A framework for the design and analysis of socially pervasive games

Pervasive games have the potential to create large social impacts on players and non-players alike. However, this can only happen when the game becomes integrated and accepted within a social community - or in other words, is socially adopted in its target environment. A socially pervasive game must also adapt to allow people to play at their own convenience. In my research I describe Powell’s Pervasive Play Lens (3PL), a framework for the design and analysis of socially pervasive games. 3PL is a powerful model that elaborates the magic circle to illustrate the concentric boundaries of play that surround socially pervasive games, helping designers understand when and how a person and a community might adopt a new pervasive game. This 3PL framework and theory have been applied to develop and refine Snag’em, a human scavenger hunt that has been applied to help students learn professional networking skills in several conferences over three years. I present my findings in a design research narrative that details the complex and rich social environments for Snag’em and the evolution of it’s design over several iterations. This narrative illustrates the application of 3PL and how designers can predict and measure how particular game elements create affordances that increase the acceptance, adoption, and adaptability of socially pervasive games

Cultural Heritage Gaming

The goal of this project was two fold. We created two gaming templates and a manual for creating effective games. Our gaming templates are based off Rosenborg Castle/King\u27s Garden and the Nyhavn area. The manual includes techniques to help create engaging and educational PlayingMondo games

Injustice and Balance in Pervasive Video Games

Sendo um meio artistico intimamente relacionado com o avanço da tecnologia, alguns dos video-jogos mais interessantes são feitos através da expansão dos limites técnicos do que é considerado um jogo. Tal como o salto de gráficos em 2D para 3D, o impacto da internet em jogos multi-player e a inter-conectividade entre jogadores, ou a forma como a realidade virtual e a realidade aumentada têm mudado o que é possível dentro de um mundo virtual, há um outro género que tem aumentado em popularidade com a chegada de tecnologia nova - jogos pervasivos. O género de jogos pervasivos engloba jogos que misturam o mundo virtual do jogo e o mundo real através dos dados contextuais e de localização do jogador, servindo-se dos novos avanços tecnológicos acerca de tecnologia móvel. O fenómeno de Pokémon GO liderou a quebra do género para o mainstream, permitindo a que muitos outros jogos semelhantes tenham sucesso e obtendo para si uma audiência mundial considerável. Ao contrário de jogos de realidade aumentada - que esperam que o jogador veja o mundo através de uma câmara e a ela aplica os elementos do mundo virtual - os jogos pervasivos usam dados do mundo real como a sua base de construção. Existe bastante junção entre estes dois géneros de jogo, como vendo os dinossauros do Jurassic Park Alive através do telemóvel após os encontrar num parque local. Um grande problema presente nos jogos pervasivos é central ao aspeto que os torna únicos: devido a serem tão dependentes do contexto e localização do jogador, jogos pervasivos têm maior tendência para perconceitos que tornam alguns contextos melhores que outros. Um exemplo relevante é como no Pokémon GO, jogadores em zonas rurais têm uma quantidade reduzida ou nula de geração de Pokémons, enquanto jogadores em grandes cidades têm uma enchente constante de novos monstros para apanhar. Para resolver este problema, esta dissertação tem como objetivo desenvolver uma plataforma de análise de dados para jogos pervasivos que permita aos desenvolvedores obter um parecer relativamente ao balanço do seu jogo. Este objetivo será alcançado fazendo um cruzamento entre os dados do jogador e os contextuais, servindo-se de técnicas de aprendizagem automática para entender o que está a funcionar no jogo e o que não está. Esta tese não tem apenas a finalidade de oferecer aos desenvolvedores uma ferramenta que permita melhorar o balanço de jogos pré-existentes, mas sim resolver um problema significativo que tem estado a impedir o avanço e a experimentação de jogos pervasivos com experiências mais complexas e profundas.Being an art medium closely tied with the advancement of technology, some of the most interesting video games get made by expanding the technical limits of play in many new ways. Just like the jump from 2D graphics to 3D, how the internet shaped multiplayer games and inter-connectivity between players, and the way that now Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are changing what is possible in a virtual world, another game genre has grown in popularity with the advent of new, exciting technology - pervasive games. The genre of pervasive games encompasses games that merge the game's virtual world and the real world together by taking advantage of the player's location data and contextual information, using the new leaps in technology regarding mobile internet. The phenomenon of Pokémon GO spearheaded the genre's break into the mainstream, allowing many other similar games to thrive and carving for itself a really large audience worldwide. Unlike augmented reality games - that expect you to see the world through a camera, that it then applies elements of the virtual world to - pervasive games uses the data from the real world as its base. There is a lot of cross-over between these two genres, like seeing the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park Alive through your phone after finding them in a local park. A big issue with pervasive games is central to its claim-to-fame: due to being so context and location-dependent, pervasive games are bound to have biases that make some contexts much better than others. A prime example of this is how in Pokémon GO, players in rural areas have nearly no Pokémon spawns, while players in cities have a constant stream of new monsters to catch. To solve this, this dissertation aims to develop an analytics platform for pervasive games that allows developers to obtain feedback on their game's balance. This goal will be achieved by cross-referencing player data and context data, using machine learning techniques to discover what works and what doesn't. This work's goal isn't simply to offer a tool to developers that help balance their games but also to help solve a significant issue holding pervasive games back from experimenting with more complex and deep experiences

