Scenario: You are a digital archivist, responsible for long-term preservation of a rich archive of vital digital records.
Set-up: Determines initial characteristics of your archive, including the records (volumes, file formats, risk factors…) and your service (user need, resourcing, location, operating constraints).
Objective: Armed with this knowledge, you will make the best choices you can to equip yourself with the tools, capabilities and interventions needed to preserve the utility of your archive into the future.
Journey: Accelerate into the future, working to sustain your records over time and through successive cycles of change.
Encounter: Encounter scenarios that range from predictable occurrences to unexpected challenges and (possibly) freak events.
Connect: Emerge from the time-warp, far into the future, with an archive that is still of value to your users and communities. Your score in the game reflects how well you meet this aim.
Gameplay: A results ‘leaderboard’ provides an element of friendly competition between contestants. 2 facilitators will be available during scheduled sessions, but the game could also be played independently. Alternatively, the simulation could run with multiple concurrent players, possibly over a longer time period – such as a day of the conference – with regular updates on evolving scenarios and players' progress.
Fit with themes: The game aligns with the themes of Haerenga, Tūtaki and Tūhono. It highlights the importance of tailoring digital preservation strategy to a good understanding of preservation risk (drawing on the DiAGRAM reference models - https://diagram.nationalarchives.gov.uk/) and builds on these to introduce wider technological and environmental contexts.
Status: In (early) development