Digital Storytelling on a Virtual Heritage Museum with Believable Agents

Abstract

The preservation of cultural heritage plays a very important role in terms of the sustainability of societies since culture is one of the most important phenomena that hold individuals together. However, although the protection of cultural heritage is a very important issue for societies, there are serious problems in the accuracy of information or access to information due to the verbal or written communication of the subjects that need to be conveyed. In particular, there is a serious decrease in the sense of belonging in individuals due to the inability to transfer cultural heritage to the younger generations correctly. At this point, the aim of the study is to teach individuals the Turkish horror culture by experiencing them in a realistic environment with various different stories in a virtual reality-based gamified system instead of teaching them in writing or verbally. For this purpose, a 3D virtual museum was developed within the scope of the study, inspired by real characters and areas, and it was aimed for individuals to learn Turkish horror culture elements through tasks in different scenarios. The developed system was tested by 5 experts in the field as a preliminary study and the realism level of the created system was measured with the comments of the experts. According to the findings, it has been determined that the level of realism offered by the designed virtual environment is sufficient to explain the Turkish horror culture to individuals.