I’ve mentioned before that I work doing interpretive projects for a heritage conservation organisation. We own and manage several well known battle-field sites (later dates than RTW), several of which have visitor centres and others which produce teacher’s packs which can include CD-Roms for schools.

There is real potential in the future in the interpretation sector for using computer games as one of the possible media. Currently most touch-screen and CD-Rom games are of an uber-simplistic format. But fly-throughs, reconstructions and first-person walk-abouts are becoming more popular although too expensive still for most organisations. Something like an exactly reconstructed castle based upon the Oblivion engine would be great. Visitors would be able to wander through the virtual reconstruction interacting with objects and asking questions of the inhabitants. They could even be able to take part in simple tasks to demonstrate the running of the castle and medieval life. This approach could work fantastically for visitors to some of our ruined properties where it can be difficult for some to imagine life. They would also work as a pre- and post- visit tool for schools.

Areas where I can see development regarding the RTW engine

- Modding a historic battle to be as closely accurate as possible
- Using the graphics to show visitors the layout of the battle field at the time and the key features – possibly with a voice-over or text.
- Showing the units in action with information about who they were and how they fought
- Recording the battle and how it unfolds from different angles
- Potential for making this interactive in some form by allowing people to take a side and try and influence the outcome. Possibly having someone take each side. There would clearly be real difficulties in people doing this though. It might be possible to allow the visitor to control 1 unit (the genernal unit) with the rest unfolding under the AI
- This could be done through CD-Roms , Touchscreen terminals or Plasma screens

I've discussed this with design companies before and we are just waiting for the right project to move forward with something like thi. Obviously something like this would require the involvement of CA though, but the ethic of EB in sticking to historical accuracy as far as possible is similar to how we interpret our battlefield sites.