interpretation)

II Create the sense of uncertainty as being forced

1. We could randomly send text messages while they are walking from one location to the other.
(i.e. asking if they are sure if this is the right direction)
2. We could include a “joker” skill in the game that randomly appears at different locations (street players get messages about its location while online players don’t)
3. Pupils could loose their skill in a confrontation as well instead of the possibility of gaining points only)
4. Pupils should not mirror the virtual/fictional world in the real world. While they are walking they could hear music (appropriate to their respective mission) alternating with voices from other players who have walked this route before and uploaded a short message at a specific location (i.e. at the speaking stone)

III Create more global agency for the pupils

1. Pupils are told that they need to remember this specific information and use it later on in the game.
2. Provide a simpler story in the beginning to enable pupils to generate much of the structure from more fundamental pieces. (with the form of a “blackbox”)
3. Pupils may upload a short message at a specific location (i.e. when they are told to hide at a specific location they would tell why they chose exactly this place), later on these messages could be available to all pupils in the game

IV Create more local agency for the pupils

1. Create a feeling of achievement for the street players by playing with the tension of differing views between web and street players (i.e. street players would tell web players what exactly they are looking at and need information on – instead of letting web players track them online)
2. Another tactic for building a local agency is to give street and online players distinct perspectives motivating them to exchange, i.e. street players are told that they need to get to a specific location but could also try to grab the joker on the way, this includes a gambling approach since they would be rewarded with more points/skills but need more time for that, online players would not be able to see the joker so they can only guess the location based on the hints they received in the message (aiming for quite different but connected worlds rather than an augmented style)
3. Force moment-to-moment richness i.e. by encouraging pupils to
- take a sequence of pictures instead of one (which forms a micro-narrative)
- choose between two tasks at a certain location instead of just skipping them, they do no see the reward they will get and can just guess due to the hints hidden in the task
- text message the online player that interacts with the team closest to their location in order to ask for a battle (initiated by them rather then the system)

Scenarios for Rituals project

Scenarios