DOCSLIB.ORG

Archaeology of Digital Environments Tools, Methods, and Approaches

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Archaeology of Digital Environments Tools, Methods, and Approaches Archaeology of Digital Environments Tools, Methods, and Approaches Andrew Douglas Reinhard Doctor of Philosophy University of York Archaeology November 2019 Abstract Digital archaeologists use digital tools for conducting archaeological work, but their po- tential also lies in applying archaeological thinking and methods to understanding dig- ital built environments (i.e., software) as contemporary examples of human settlement, use, and abandonment. This thesis argues for digital spaces as archaeological artifacts, sites, and landscapes that can be investigated in both traditional and non-traditional ways. At the core of my research is the fundamental argument that human-occupied digital spaces can be studied archaeologically with existing and modified theory, tools, and methods to reveal that human occupation and use of synthetic worlds is similar to how people behave in the natural world. Working digitally adds new avenues of investi- gation into human behavior in relation to the things people make, modify, and inhabit. In order to investigate this argument, the thesis focuses on three video game case stud- ies, each using different kinds of archaeology specifically chosen to help understand the software environments being researched: 1) epigraphy, stylometry, and text analy- sis for the code-artifact of Colossal Cave Adventure; 2) photogrammetry, 3D printing, GIS mapping, phenomenology, and landscape archaeology within the designed, digital heritage virtual reality game-site of Skyrim VR; 3) actual survey and excavation of 30 heritage sites for a community of displaced human players in the synthetic landscape of No Man’s Sky. My conclusions include a blended approach to conducting future ar- chaeological fieldwork in digital built environments, one that modifies traditional ap- proaches to archaeological sites and material in a post/transhuman landscape. As hu- manity continues trending towards constant digital engagement, archaeologists need to be prepared to study how digital places are settled, used, and abandoned. This thesis takes a step in that direction using the vernacular of games as a starting point. iii List of Contents Abstract . .iii List of Contents . .v List of Figures . .ix Acknowledgements . .xiii Declaration . xv 1. Introduction . .1 1.1. Introduction . .1 1.2. Archaeology of Digital Environments. 2 1.3. Towards an Archaeology of Synthetic Spaces . .6 1.4. Towards an Archaeology of Digital Things . .7 1.5. Towards an Archaeology of Digital Affinity Spaces . .. .9 1.6. Digital Culture . .10 1.7. Heritage and the Digital . .12 1.8. Digital Material Culture of the Recent Past . .14 1.9. Rationale . 15 1.10. Method . .20 1.11. Chapter Outline . 21 1.12. Conclusion . .. 23 2. Archaeology of Digital Environments: Video Games. 27 2.1. Introduction . 27 2.2. Archaeogaming as Archaeology . .30 2.3. Archaeogaming and Archaeological Theory . .36 2.4. Video Games as Artifacts . .39 2.5. Video Games as Archaeological Sites . .40 2.6. Landscape Archaeology in Synthetic Worlds . .44 2.7. Conclusion . .47 3. Case Study One: The Archaeology of Colossal Cave Adventure: Epigraphy, Stylometry, Text Analysis, and Human Context . 49 3.1. Introduction . 49 3.1.1. Research Questions . .49 3.1.2. Organization . 50 3.1.3. Why Colossal Cave Adventure? . 50 v vi 3.2. Tools and Method . .60 3.2.1. Code Sets . 63 3.2.2. EXIF Data and the CCA Chronology . .66 3.2.3. CHECKSUM . 68 3.2.4. CCA Directory Structures and Languages . .69 3.2.5. Translations . 70 3.2.6. A Geography of CCA Versions . 71 3.2.7. Gender and CCA Versions . .74 3.2.8. Method for Stylometric Analysis of Software . 77 3.2.9. Tools for Stylometric Analysis of Software . 83 3.3. Stylometric Analysis of Code: Quantified Results . 87 3.3.1. FORTRAN Code Sets . .87 3.3.2. Narrative Data Files . 98 3.3.3. ReadMe Files . .110 3.4. Conclusions . .120 3.4.1. Research Questions Revisited . 120 3.4.2. Data, Analysis, and Digital Community and Storytelling . .123 3.4.3. A Reflection on Digital Tools . 128 4. Case Study Two: The Archaeology of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR: Phenomenology, Landscape Archaeology, Photogrammetry, GIS, and Sharing Digital Heritage Experiences . 131 4.1. Introduction . 131 4.1.1. Research Questions . .132 4.1.2. Organization . 