The Locarno is now shut and it’s pouring with rain both here in Exeter and in the Day of the Figurines. I’m still in good health and carrying my saveloy but I do wish to meet other players or come across something exciting. I spend the morning dealing with some urgent departmental matters and then leave for Nottingham.

The next few hours are not so good. I arrive at the tower block. There is no one here. I arrive at the YMCA. There is no one here. I arrive at the nuclear bunker. This appears to be shut. I arrive at trap solutions. There is no one here. I arrive at SK8 Park. It’s dark and deserted. I arrive at Max Agra’s. There is no one here. I arrive at Ron’s Top Chip Shop. This is shut. I look out of the train window – it’s foggy and the land is unmemorable. I think that I should use the time of this journey to answer Nick Kaye’s interesting questions.

Nick Kaye: ‘Has coming home removed you further from the game?’

Gabriella Giannachi: Apart from the interesting presumption that I was at any point previously removed from the game, I don’t think that coming home has had much of an effect on my play. I only forgot my phone twice, and both these occurrences took place when I went to the supermarket with my family. I did however switch my phone off during my aunt’s funeral and while seeing my tutees, and I have found it impossible to deal with the messages while writing under pressure, dealing with the various staff involved in my aunt’s situation but also while meeting with Steve Benford, Andy Crabtree and Andy French at Mixed Reality Lab. I have, on the other hand, been able to respond to messages while being with my family or colleagues in Exeter and abroad, and, generally, while travelling.

Nick Kaye: ‘Is the game immersive?’

Gabriella Giannachi: The game is definitively absorbing, engaging and pervasive. It is immersive in the sense that an important phone call, or, in some ways, reading a good novel, can distract you (or remove you) from your context. It is not immersive in the way that CAVE or VR can give you the impression of being somewhere else. It would be interesting, however, to compare neurofeedback from this kind of work with that from more conventionally immersive technologies. In this sense, there are substantial differences in the way presence is produced here, vs a more immersive piece like Desert Rain, or Can You See Me Now and Uncle Roy – but more on this in the article that I hope to be developing soon on Day of the Figurines.

Nick Kaye: ‘Have you ever dreamt about the game?’

Gabriella Giannachi: Not yet.

Nick Kaye: ‘If you were not documenting your game-play, would you play it differently? If so how?’

Gabriella Giannachi: Yes, I am sure that I would have played differently. I have tried to visit a number of destinations to get a feeling about different locations within the game. I don’t think that I would have travelled quite as much if I hadn’t had to write about it every day. I’m also aware that most players know the link between who I am and my figurine. I have felt that this has limited what I have been willing to do as a player.

Nick Kaye: ‘Can you perceive cultural differences between your fellow anonymous players?’

Gabriella Giannachi: Yes, but I did not track them for the purpose of this documentation, though I think that this would constitute an interesting project for a linguist or someone in cultural studies. Some players write bilingually, and whereas some German players have picked up on the intertextuality of my figurine’s name, the UK players haven’t or at least have chosen not to mention it. Interestingly also, non-English language native speakers, such as myself, have had the occasional trouble with words, most famously with saveloys.

Nick Kaye: ‘Do you perceive different attitudes to you from different players in the game?’

Gabriella Giannachi: All players have different attitudes. BARNEY, SCOOBY, BERLIN, SUNNYCLOUDY and LYSISTRATA are the ones with whom I have had the most regular contact. I have tried to meet HASSAN on a number of occasions but only ever got him to respond once, though he seems very active on other fronts. STAN has been good, very polite, poetic almost at times, MARTIN and CAROLE have never replied. SIR ETON, also, a vague memory... Contact with all the other players has been either very sporadic or non-existent. Or, at least, this is what I now recall.

Nick Kaye: ‘Are there recognisable groups of players within the game? If so, do you belong to a group or are you an outsider?’

Gabriella Giannachi: Yes, I feel that there are recognisable groups. I, myself, however, have always felt as an outsider, except when in the company of LYSISTRATA, SUNNYCLOUDY (or was it CLOUDYSUNNY) or BERLIN. SCOOBY also has been friendly, and BARNEY is the only one who spent a good deal of time with me earlier in the game. And BERLIN – oh what would I do without BERLIN – they always know what I need most.

Nick Kaye: ‘Is the game a distraction?’

Gabriella Giannachi: The game has been good entertainment and it has distracted me from the awful circumstances in which I have found myself over the last few weeks. It has not distracted me from anything pressing because although the game is pervasive it is so in a subtle and always controllable way. After all, you can always switch the phone off.

Nick Kaye: ‘How frequently do you ever shape your everyday behaviour according to the rhythm of game-play?’

Gabriella Giannachi: Not much. I have found, however, that my everyday behaviour has been monopolised by the need to write this documentation, day after day, for such a long period of time. I’d like one day to be able to play the game without having to write about it. But that’s a utopia!

Nick Kaye: ‘What is your favourite place in the game? Or are all the places essentially the same?’

Gabriella Giannachi: There are big differences between destinations. I think that my relationship with a given destination depends on what happened to me in it, whom I met in it, and what I could get from it. So, Kath’s Cafè and the Rec have been good places for me. The Rat Research Institute was where I had my first mission and that was exciting. I still like the canal, for there are drum kits and water there, and the famous Locarno, sadly, meant nothing to me, since, despite all the publicity, I didn’t get to play or saw any exciting action. But then this is just my experience. As I said before, we’re all having pretty different experiences in this game.

As I have dinner in my Nottingham habitué and arrive at the 24 hour garage. LYSISTRATA is here. At last we meet again. She, like me, is a dreamer and we’ve had some really good conversations in the past. LYSISTRATA suggests to take the emergency entrance to the Rat Research Institute. I reply instantly, but my dreamer friend has left already. BERLIN, however, rescues me once again from my solitude and tells me that they are all heading for the Lock. Would I care to join? What a question BERLIN, I’d follow you anywhere.

To follow my game tomorrow go to Day of the Figurines 18/10/2006