In the project “Virtual Pompeii,” I felt I was able to gain a first-person perspective of what domestic life might have been like in Pompeii at the time. One can walk around the model, see the small pool in one of the main rooms on the ground floor, go upstairs and look over the courtyard, and see the candles spread across the house to illuminate it at dark. These things help to show, in a much more intimate fashion than many other mediums, what daily routines might have been like.
However, this is about all that this project does for me. It gives essentially no other information about life in Pompeii, or specifically the famous volcanic eruption that occurred there. While this project does put you in the shoes of someone in Pompeii better than many other mediums, it doesn’t really tell you about import events of the time, or much else outside of home life. At the same time, with a static model, there is only a relatively small fixed space for the user to explore and become bored quickly.
I think that adding some kind of simulation of the volcanic eruption that one could experience from inside the house would have greatly benefitted the project. Through this, you would not only be able see daily home life of a person at the era, but you would also get to experience a first-person account of an important historical event in a more intimate fashion than something like a historical paper. This would also lend itself to a more “fun” game-like experience, as it would add a dramatic element to the project.