Producing Affection : Affect and Mediated Intimacy in Pokémon

Pokémon is a global multimedia franchise formed around a core series of videogames and a variety of characters to collect, learn about, and play with. Throughout its decades of development, Pokémon has grown into a media mix comprising of digital and analog games, animations, comics, toys, and a plethora of branded merchandize, all centering on the Pokémon characters and the audience’s relationship with them. In this thesis, I explore how affection is formed and distributed in Pokémon. I view the relationship with Pokémon characters as a form of mediated intimacy, theorizing it as feelings of affection and closeness expressed through and aimed at technology. Through this, I discuss how technological and fantastical bodies wield agency and actively participate in the formation of everyday affects. By drawing primarily on game studies and affect studies, I develop an interdisciplinary method for playing and reading media texts for their affects and use it to analyze the media mix of Pokémon and the affective relations therein. I focus primarily on the Pokémon videogames that serve as the core product of the entire media mix. I examine what it means to construct an entire media mix based on videogames and play and suggest this as a key interpretive arrangement for understanding the mediated intimacy of Pokémon. This study presents the mediated intimacy of Pokémon as the result of the ludic and technological foundations of the Pokémon media mix, at the heart of which is the role-playing form of the original videogames and the way they have positioned audiences as participants and characters in the world of Pokémon. In this playful environment that overlaps fiction and everyday reality, the media mix guides its players to conduct a form of affective labor to access and traverse the textual whole of Pokémon and furthermore aligns this effort with the diegetic theme of caretaking as captured on the transmedia bodies of Pokémon. Additionally, this work contributes to the theorization and rethinking of intimacies by exploring affection in human and non-human networks as an entanglement of biological and technological actors.Tuotettua kiintymystä. Pokémonin affekti ja medioitu intiimiys Pokémon on globaali monimediakokonaisuus. Sen keskiössä on joukko videopelejä sekä niiden hahmoja, joita kerätään, joista opitaan ja joiden kanssa leikitään. Pokémonista on vuosikymmenten mittaan kasvanut mediatuotteiden rypäs, media mix: monista tuote- ja julkaisukanavista koostuva kokonaisuus, joka sisältää digitaalisia ja analogisia pelejä, animaatioita, sarjakuvia, leluja ja brändituotteita, joissa kaikissa korostuvat Pokémon-hahmot sekä yleisön suhde niihin. Väitöskirjassani tarkastelen, miten kiintymystä rakennetaan ja levitetään Pokémonissa. Tutkin Pokémon-hahmoihin muodostettuja suhteita medioidun intiimiyden käsitteen kautta. Tutkimuksessani suhteet näyttäytyvät kiintymyksellisten tunteiden tiivistyminä sekä läheisyytenä, jota ilmaistaan teknologian avulla ja sitä kohtaan. Näin tarkastelen, miten teknologisten sekä fantastisten kehojen toimijuus näkyy arkipäiväisten affektien muodostumisessa. Ammentamalla pelitutkimuksesta ja affektitutkimuksesta kehitän monitieteisen metodin mediatekstien pelaamiseen ja lukemiseen, ja käytän sitä Pokémonin media mixin, sen affektien ja sen piirissä muodostettujen kiintymyssuhteiden analysointiin. Keskityn erityisesti Pokémon-videopeleihin, jotka toimivat koko media mixin ydintuotteena. Tutkin, miten Pokémonin media mix on rakennettu ensisijaisesti pelilliselle ja leikilliselle pohjalle, ja ehdotan tätä tulkintamallia keskeiseksi Pokémonin medioidun intiimiyden ymmärtämiselle. Tutkimuksen tuloksena esitän Pokémonin medioidun intiimiyden muodostuvan Pokémonin media mixin leikillisistä ja teknologisista juurista, joiden perustana on alkuperäisten Pokémon-videopelien roolipelillinen rakenne sekä se, miten sen avulla pelaajat on asemoitu hahmoiksi Pokémonin maailmaan. Fiktiota ja todellisuutta sekoittavassa leikillisessä ympäristössä Pokémonin media mix ohjaa pelaajia hoivan ja huolenpidon teemojen kautta tekemään tunnetyötä tuoteperheen mediatekstien parissa ja piirtää tämän työn tulokset Pokémon-hahmojen monimediakehoille. Lisäksi väitöstutkimukseni osallistuu intiimiyden laajempaan teoretisointiin ja uudelleenmäärittelyyn tarkastelemalla elollisten ja leikillisesti elävien toimijoiden suhteita biologisena ja teknologisena yhteenliittymän

