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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and its audience as a world-building benchmark for Indigenous virtual cultural heritage.
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Majewski, Jakub |
| Copyright Year | 2018 |
| Abstract | The preservation of Indigenous Australian cultural heritage (CH) is a challenge acknowledged by communities, scholars, and policymakers. Research indicates video games are strong tools for heritage, but existing culture-oriented serious games are unsuccessful as cultural worlds. Commercial open-world role-playing games (RPGs) like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011) immerse players in complex virtual worlds populated by fictional societies and cultures. The engagement of commercial game players in informal learning and production in the context of online passionate affinity spaces (PAS) indicates players become invested in the cultural content depicted in games. While commercial RPGs do not typically transmit real cultural heritage, culture-oriented serious games can be enhanced by importing features from commercial RPGs. This thesis poses the question: how can open-world RPGs like Skyrim contribute to the transmission of Aboriginal heritage? To respond to this question, three studies were conducted. Immersive autoethnography was employed to investigate world-building tools, methods, and strategies employed in Skyrim. An online survey explored Skyrim player motivations and modus operandi in PAS engagement, as encyclopaedists who collate game lore on the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages, and as modders, who produce patches and modifications for Skyrim. Finally, qualitative interviews were conducted with 12 experts from heritage, virtual heritage, and video games to explore the requirements of Indigenous Australian CH. The three studies were synthesised to develop a set of guidelines and recommendations for the content and development procedures of RPGs for indigenous CH. Skyrim’s world-building was found to use a wide range of tools and practices possible to incorporate individually or together to enhance heritage-oriented serious games. The survey of Skyrim’s PAS communities showed the game’s world-building methods inspire players to learn and apply a range of knowledge and skills motivated by interest in the game world. Expert interviews identified focal points for game-based depiction of indigenous cultures, including a focus on values and relationships rather than individual cultural features. The importance of natural heritage and desirability to develop greater environmental dynamics in virtual worlds was noted. The thesis concludes RPG virtual worlds can immerse players in a new culture within a unified environmental, social and cultural context, making them holistic frameworks appropriate for the depiction of indigenous culture. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://epublications.bond.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1255&context=theses&filename=0&type=additional |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://epublications.bond.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1255&context=theses |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://epublications.bond.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1255&context=theses&filename=1&type=additional |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