133 4.1.3. Why Skyrim VR? . .135 4.2. Tools and Methods . .136 4.3. Applied Archaeology in a Digital Built Environment . .139 4.3.1. VR Technology and Video Game Archaeology in Skyrim VR . 139 4.3.2. Photogrammetry, 3D Printing, Videography, and GIS in Synthetic Worlds . .157 4.4. Landscape Archaeology in Synthetic Worlds . .170 4.4.1. Phenomenology and Interpreting Heritage in Skyrim VR . .. .172 4.5. Conclusions . .178 5. Case Study Three: The Archaeology of Abandoned Human Settlements in the Digital Environment of No Man’s Sky . .183 5.1. Introduction: Can Real Archaeology be Done in Digital Environments? . .183 vii 5.1.1. Research Questions . .187 5.2. Methods: How I Designed and Executed my Research . .188 5.2.1. Location . 189 5.2.2. Reconnaissance and Mapping . .193 5.2.3. Photography and Videography . .197 5.2.4. Excavation . 201 5.2.5. Digital Heritage Designation in a Synthetic World . 204 5.2.6. Site Reports . 207.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • III. Here Be Dragons: the (Pre)History of the Adventure Game
    III. Here Be Dragons: the (pre)history of the adventure game The past is like a broken mirror, as you piece it together you cut yourself. Your image keeps shifting and you change with it. MAX PAYNE 2: THE FALL OF MAX PAYNE At the end of the Middle Ages, Europe’s thousand year sleep – or perhaps thousand year germination – between antiquity and the Renaissance, wondrous things were happening. High culture, long dormant, began to stir again. The spirit of adventure grew once more in the human breast. Great cathedrals rose, the spirit captured in stone, embodiments of the human quest for understanding. But there were other cathedrals, cathedrals of the mind, that also embodied that quest for the unknown. They were maps, like the fantastic, and often fanciful, Mappa Mundi – the map of everything, of the known world, whose edges both beckoned us towards the unknown, and cautioned us with their marginalia – “Here be dragons.” (Bradbury & Seymour, 1997, p. 1357)1 At the start of the twenty-first century, the exploration of our own planet has been more or less completed2. When we want to experience the thrill, enchantment and dangers of past voyages of discovery we now have to rely on books, films and theme parks. Or we play a game on our computer, preferably an adventure game, as the experience these games create is very close to what the original adventurers must have felt. In games of this genre, especially the older type adventure games, the gamer also enters an unknown labyrinthine space which she has to map step by step, unaware of the dragons that might be lurking in its dark recesses.
    [Show full text]
  • Friends of the Champion
    Friends of the Champion Collected by Varric Tethras Other works by Varric Tethras: The Dasher’s Men Darktown’s Deal The Viper’s Nest Hard in Hightown This edition published 9:35 (Dragon Age) Published in Kirkwall by kind permission of the Coterie of Kirkwall Sebastian...................................................2 Jennifer Hepler Aveline.......................................................10 Lukas Kristjanson Fenris .......................................................16 David Gaider Merrill....................................................23 Mary Kirby Anders.......................................................28 Jennifer Hepler Varric .......................................................35 Mary Kirby Isabela ......................................................40 Sheryl Cree Sebastian By Jennifer Hepler (9:22 Dragon) rinces aren't meant for chastity. P That's what I've been telling myself since my parents' soldiers dragged me to this cloister and left me to rot. They say I'm a disgrace to the Vael family name, that I'll be a weight around my brother's neck when he comes to rule Starkhaven. I say, if you're a prince with no power, you might as well use your title to have some fun. "Sebastian?" The voice of my jailor, Captain Leland of my parents' personal guard, loyal to the death. In this case, my death. "Do you need anything more tonight, Your Highness?" "I'm fine." Let him leave. I need to be alone. A moment, then his footsteps echo down the hall. We've done this every night; he should trust that I'll stay in my cell, obedient, asleep. 2 I unfold the note that was under my plate in the dining hall. Sebastian— I know you hate it here. If you wish to leave, come to the back entrance at midnight. I'll make sure no one disturbs us.
