The last week of October saw the launch of the first phase of a new game currently being developed as part of the Orchid project by the universities of Nottingham and Southampton in collaboration with Urban Angel, a Nottingham-based group of artists who specialize in interactive theatre and transmedia experiences. Genesis of Cr0n is the theatrical component of this game: players sign up to join Cr0n, an underground organization whose objective is to bring down the all-powerful Ministry of Provenance. The game was played over a week on the streets of Nottingham with players discovering the sinister nature of the Ministry and going on covert missions to help Cr0n in it’s fight for freedom. Details and photos from the event can be found on the game website.
The game attracted 122 players from Nottingham, most of whom have signed up to play the sequel which will take place as an online game titled Apocalypse of Mop. The online game will be open to a wider audience and will be used as a research tool to study the human-computer interaction aspects of PROV, a standard recently proposed by the W3C for the digital representation of provenance information. Players will work directly with provenance graphs and attempt to uncover the lies and cover-ups that the Ministry of Provenance is constantly and routinely engaging in. The online game will go live this month.