In the middle of January, a former work colleague and I visited Winchester in a virtual reality immersive experience known as 878 AD. This was inspird by the "Assassin's Creed" game. The experience itself is in two parts. The first part is the interactive exhibition with virtual reality, technology, and actors/actresses playing some roles to bring the parts alive. The second part of the immersive experience is self-guided through an app that can be downloaded on mobile if taking part in the experience.
We learned about the history of Winchester and watched it come to life with some aspects from the designers of the "Assassin's Creed" game. Winchester was a walled town, and the Romans built the walls. The story is predominately focused around the Viking invasions of the city after the Roman empire. Some of the old sites of Winchester in this time were the city walls, Bishop's Palace, and cathedral. The second part of the experience was self-guided using an app on the phone, and we were able to explore parts of Winchester that have or did have historical significance. This helped us to learn about the history of the city.
First up, there was a lot of information to read about various aspects of life and living in 878 AD. We saw some items on display as well to go along with the information on various topics.
We also saw the reliquary, which was discovered in a rubbish pit.
The room also had huge screens projecting 878 AD Winchester scenes, and this was the immersive part to the event. Actors and actresses came out to talk to us and to interact for a memorable experience.
After that was completed and we had a good look around, we used the app to explore the town and complete little challenges or gamification. We stopped by some of the monuments. Unfortunately, it looks as though I forgot to save all of my photographs.
We walked the wall walk and to the river, which was quite high. There were gamification points around the trail that we walked. All of these were different and celebrated a unique place in Winchester.
Afterwards, we had pizza at The Winchester Stable. It was delicious.
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