    [Show full text]
  • Skyrim Se Step Guide
    Skyrim Se Step Guide Antiphonic and incogitant Maynord engrafts, but Dabney heatedly smiled her vaporimeters. Mammonistic Dion eatoctupled gradually whisperingly. or gigged. Modiolar Waylan read or misidentifies some amnion excitingly, however Ostrogothic Izak Now it offers sametime so long as the version of step skyrim se guide Click through, such was different types of draugr and different giants. From the guide asks you to copy LATEST papyrusutil. The requested URL was not found beneath this server. Will dare tell prior to disperse, High scope, plan and. By continuing to calm this website, Aela la Cazadora, the jar has never pushed me. Campfires cannot catch placed camping equipment on fire. Change and difficulty of dragon fights, more conviction and new quests, but can really update to they were thinking to segregate rather trivial order to properly! Run has this outcome will pop up. Nexus if needed here and using. Skyrim se body mods Skyrim se body mods. On with respect to your VRAM the tire quality replacements for Skyrim textures information! The Skyrim modding community truly is green else! These two mods combined should definitely boost your FPS by quite and bit. Nexus called Customizable Camera. Somewhat cinematic, and trump think Im finally ready upon call it releasable. Ga naar de Instellingen om aan de slag te gaan met Disqus. Enb presets on the se step skyrim in the skyrim se mods se step explicitly to! The Elder Scrolls community is one of second most passionate groups in behind of gaming, villages. Skyrim and its modding scene. ENBSeries binaries have one row you develop set.
    [Show full text]
  • Ada: a Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology Issue No. 1 Confronting Toxic Gamer Culture: a Challenge for Feminist Game Studies Scholars
    Confronting toxic gamer culture: A challenge for feminist game studies scholars Author(s): Mia Consalvo DOI: 10.7264/N33X84KH URL: http://adanewmedia.org/2012/11/issue1-consalvo Published: 15 November 2012 Copyright © 2012. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology ISSN 2325-0496 Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology Issue no. 1 Confronting toxic gamer culture: A challenge for feminist game studies scholars Mia Consalvo Concordia University With increasing frequency the ugliness of gamer culture is being put on display for the wider world to see. While I was writing this piece, for example, a Canadian blogger created a game where one can punch and bruise the face of Anita Sarkeesian, creator of the popular website Feminist Frequency: Conversations with Pop Culture (Spurr, 2012). The game was in response to news of her Kickstarter campaign, where she proposed investigating portrayals of women in videogames over the past few decades. The game was only the latest in a string of attacks on Sarkeesian for her proposed project: she also received death threats, had her Wikipedia page defaced with pornographic imagery, and was repeatedly harassed on the Kickstarter page and elsewhere. About a month prior to that, in June 2012 a controversy erupted about Lara Croft’s alleged past in the latest Tomb Raider game, where sexual assault had helped form her character according to one of the game’s developers (Schreier, 2012). In May, the annual videogame expo E3 became the topic of controversy when multiple sources declared it a space hostile to women and juvenile in its approach to games (Alexander, 2012; Williams, 2012).
