Playing with the Past: Into the Future

Since the turn of this century (and even earlier), a plethora of projects have arisen to promise us bold new interactive adventures and immersive travel into the past with digital environments (using mixed, virtual or augmented reality, as well as computer games). In Playing with the Past: Into the Future Erik Champion surveys past attempts to communicate history and heritage through virtual environments and suggests new technology and creative ideas for more engaging and educational games and virtual learning environments.This second edition builds on and updates the first edition with new game discussions, surveys, design frameworks, and theories on how cultural heritage could be experienced in digital worlds, via museums, mobile phones, or the Metaverse. Recent games and learning environments are reviewed, with provocative discussion of new and emerging promises and challenges.


Erik Champion is currently an Enterprise Fellow at the University of South Australia, an Honorary Professor at the Australian National University, an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia, and Emeritus Professor at Curtin University. He was Curtin's first UNESCO Chair, in Cultural Heritage and Visualisation, and has degrees in architecture, engineering and philosophy, but has also studied in the humanities, in art history, human-computer interaction, and education. He has worked in New Zealand, Japan, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Australia.