Anthropologist Search of VR World
Pittsburgh Brain Activity Interpretation Compeition Task Description © 2007
In this study you will be playing a game in a virtual world. In the game you are being paid by an anthropology department grant to gather information on urban culture. You will be visiting a neighborhood several times to get the information you need. You will be collecting samples of toy weapons, fruits, and pictures of the piercings people are currently wearing. The grant is paying you per item so you should try to collect as much as you can. In fact, any money you earn in the game corresponds to real-life earnings so keep that in mind as you play.
Anthropology researchers before you have observed several people living in the neighborhood. It has been documented that the kinds of piercings worn are earrings, nose rings, eyebrow rings, and lip rings. The people you will be encountering are fond of changing the kinds of piercings they are wearing so even if you’ve seen a person before that didn’t have piercings, you may see them again and they will have a piercing. Thus, your strategy is to look for piercings on any person, not a specific person. If you see the same person in two different locations you should take two different pictures. You will earn money for each picture you take of a piercing. Money will be subtracted for each picture you take of someone who isn’t wearing one of the four types of piercing.
As mentioned previously you will be collecting fruit. Specifically you will be collecting fruit in the order apples, grapes, bananas, pineapples. The order is important for the thesis of a paper. As with your other tasks, you must pick up only fruit and in the right order to be paid otherwise money will be deducted from your pay.
Make sure not to pick up any of the vegetables in the world which include broccoli, corn, carrots, or cucumbers or you will lose money.
You are collecting four types of toy weapons in the neighborhood. These include plastic models of guns, rocket launchers, grenades, and swords.
There are other tools in the world such as screwdrivers, hammers, tape measures, and pliers. Once again, you will be paid for each toy weapon you remove from the world and you will lose money should you pick up a tool.
Here is the layout of the world. Note that there are several places in which you are able to investigate. Try to visit as many of these places as you can in the time you have. People and objects will be both outside and inside of buildings so look in as many places as possible and you will most likely gather more information and be paid more!
Anywhere outside is fair game, with the exception of the area behind the houses. Do not worry about going in this area as nothing will be there. Do look on the lawns, porches, stairs, streets, sidewalks, parking lots, the playground, etc.
The places where you can go inside include the following:
- Residential street:
- Condemned house
- Cul-du-sac house
- Exterior apartment
- Gas station street:
- Motel
- Interior apartment
- Bar
Only doors that go into these places and doors inside these places open, so don’t waste your time trying to open any other doors. All doors that you can open will be marked clearly with a green sign. Also, though there are cabinets and appliances in these locations, you do not need to open any cabinets/appliances as you will find nothing of value.
Some examples of areas in the world:
Also, there are signs in the world placed by previous anthropology researcher on where to find things, which look similar to other signs in the world. Pay attention to these signs give as they could save you time in where you look. Other signs weren’t placed there the researchers and won’t be relevant to your mission so try to read them all
There is one thing you must keep in mind as you go about collecting things. There is a vicious dog that roams the neighborhood. He is a Rottweiler with a deep growl that indicates when he is lurking around. Watch out for him – he can attack at any time and any where. Should you be bitten by him, you will lose all the money that you’ve earned up to that point. Keep in mind though that if you’re constantly hiding from him you will also lose money so go about your job as best as you can; not only that but he will most likely find you, so hiding is really a waste of time. To complete your tasks you will have to continue searching even when the dog is around.
Here is an idea of what the neighborhood would look like if you were walking around in it.