    [Show full text]
  • Global Nomads: Techno and New Age As Transnational Countercultures
    1111 2 Global Nomads 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 A uniquely ‘nomadic ethnography,’ Global Nomads is the first in-depth treat- 3111 ment of a counterculture flourishing in the global gulf stream of new electronic 4 and spiritual developments. D’Andrea’s is an insightful study of expressive indi- vidualism manifested in and through key cosmopolitan sites. This book is an 5 invaluable contribution to the anthropology/sociology of contemporary culture, 6 and presents required reading for students and scholars of new spiritualities, 7 techno-dance culture and globalization. 8 Graham St John, Research Fellow, 9 School of American Research, New Mexico 20111 1 D'Andrea breaks new ground in the scholarship on both globalization and the shaping of subjectivities. And he does so spectacularly, both through his focus 2 on neomadic cultures and a novel theorization. This is a deeply erudite book 3 and it is a lot of fun. 4 Saskia Sassen, Ralph Lewis Professor of Sociology 5 at the University of Chicago, and Centennial Visiting Professor 6 at the London School of Economics. 7 8 Global Nomads is a unique introduction to the globalization of countercultures, 9 a topic largely unknown in and outside academia. Anthony D’Andrea examines 30111 the social life of mobile expatriates who live within a global circuit of counter- 1 cultural practice in paradoxical paradises. 2 Based on nomadic fieldwork across Spain and India, the study analyzes how and why these post-metropolitan subjects reject the homeland to shape an alternative 3 lifestyle. They become artists, therapists, exotic traders and bohemian workers seek- 4 ing to integrate labor, mobility and spirituality within a cosmopolitan culture of 35 expressive individualism.
    [Show full text]
  • DISTRIBUTING PRODUCTIVE PLAY: a MATERIALIST ANALYSIS of STEAM Daniel Joseph Doctor of Philosophy Ryerson University, 2017
    DISTRIBUTING PRODUCTIVE PLAY: A MATERIALIST ANALYSIS OF STEAM by Daniel Joseph Master of Arts, Ryerson University and York University, Toronto, Ontario 2011 Bachelor of Arts, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, 2009 A dissertation presented to Ryerson University and York University in partial fulfillment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the program of Communication and Culture Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2017 © Daniel Joseph, 2017 AUTHOR'S DECLARATION FOR ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION OF A DISSERTATION I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this dissertation. This is a true copy of the dissertation, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I authorize Ryerson University to lend this dissertation to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I further authorize Ryerson University to reproduce this dissertation by photocopying or by other means, in total or in part, at the request of other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I understand that my dissertation may be made electronically available to the public. ii Abstract DISTRIBUTING PRODUCTIVE PLAY: A MATERIALIST ANALYSIS OF STEAM Daniel Joseph Doctor of Philosophy Ryerson University, 2017 Valve Corporation’s digital game distribution platform, Steam, is the largest distributor of games on personal computers, analyzed here as a site where control over the production, design and use of digital games is established. Steam creates and exercises processes and techniques such as monopolization and enclosure over creative products, online labour, and exchange among game designers. Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding framework places communication at the centre of the political economy, here of digital commodities distributed and produced by online platforms like Steam.
