User:Thijshijsijsjss/Human Parser/The Human Processing Queue and Mutual Understanding Area

The Human Processing Queue and Mutual Understanding Area was a conversation simulator, exercise in human parsing and paper based text-adventure game during XPUB2's second public moment, 2025-03-28.

After awaiting their turn in the queue, a [human] was invited to take a seat at the processing desk. An intake questionnaire determined their evaluation as [human] / [parser], based on randomly marked circles and questions. They were then guided towards the Conversation Zone, where a [human] and a [parser] engaged in conversation using their personal manuals.

In the conversation, the participants danced around 3 questions (Who are you?, How do you feel?, How do you know?) before ending their conversation, or switching roles.

Some design notes

• This public moment was an excuse to try out another paper based, human text-adventure. Particularly wanting to find out how such a game can be made (1) as small as possible, (2) without confusion due to messiness of paper (dis)organization and (3) without the need for my instructions. To this end, I made a 'cascading manual': a manual emulating a TA, where the progression was always flowing 'downward'. Loops etc. are possible, but only within the visual area, i.e. the current page and the headers of the pages 'further down'. At the same time, this manual was a tryout in making a small publication -- which had been a while for me -- that could hold context for the project. The backs of the manuals contained a relevant thesis excerpt and some words from me.