Primrose Road

Arden I: The World of William Shakespeare, a virtual-world Shakespeare game, is now available for download. According to Edward Castronova's Terra Nova blog, the game, which is set in a Richard II universe, includes

"Shakespearean quest lines; historically accurate tavern games; NPCs and resources drawn from Shakespeare; Shakespeare Q&A games that give experience points; Shakespeare text objects that grant power (text-as-treasure); Shakespeare texts accessed verbatim, in summary, and in quest/plot form."

Castronova's concern is that they "failed to design a gripping game experience." If players are not immersed in the world of Shakespeare, then it seems that, in light of the Synthetic Worlds Initiative's ideas about learning-via-immersion, the developers still have some work to do. However, when I read about the immersive promises of new media performances (and games), I cannot help but hear echoes of literary critic Catherine Belsey’s recounting a visit to Llancaich Fawr, a “living history museum” in which actors play the roles of seventeenth-century residents of the manor house in order to teach and entertain present-day tourists. Belsey understandably finds it difficult to intellectualize from the “living history” perspective; one cannot interrogate the past while participating or pretending to participate in it.

I'm not going to go into this any further because I'm developing an article/dissertation chapter on the problems with recasting interactivity as immersion, and don't want to, y'know, plagiarize myself. Next week (a non-grading week before final papers come in!) I'll see if I can borrow a friend's PC in order to actually play Arden, and I'll report back then.