Gamification of virtual museum curation: a case study of Chinese bronze wares

TL;DR

This paper presents a virtual reality game for Chinese bronze ware that enhances visitor engagement and understanding by combining immersive exploration, interactive learning, and cultural dissemination in a virtual museum setting.

Contribution

It introduces a VR-based gamification approach for museum curation, utilizing laser-scanned bronze models and immersive technology to improve visitor experience and cultural education.

Findings

Increased visitor engagement and curiosity through gamification.

Enhanced learning and memory retention of bronze ware knowledge.

Facilitated cultural dissemination of Chinese bronze culture.

Abstract

Museums, which are among the most popular science institutions outside schools, are usually used to display and introduce historical culture and cultural relics to tourists. Text and audio explanations are used by traditional museums to popularize historical knowledge and science for tourists, and general interactive systems are based on desktops. This learning method is relatively boring in terms of experience. As a result, tourists have no desire or interest in actively exploring and learning about bronze ware, so they only have a basic understanding about bronze ware. Since most tourists are familiar with games, they are more likely to be attracted by game content and will actively explore and interact with it. In addition, a certain degree of reality is created by virtual reality technology and an immersive experience through head-mounted devices is provided to users. In this paper, we take Chinese bronzes as the research objects. We first use laser scanners to obtain bronze models ; then, we build a virtual museum environment, and we finally design a virtual reality curation game based on this bronze digital museum. This game offers visitors an immersive museum roaming and bronze ware interactive experience. Through a combination of text, video learning, and games, visitors' curiosity and desire to explore bronze ware are stimulated, and their understanding and ability to remember bronze ware knowledge can be deepened. In terms of cultural heritage, this game is also conducive to the spread of traditional Chinese bronze culture throughout the world.