28 June 2013, Games and Cultural Heritage (NWO-CATCH event)

Within the Cultural Heritage domain, games are used in various ways. We are currently witnessing a large effort at international level towards the long-term preservation and accessibility of cultural heritage through many initiatives. While multimedia archives and the digitized artifacts and places offer easy access of cultural content to people regardless space and time constraints, it is through game mechanics that the large public is motivated to explore these resources.

Serious Games (SG) enable visitors to explore a realistic and engaging virtual environment, and immersive gameplay can reawaken history and encourage virtual tourists to learn more. On the other hand, Games With A Purpose (GWAP) are games designed to collect annotation data or solve a problem. While playing the game, the users provide information about collections of images or music, that is otherwise laborious to obtain.

For more information and a programme, see http://www.nwo.nl/en/research-and-results/programmes/, or contact j.a.burgoyne at uva.nl.