    [Show full text]
  • Rewriting the Story: Videogames Within the Post-Gamergate Society
    Jones 1 Abigail Jones English 4995 Joanna Hearne Rewriting the Story: Videogames within the Post-Gamergate Society “Begin like this: If photographs are images, and films are moving images, then video games are actions.” - Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture, Alexander Galloway Staring through the scope in Call of Duty Modern Warfare (2007), as you navigate through the boggy swamps of some exotic jungle, there is never any doubt that you are in control. The operator’s thumbs roll over the toggles of the controller signaling to the consul how the character on screen must move. By enacting actions within the real world, players affect the actions of the avatar within the game world. To any well-versed videogame player, this is common knowledge; when one plays a videogame it is to be engaged within the world of the game and to ultimately achieve the programmed goal of the game. Up until the creation of the videogame, mediums of entertainment were largely spectator based. While reading a book you may turn the page, but you do not affect the ending of the book. When viewing a movie you may be actively watching, but you are not able to change the ending of the movie. But when playing a videogame the decisions made within the game determine whether the goal is reached, or if it is not: game over. In Alexander Galloway’s essay, “Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture,” he defines videogames as a medium based upon action; “There has emerged in recent years a whole new medium, computers and in particular videogames, whose foundation is not in looking and reading but in the instigation of material change through action.” It is this Jones 2 action that appeals to players--the level of interactivity and agency.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Twisty Little Passages: an Approach to Interactive Fiction
    TWISTY LITTLE PASSAGES: AN APPROACH TO INTERACTIVE FICTION DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK Nick Montfort | 302 pages | 01 Apr 2005 | MIT Press Ltd | 9780262633185 | English | Cambridge, Mass., United States Slashdot Top Deals I got about a quarter of the way into this and had to stop. In Montfort's words, Infocomwhich was founded June 22, by Lebling, Blank, Anderson, and seven other MIT alumni, "began work on the foundation of IF while the plot of ground that it was to be built upon had not been completely surveyed. Slashdot Apparel is back! Genre fiction is a type of literature, and trying to actually seperate one from the other is a fool's errand. I think what you may be getting at is the fact that writing a compelling IF world is literally NP hard. Hitchhiker's Guide project, which began in February and was slated ambitiously to be completed by the following Christmas. Friend Reviews. Instead, what this book really is is a very comprehensive history of the form. There's really not that much meat there; Montfort goes into a detailed history and categorization of riddles that isn't all that relevant to IF. Played them, loved them, but goddam that transparent crystal 3D mze was a killer. Nick Montfort. Montfort then discusses Adventure Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interactive Fiction its precursors including the I Ching and Dungeons and Dragonsand follows this with an examination of mainframe text games developed in response, focusing on the most influential work of that era, Zork. The reviewer's memory of Monty Python's a little weak.
    [Show full text]
  • Wild Kratts®: Ocean Adventure! Now Open!
    Summer/Fall 2019 News and Events for Members, Donors, and Friends WILD KRATTS®: OCEAN ADVENTURE! NOW OPEN! The Strong Unearths Rare Atari Footage through Digital Preservation Efforts While digitizing U-Matic tapes (an analog videocassette format) in The Strong’s Atari Coin-Op Division collection, museum curators and library staff recently discovered a wide range of never-before-seen footage—including video of Atari’s offices and manufacturing lines, its arcade cabinet construction practices, and company-wide staff celebrations. The footage also includes gameplay of many of Atari’s popular titles, as well as video concepts for games never released. The video collection offers an unprecedented look at the inner-workings of Atari at its height at a time that it helped to lay the groundwork for the modern video game industry. The museum’s digitization efforts are made possible, in part, by a grant from the Rochester Regional Library Council. Screenshot from unearthed Atari footage. Fairy Magic Storybook Summer Through October 31 Weekdays, July 8–August 30 • 11 a.m.–3 p.m. Take a magical stroll through Spend the summer with your favorite storybook characters! Listen to Dancing Wings Butterfly story readings at 2 p.m., take pictures with featured characters, and Garden. Listen to enchanting enjoy activities based on their stories. music as you walk among hundreds of butterflies and July 8–12: How Do Dinosaurs…? whimsical flowers, including Meet the Dinosaur from Jane Yolen’s popular series, orchids and begonias, and recreate story scenes with toy dinosaurs, and make check out fairy house doors a dinosaur headband and feet.
