Game Description
Anders?! is an interactive AI-powered playful experience you can try at Museum de Heksenwaag in Oudewater. It uses 3D characters to lead you through an interactive story on exclusion and discrimination. It showcases the story of witch prosecution, but it also shows how people are confronted with witch hunts on social media in current times. As the visitors talk to the characters they discover that things are not as they appear. The player can then try to influence the outcome of the discussions. 

The use of AI-powered Virtual Humans is a unique element to the entire experience. The characters react both verbally and emotionally to what the player says, and the visitors can have a discussion with multiple characters at the same time. The goal is however not about winning a discussion, but experiencing the approach of the different characters and what it means to navigate between them. 

The experience intends to give visitors a better understanding of what witch prosecution really meant for the persons involved. Especially women were persecuted when they were too independent, different, or verbal for their status, or simply because the neighbor’s cow died and someone needed to be blamed. It is difficult to defend yourself when accusations are not based on facts but hearsay, superstition, or suppression and powerplay. This dynamic is regretfully still present in modern day times despite Article 1 of the Dutch Constitution on equality and discrimination. De Heksenwaag in Oudewater is unique as the museum contains the only honest scales, leading to no person ever being prosecuted at Oudewater.

Through playing Anders?! We let people reflect on the past horrors of witch persecution and mirror this to discrimination in current times. For this reason organizations such as Discriminatie.nl, Provincie Utrecht Municipality of Oudewater and SDGHub.NL have supported the creation of this experience, which is now part of the permanent exhibition “Anders?!” at Museum de Heksenwaag. For Museum de Heksenwaag the goal is not only to provide an interesting experience, but to make people reflect on the conversation they just had. We are thankful Museum de Heksenwaag took the opportunity with this installation to do things “Anders?!”.