The Museum of Gamers: Unmediated Cultural Heritage Through Gaming

Abstract

In the 1990s when Nicholas Negroponte published his infamous comparison between bits and atoms for Wired magazine, it was no longer strange to talk about a new concept for galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAMs). Pointing to a new future for libraries, Negroponte was already aware that being digital had its own reality, which was to create ambiguity in relation to the value of physicality or pure materiality, a reality that the world had been accustomed to since the Industrial Age. The Museum of Gamers, as a conceptual proposal we argue for here, sits at the convergence of these contrasting realities. On the one hand, there is a cultural artefact that has a concrete value attached to its authenticity. On the other, its digital interpretation has its own systems of values about being. And the visitor cares about a GLAM’s auxiliary services as much as the objects. As information is now available everywhere, people expect a new normal from museums besides mere objects and explanatory texts next to them. As the emblematic medium of contemporary societies games offer engagement methods. Recent marketing strategies such as loyalty games and gamification prove that use of technology is moving ever closer to video games and game-design methods. The Museum of Gamers is a creation not only for the dissemination of cultural heritage information but also for its production through contemporary media technologies.