This marks the final week of work for the Greber game. Though it’s still not perfect, it comes closer every day to what I’d like it to be. More importantly, it gives me ideas for using ARIS in the future. I think the platform, though intended for “gamification,” may work well for a less fictionalized exploration of landscape as well. You could plan quite a few unique “hidden history” using the same fundamentals. But, more to the point, concerns that have arisen this week:

• Concerns over audience agency: what can others do with the ganme? ARIS is fairly secure in that you have to work a little harder to co-opt the platform or tranform it for your own use, which is a bit of a blessing and a curse. It doesn’t allow for people to play around with your content and discover it in new ways, nor can they effectively build on it. But, alternatively, you run less risk of things going amuck and retain a lot of control as a creator.
• Concerns over accessibility: I’ve got the route more or less accessible, in high summer. But with springtime puddles appearing, my efforts to create something totally accessible that still goes down by the river are thwarted. That’s commentary on how our cities are designed as well, to a degree. But it’s nonetheless a challange.
• Translating landscape: Even though the game expects you to occasionally read landscapes for traces of the past, it doesn’t do a great job really leading yu to the nuance. You’re told what to look for, sort of, but you could be given much more comprehensive instructions. I feel like landscape reading is another topic that could work well as a non-fiction game, or perhaps a more dedicated game with a storyline less rooted in high fantasy tropes.
• The usual issues with class, gender: you need an iPhone to play, the game doesn’t really do anything to actively advance a diverse narrative (it’s more one size fits all, though there are some strong female leads now), it’s only available in English despite Ottawa’s large french speaking population, etc. (the fact that I’m even using etc speaks to the vast ocean of intersections that need to be more fully explored)

But on the plus side…

• ARIS is working: Tested it with a group of friends, and it’s functional!
• There’s room to grow!
• New avatars that don’t infringe on someone’s copyright!