Archaeogaming by Andrew Reinhard

Author:Andrew Reinhard [Reinhard, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Archaeology, Anthropology, General
ISBN: 9781785338748
Google: XvY_DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Published: 2018-06-18T02:52:09+00:00

Designing an Archaeological Project Plan for a Synthetic World

Once a game is identified as a candidate for archaeological investigation, the researcher(s) must follow protocol in creating a publicly proposed project design. “The project design must be published before work starts, and not just because this results in a better managed programme, but for ethical reasons. . . . The project design itself must contain a programme of long- and short-term conservation as well as programme of research” (Carver 2009: 33).

This statement is as true for synthetic sites as it is for natural ones. The project plan should be shared online publicly, especially with those user groups who actively play (or played) the game to be studied because they are that game’s indigenous community. This opens it up to community critique, in effect becoming public archaeology and engaging the game’s “local” population, many of which will spot mistakes and pitfalls or who might be willing to help in the research as volunteers. The plan should also identify conservation and preservation efforts for the game-site as well as for the research both pre- and post-publication. When I was organizing the No Man’s Sky Archaeological Survey (NMSAS) in 2016, I publicly broadcast the team’s reasons for investigating a synthetic universe and how we proposed to do it. Within days of posting the research plan, I was contacted by several community groups interested in conducting citizen science within the gameplay and sharing our data. We were able to work with these groups and follow their own discoveries on various community bulletin boards online and through social media. These communities also helped the NMSAS team revise its project methods during our survey period, correcting serious misconceptions about measuring distance on synthetic worlds. As Carver says, “Archaeological project design is mandatory. . . . Researchers are bound by a contract with society” (Carver 2009: 33). In the case of games, the project design is a contract with society as well as with the player community.

Carver breaks down a field archaeologist’s research agenda into three parts (Carver 2009: 47, fig 3.8): fieldwork, objective, and outcome. What are we trying to accomplish with whatever it is we’re doing on-site? This is universal for both natural and synthetic sites. We excavate to see a sequence of use in order to confirm or change what we know about the site and its occupants. We survey in the site area to create a map of settlement and other features in order to determine where to dig (if we need to dig at all). We survey the area surrounding a site to map and identify other settlements in order to note changing land use or to recognize settlement/cultural patterns. We study other areas in order to compare and contrast them with what was found on-site. We can follow these same procedures in any digital built environment. Software can be mapped and even excavated, compared to earlier or later versions of itself, and compared to similar software designed to match the needs of the same user community.

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