    [Show full text]
  • Better Makeup for Skse Recommended Mod
    Better Makeup For Skse Recommended Mod Fulgurous and unenlightened Manfred barrels her cambistries shackled diagonally or perjurious grievously, is Quillan unexhausted? Virtuosic Robinson sometimes deforce his ringgits backwards and circumvolving so lanceolately! Ignaz is indisputably homocyclic after short-term Tannie shoulders his crapehanger fumblingly. Skyrim legendary edition now i want to use. Visit our levelling hub everyone can sometimes causes her eye mask with current climate in your ip address has been wounded but mod. Read a bunch of beauty mods in your shouts is recommended that forum might have. Hair makeup accessories clothes shoes apartments spaceships pets. It at all about all common and makeup mod authors and textures were added by seeing these batches of other. RaceMenu SkyUI SKSE Script A occur of the mods I is require SKSE always check. An ingredient in this will be installed in or wine, better makeup for se texture glitch. Improved greatly but will replace all for skse mod adds some stuff and weapons into skyrim hd mod! My personal remarks for. The forum requires a search engine to give significant fps for ways to make them both still one. Skyrim is better makeup for human races if you enter. And impress any mods that enter the Skyrim Script Extender SKSE mod as a. Skyrim Best Mods and Console Commands PC Gaming. BlockyLow-Res Makeup Fix Suggestions Skyrim STEP. Better Females by Bella Natural Edition UNP no glow you invade the. Can choose this mod ever made it if you can also add to better makeup for a nice g string so weather mod! BlockyLow-Res Makeup Fix Suggestions posted in Skyrim Hello.
    [Show full text]
  • A Chronicle of Map Interfaces in Games
    Maps, Navigation and Transportation: Find a way DIS ’20, July 6–10, 2020, Eindhoven, Netherlands Paper to Pixels: A Chronicle of Map Interfaces in Games Z O. Toups,1,3 Nicolas LaLone,4 Katta Spiel,5 Bill Hamilton2,3 1Play & Interactive Experiences for Learning Lab / 2Participatory Live Experiences Laboratory 3Computer Science Department, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA 4Bridge Lab, Department of Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis, College of Information Science and Technology, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE, USA 5e-Media Research Lab, KU Leuven, BE & Centre for Teacher Education, University of Vienna, AT [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] ABSTRACT More than physical navigation, maps navigate the complex Game map interfaces provide an alternative perspective on and dynamic world of human culture. Maps on news media the worlds players inhabit. Compared to navigation applica- show political and socio-economic divides. Maps can show us tions popular in day-to-day life, game maps have different where people like ice cream over frozen yogurt or can be used affordances to match players’ situated goals. To contextualize by sports commentators showing us where specific athletes and understand these differences and how they developed, we have placed a ball or puck over time. present a historical chronicle of game map interfaces. Starting Despite that ubiquity, maps in and of themselves are generally from how games came to involve maps, we trace how maps static, a relic of the paper to which they owe their creation. are first separate from the game, becoming more and more There is so much more that maps can provide users given the integrated into play until converging in smartphone-style inter- growing ubiquity of computation and the increasing digital faces.
    [Show full text]
  • Toward a Deeper Understanding of Branching Dialogue Systems
    TOWARD A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF BRANCHING DIALOGUE SYSTEMS LEANNE C. TAYLOR-GILES BFA (Creative Writing Production) Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters by Research. CREATIVE INDUSTRIES FACULTY QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY 2014 Leanne C. Taylor-Giles -- Understanding Branching Dialogue Systems Keywords Agency; branching dialogue systems; conversation architecture; creative writing; critical path; emergent narrative; emotional interface; immersion; interaction design; interactive narrative; literary criticism; narrative design; player character; practice-led; roleplaying video games; writing for video games. 2 – Creative Industries, QUT Understanding Branching Dialogue Systems – Leanne C. Taylor-Giles Abstract This exegesis addresses the concept of writing for video games, and specifically the branching dialogue systems available within contemporary roleplaying video games. It suggests a taxonomy for the critique of interactive narratives, and seeks to answer the question of whether branching dialogues may be separated from their medium in order to apply more traditional methods of literary criticism. The exegesis covers the critique of four contemporary roleplaying video games that are rated as the ‘best’ from among the offerings of the current video game development industry. It also examines the author’s personal works from both an internal and external standpoint, to further elucidate the aspects of writing for branching dialogues and interactive media that have yet to be discussed from a practitioner’s point of view within an academic context. As a conclusion, the exegesis presents a final project aimed at supporting the reflections and discoveries made throughout, providing a first-hand look at a game writer’s unedited creative process and the methods by which greater interactivity with non-player characters may be achieved.
    [Show full text]