Cultural presence is a term used to explain and evaluate cultural learning in virtual heritage projects but is less frequently used for video games. Given the increasing importance of video games to cultural heritage, this article investigates explanations of cultural presence that could be communicated by games, especially concerning UNESCO and ICOMOS definitions of cultural significance. The aim is to determine if cultural presence can be communicated via video games and across a range of game genres. Observations derived from game prototyping workshops for history and heritage aided the development of a teachable list of desirable game elements. To distinguish itself from the vagueness surrounding theories of cultural presence, a theory of culturally significant presence is proposed. Culturally significant presence requires three components: culturally significant artifacts and practices; an overarching framework of a singular, identifiable cultural viewpoint; and awareness by the participant of both the culturally significant and the overarching cultural framework and perspective (which gives sites, artifacts, and practices their cultural significance and relational value). As awareness of cultural presence requires time for reflection, single-player games were chosen that were not completely dependent on time-based challenges. Another criterion was cultural heritage content: They must simulate aspects of heritage and history, communicate a specific cultural framework, or explore and reconstruct a past culture. Four games were chosen that simulate a culture, explain archaeological methods, portray indigenous intangible heritage, or explain historical-based ecosystems of the past based on educational guidelines. The games are Assassin's Creed: Origins ; Heaven's Vault ; Never Alone ; and a Ph.D. project: Saxon . Their genres could be described as first-person shooter/open world/virtual tour; dialogue-based puzzle game; 2D platform game; and turn-based strategy game. The aim is not to evaluate the entire range of interactive virtual environments and games, but to examine the applicability and relevance of this new theory and to ascertain whether the four games provided useful feedback on the concept and usefulness of culturally significant presence. A more clearly demarcated theory may not only help focus evaluation studies but also encourage game developers to modify or allow modification of commercial games for classroom teaching of digital heritage.

中文翻译：

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单人电脑游戏中具有重要文化意义的存在

文化存在是一个术语，用于解释和评估虚拟遗产项目中的文化学习，但不太常用于视频游戏。鉴于电子游戏对文化遗产的重要性日益增加，本文研究了对可以通过游戏传达的文化存在的解释，特别是关于联合国教科文组织和国际古迹遗址理事会对文化意义的定义。目的是确定文化存在是否可以通过视频游戏和一系列游戏类型进行传播。来自历史和遗产的游戏原型制作研讨会的观察结果有助于开发可教的理想游戏元素列表。为了区别于围绕文化存在理论的模糊性，一种具有重要文化意义的存在被提议。具有文化意义的存在需要三个组成部分：具有文化意义的人工制品和实践；一个单一的、可识别的文化观点的总体框架；以及参与者对文化意义和总体文化框架和观点的认识（它赋予遗址、文物和实践它们的文化意义和关系价值）。由于对文化存在的认识需要时间进行反思，因此选择了不完全依赖于基于时间的挑战的单人游戏。另一个标准是文化遗产内容：它们必须模拟遗产和历史的各个方面，传达特定的文化框架，或者探索和重建过去的文化。选择了四个游戏来模拟一种文化，解释考古方法，描绘土著非物质遗产，或根据教育指南解释过去基于历史的生态系统。游戏是刺客信条：起源;天穹;从不孤单; 和博士学位。项目：撒克逊人. 他们的流派可以描述为第一人称射击/开放世界/虚拟旅游；基于对话的益智游戏；2D平台游戏；和回合制策略游戏。其目的不是评估交互式虚拟环境和游戏的整个范围，而是检查这一新理论的适用性和相关性，并确定这四款游戏是否对具有文化意义的存在的概念和有用性提供了有用的反馈。一个更清晰划分的理论不仅可以帮助集中评估研究，还可以鼓励游戏开发者修改或允许修改商业游戏以用于数字遗产的课堂教学。