The Secret of Otter’s Ransom: A Student (Digital) Project
Students at Gettysburg College are working with Professor Christopher Fee to create a “The Secret of Otter’s Ransom: An Electronic, Interactive, Interdisciplinary
Introduction to the Medieval North Atlantic.” According to the press release, the site has two approaches, “a map-driven encyclopedic portal connects students to what Fee called ‘a vast fund of information and objects’ for in-depth study of key places, objects, and scholarly commentary” and student created “text-based “interactive fiction” games that are rigorously derived from archaeological data and filled with references to Viking and other cultures.”
From the project overview:
Imagine visiting standing stone circles, Stone Age villages, and chambered tombs; visualize combing Iron Age settlements and strongholds, striding Celtic forts and Roman temples, and searching Anglo-Saxon, Viking, and Medieval houses, graves, battlegrounds, and hoards. The Secret of Otter’s Ransom will help users to visit and to learn about some of the most spectacular archaeological and cultural sites of Britain while grounding this quest in the widely dispersed Norse culture of the North Atlantic Fringe; most notably, some of the most spectacular sites of the most memorable Icelandic sagas will serve as navigation points for the journey. Utilizing hundreds of QTVR panoramas, documentary-style digital video clips, and interactive digital images, students will navigate oceans of time and space; armed with timelines, maps, runic transcription guides, and related sleuthing tools, they will visit some of the most significant sites of the Medieval North Atlantic in order to find clues that unlock the secrets of a hoard of mythic treasure. The participants in this adventure concurrently will gain intimate knowledge of the past in a vibrant, active-learning environment. Utilizing the most up-to-date Interactive Fiction (IF) gaming technology, this project promises to introduce students to ancient and alien sites and cultures in a way designed to be interesting and memorable.
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