FACILITATOR ONLY · PROTOTYPE 001

The return experiment

Give each person one link without explaining the difference. The participant interface is identical. A changes the place after the stone; B preserves it. Both use one map, one collision grid, one walking speed and the same transition.

Before the visit

Use the same device, volume and instructions for everyone: “Explore this little place. Use the direction controls to walk, and the Touch button when it becomes available.” Do not name the reference games or introduce nostalgia. Let people linger.

For a first qualitative round, alternate A and B across participants. Include people both familiar and unfamiliar with older role-playing games. Prefer one condition per person to avoid teaching the route and revealing the manipulation.

Watch

• Where do they pause, and what draws them there?
• Do they recognize or revisit the landmarks?
• Do they inspect the cup, the empty stall, the bells, or the revealed stair without prompting?
• Do navigation or controls distract from their response?

Ask afterward

“What did the place make you feel?”
“What do you remember most?”
“Would you want to return? Why?”

Write down their own words before follow-up questions. A greater frequency of spontaneous recognition, warmth, longing, loss or a changed sense of place in A is a signal for further work, not statistical proof.

Local observation record

Only the current visit is held in memory: elapsed active time, position sampled once per second, pauses, proximity to landmarks and the stair, stone activation, and return. Proximity cannot establish that a person noticed something. No data is transmitted or retained after replay or reload.

To inspect the record, use marketStudy.snapshot() in the browser console. To download it, use marketStudy.export() before replay. Attach qualitative notes separately. No participant identifiers are collected.

What is fixed

Autumn changes foliage, stall packing, population, well water and the motif’s register, timbre and decay. The red cup, landmark positions, geometry, controls and journey remain fixed. Summer vegetation hides a stair that autumn reveals. These changes together form the treatment; this prototype does not isolate their individual effects.

Finish observation before extracting a portable Prosemap Flow seed or expanding scope.