Moving on from Weiser's Vision of Calm Computing: engaging UbiComp experiences

A motivation behind much UbiComp research has been to make our lives convenient, comfortable and informed, following in the footsteps of Weiser's calm computing vision. Three themes that have dominated are context awareness, ambient intelligence and monitoring/tracking. While these avenues of research have been fruitful their accomplishments do not match up to anything like Weiser's world. This paper discusses why this is so and argues that is time for a change of direction in the field. An alternative agenda is outlined that focuses on engaging rather than calming people. Humans are very resourceful at exploiting their environments and extending their capabilities using existing strategies and tools. I describe how pervasive technologies can be added to the mix, outlining three areas of practice where there is much potential for professionals and laypeople alike to combine, adapt and use them in creative and constructive ways

Playing Games with Tito:Designing Hybrid Museum Experiences for Critical Play

This article brings together two distinct, but related perspectives on playful museum experiences: Critical play and hybrid design. The article explores the challenges involved in combining these two perspectives, through the design of two hybrid museum experiences that aimed to facilitate critical play with/in the collections of the Museum of Yugoslavia and the highly contested heritage they represent. Based on reflections from the design process as well as feedback from test users, we describe a series of challenges: Challenging the norms of visitor behaviour, challenging the role of the artefact, and challenging the curatorial authority. In conclusion, we outline some possible design strategies to address these challenges

History of Escape Games : examined through real-life-and digital precursors and the production of Spygame

The focus of this master’s thesis is on forming an image of history of modern escape games based on real world-and digital precursors of this genre of games and on recording what escape game phenomenon is like in late 2010s, roughly a decade after these games first started appearing. The research is based on previous work on the topic mostly by Dr. Scott Nicholson, to which I add my own insight and build a broader, more in depth portrayal of the history through presenting examples of each precursor and linking the precursor’s features to features of modern escape games. The most important academic background of this thesis is Dr. Scott Nicholson’s white paper Peeking behind the locked door: A survey of escape room facilities (2015). Other academic background of this thesis comes from research regarding the different precursors and from the field of game design, such as Fundamentals of Game Design (2010) by Dr. Ernest Adams. Since the history of escape game genre has to my knowledge not been researched and recorded to this extent earlier, a big part of the references used in this thesis consists of non-academic sources: escape room related websites, -blogs-posts and -videos, which I used to collect and analyze information. I use the production of Spygame, which is a modern escape game with influences of especially interactive theater, as a case study to illustrate ways the history of escape games can be concretely seen in modern escape games. I worked as the project manager in the production of Spygame in 2017 and hence have access to large amount of unique data regarding the production of the game, including notes from game testings, internal emails, notes from game development meetings etc. I analyze this data and connect the history with this modern game through examples of how the influences of history can be seen in our game design choices and expectations of the game testers. According to Nicholson, precursors of escape rooms include live action role-playing, point-and-click adventure games, puzzle- and treasure hunts, interactive theater and haunted houses, adventure game shows and themed entertainment industry. I divide the precursors to digital-and real-life precursors and add themed restaurants, team building activities, pervasive games and alternate reality games to this list of precursors of escape rooms. I also state that the escape room-name of these games likely originates from digital escape-the-room games, which is a sub-genre of point-and click adventure games

