MetteResearch

Your group’s research was extensive and visually inspiring. You showed an open-mind and critical curiosity towards the ‘gamers-gamblers’ and found the hidden potential of the internet archive.

The presentation communicated well your insights and included relevant data so substantiate them (e.g the article with MRI scans of brain activity of gamers and gamblers).

Looking into other sub-groups (e.g disabled gamers) was further evidence of your empathetic, humanist research mentality.Investigating game controller symbols as possible interface elements showed contextual understanding of the user group’s visual culture. Looking for links between gaming and olympic iconography was an interesting visual exploration as well.

Although some critical statements about the internet archive (e.g it’s outdated, includes too many ‘old’ websites) need more nuance and reflection, your realisation that the archive can function as a form of ‘time travel’ is promising and can be explored further in the design phase of the assignment.

We recommend refining the concept of ‘retro’ gaming to make sure it reaches beyond matters of style. Is the appeal of ‘retro’ for gamers fuelled by nostalgia? Conservatism? Technophilia? Escapism? We also recommend you engage directly with actual users, for instance by going to arcades like Awesome Space and others. Observations, conversations and involvement in your test phase will be beneficial to the quality of your project.

When I searched for some general information about archives, images and other possible inspiration, I found this image which led to a blog on the same site as the webarchive. It's an article about bookstores, libraries & archive in the digital age.
I read some things that were inspirational for me, and that I thought were possibilities to use in the interface.
"The traditional definition of a library is that it is made up of published materials, while an archive is made up of unpublished materials. Archives play an important function that must be maintained—we give frightfully little attention to collections of unpublished works in the digital age. Think of all the drafts of books that have disappeared once we started to write with word processors and kept the files on fragile computer floppies and disks. Think of all the videotapes of lectures that are thrown out or were never recorded in the first place. "

From this research I came up with the idea to make a digital interface, where you can wonder through the "hallways" of the archive/library. And to involve the winning or loosing aspect, the pathways are also a "Pacman maze".
It's an online game/archive, and you can choose a character at the beginning, so if you want you can be one of the ghosts and have the possibility to 'hunt' the Pacman.

"Bookstores: The Thrill of the Hunt
The most enjoyable aspect of the bookstore was the hunt—I arrived with a tiny sheet of paper in my wallet with a list of the books I wanted, would bring it out and ask the used bookstore owners if I might go home with a bargain. I rarely had the money to buy new books for myself, but I would give new books as gifts. While I knew it was okay to stay for awhile in the bookstore just reading, I always knew the game."

"Libraries: Offering Conversations not Answers
Libraries were there to spark my own ideas. The library did not set out to tell a story as a museum would. It was for me to find stories, to create connections, have my own ideas by putting things together. I would come to the library with a question and end up with ideas. Rarely were these facts or statistics—but rather new points of view."

I did some more research on the Wayback Machine, by googling on 'archive'. And I came across the Wikipedia page about the Wayback Machine, and about the Internet Archive. I felt kinda dumb for not searching this earlier in the proces, maybe in the mapping the collection fase. But I found some interesting and inspirational information.

"History
Internet Archive founders Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat launched the Wayback Machine in October of 2001 to address the problem of website content vanishing whenever it gets changed, or when a website is shut down. The service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a "three-dimensional index". Kahle and Gilliat created the machine hoping to archive the entire Internet and provide "universal access to all knowledge."

"The name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to a fictional time-traveling device, the "Wayback Machine", used by the characters Mister Peabody and Sherman in the animated cartoon The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show from the 1960s. In one of the animated cartoon's component segments, Peabody's Improbable History, the characters routinely used the machine to witness, participate in, and often alter famous events in history."

"Plot summary
In the NES version, Bullwinkle learns that his ancestor left sums of money for him to collect. Rocky and Bullwinkle need to go through perilous levels that feature their enemies Boris and Natasha, before they could reach the home of the moose's ancestor."

"In the Genesis, SNES, and Game Boy versions, three artifacts are stolen from a museum. It is up to Rocky and Bullwinkle to get them back."

Logo of the animated tv-series

Game Boy version Rocky & Bullwinkle

"The Game Boy version only has three levels,[…]. The first level, Frostbite Falls, has the player control Bullwinkle. The second,
on the Moon, uses Rocky, and the final one, the Abominable Manor, uses Bullwinkle again. Before the final section, a bonus level that has Bullwinkle running to the end of a football field to catch Rocky, avoiding and head-butting football players on the way, can grant the player an extra life upon completion. The final section has
a time limit to defeat the Fearless Leader and rescue your friend. Dying three times sends the player back to the first section of the level."

"The Game Boy version's level design is the same as The Ren & Stimpy Show: Space Cadet Adventures (also developed by Imagineering)."

Game Boy Ren & Stimpy

Characters of the animated cartoon tv-series

Legend of Zelda - action adventure

Half-Life - first person shooter

Duke Nukem 3D - first person shooter

Solitarica - card game

Favorite games logo's

Some first questionnaire answers

Bookstores, libraries & archives

Feedback Final Mappings

How can I present my interface?

I was thinking about using a mockup or just a screen recording of me using the prototype as a presentation. But then I started thinking about how other games sell and promote their games. So I googled for some famous games and for example looked at the pac-man site, but also Call Of Duty and Doom and Wolfenstein. Wolfenstein was an exception because it is a very old school website too. But the other websites were pretty modern.

So the topics I see on the webpages are:
- Home
- News/reviews
- Play the game/Buy the game
- Merch/shop
- History
- Log In

Of course I don't have any news yet, but I can transform the feedback from the testers into reviews.
With testing the prototypes we noticed loggin in or making a registration is something gamers don't really like, or want to put effort in. So I don't want that on the page.
Play the game can be a link to the prototype.
Merk/shop isn't really there, of course if I have some time left I can make some mockups for fun, to really create a brand.
History, there isn't any. It can be a short explanation about how it is a redesign of the webarchive for Retro gamers. I wouldn't call it history but something else. I'm not sure what yet.
The opening of the website can be an introduction of the game, I saw that on another game website as well. So that is just copy and paste the intro of the game.