De Reizende Roos

De Reizende Roos (the travelling rose) strives to brand walking as a social tool, which ultimately helps people retain independence. It is a narrative about improving a neighbourhood by improving one’s perception of the neighbourhood, about taking initiative and plucking up courage. A box containing the assignment is passed on between participants. Essentially, the assignment is a challenge to make a walk together and while doing so, starting another initiative to improve social relations in the neighbourhood. After performing this act the participants are asked to reflect on the process by filling out a guestbook. Part of the report is to share experiences about if and how walking supported a conversation. The goal of the guestbook is for the participants to put the experience into words and thus transform it into knowledge. The human needs to be autonomous, agentic and effective, were leading in the project’s development. De Reizende Roos was developed within a framework of persuasive game design and several game elements can be identified within the concept: association with a treasure box to increase curiosity; sealing with a sticker to increase the association; reference to adventure stories and fantasy-like characters enhancing immersion; rules defining the game world; points and score to mark the progression; comic form of instruction.

J. Wessel Bos
mentors: V.T. Visch, I.J. Mulder
master thesis, March 2013