User Experience of Geocaching and Its Application to Tourism and Education

Advances in technology have provided new ways of using entertainment and game technology to foster human interaction. Games and playing with games have always been an important part of people’s everyday lives. Traditionally, human-computer interaction (HCI) research was seen as a psychological cognitive science focused on human factors, with engineering sciences as the computer science part of it. Although cognitive science has made significant progress over the past decade, the influence of people’s emotions on design networks is increasingly important, especially when the primary goal is to challenge and entertain users (Norman 2002). Game developers have explored the key issues in game design and identified that the driving force in the success of games is user experience. User-centered design integrates knowledge of users’ activity practices, needs, and preferences into the design process. Geocaching is a location-based treasure hunt game created by a community of players. Players use GPS (Global Position System) technology to find “treasures” and create their own geocaches; the game can be developed when the players invent caches and used more imagination to creations the caches. This doctoral dissertation explores user experience of geocaching and its applications in tourism and education. Globally, based on the Geocaching.com webpage, geocaching has been played about 180 countries and there are more than 10 million registered geocachers worldwide (Geocaching.com, 25.11.2014). This dissertation develops and presents an interaction model called the GameFlow Experience model that can be used to support the design of treasure hunt applications in tourism and education contexts. The GameFlow Model presents and clarifies various experiences; it provides such experiences in a real-life context, offers desirable design targets to be utilized in service design, and offers a perspective to consider when evaluating the success of adventure game concepts. User-centered game designs have adapted to human factor research in mainstream computing science. For many years, the user-centered design approach has been the most important research field in software development. Research has been focusing on user-centered design in software development such as office programs, but the same ideas and theories that will reflect the needs of a user-centered research are now also being applied to game design (Charles et al. 2005.) For several years, we have seen a growing interest in user experience design. Digital games are experience providers, and game developers need tools to better understand the user experience related to products and services they have created. This thesis aims to present what the user experience is in geocaching and treasure hunt games and how it can be used to develop new concepts for the treasure hunt. Engineers, designers, and researchers should have a clear understanding of what user experience is, what its parts are, and most importantly, how we can influence user satisfaction. In addition, we need to understand how users interact with electronic products and people, and how different elements synergize their experiences. This doctoral dissertation represents pioneering work on the user experience of geocaching and treasure hunt games in the context of tourism and education. The research also provides a model for game developers who are planning treasure hunt concepts.Teknologinen kehitys on tarjonnut uusia tapoja hyödyntää viihdettä ja peliteknologiaa ihmisten välisessä vuorovaikutuksessa. Pelit ja niiden pelaaminen on ollut aina tärkeä osa ihmisten arkipäivää. Ihmisen ja tietokoneen välisen vuorovaikutuksen tutkimus, human-computer interaction research (HCI), on perinteisesti nähty kognitiivisena psykologiana, johon kuuluvat inhimilliset tekijät, sekä insinööritieteenä, johon sisältyy tietojenkäsittelytiede. Vaikka kognitiivinen tiede on kehittynyt viime vuosina valtavasti, suunnitteluverkostoihin vaikuttavat ihmisten tunteet ovat yhä tärkeämmässä osassa, erityisesti silloin kun tavoitteena on haastaa ja viihdyttää käyttäjiä. (Norman 2002.) Pelinkehittäjät ovat selvittäneet pelisuunnittelun kannalta olennaisia tekijöitä ja tunnistaneet, että pelien menestyksen salaisuus on käyttäjäkokemus. Käyttäjäkeskeisessä suunnittelussa käyttäjien toiminnan käytäntöjen, tarpeiden ja toiveiden tuntemus tuodaan mukaan suunnitteluprosessiin. Geokätköily on paikannukseen perustuva aarteenetsintäpeli, jonka pelaajat ovat luoneet yhdessä. Pelaajat käyttävät GPS-teknologiaa "aarteiden" etsimiseen ja lisäävät omia geokätkökohteita ja peli kehittyy jatkuvasti pelaajien keksiessä kätköjä, jotka vaativat yhä enemmän mielikuvitusta. Tässäväitöskirjassa tutkitaan geokätköilyn käyttäjäkokemusta ja sen sovelluksia koulutuksen- ja matkailunaloilla. Perustuen Geocaching.com websivustoon geokätköilyä pelataan noin 180 maassa, ja rekisteröityneitä käyttäjiä on yli kymmenen miljoonaa eri puolilla maailmaa (Geocaching.com, 25.11.2014). Tässä tutkielmassa esitellään vuorovaikutusmalli nimeltään GameFlow Experience -mallia, jota voidaan käyttää aarteenetsintäsovellusten suunnittelussa koulutuksen- ja matkailualojen konteksteissa. GameFlow Experience -malli esittelee ja selventää erilaisia kokemuksia - se esittelee ne todellisessa kontekstissa, tarjoaa erilaisia suunnittelutavoitteita palvelusuunnittelua varten sekä näkökulman, joka tulisi ottaa huomioon seikkailupelien menestystä arvioitaessa. Käyttäjäkeskeisessä pelisuunnittelussa on sovellettu inhimillisten tekijöiden tutkimusta valtavirran tietojenkäsittelytieteeseen. Useiden vuosien ajan, käyttäjäkeskeisen suunnittelun lähestymistavasta on tullut tärkein tutkimusala ohjelmistokehityksessä. Tutkimus on keskittynyt ohjelmistojen kehitykseen käyttäjäkeskeisessä suunnittelussa etenkin toimisto-ohjelmistoihin, mutta samoja ideoita ja teorioita, jotka heijastavat yhteiskunnan tarpeita käyttäjäkeskeisessä tutkimuksessa sovelletaan nyt myös pelisuunnitteluun. (Charles ja ym. 2005.) Kiinnostus käyttäjäkokemuksen suunnitteluun on kasvanut jo useiden vuosien ajan. Digitaaliset pelit tarjoavat kokemuksia, ja pelisuunnittelijat tarvitsevatkin työkaluja, joiden avulla voidaan entistä paremmin ymmärtää tuotteiden ja palvelujen luomia käyttäjäkokemuksia. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on esitellä käyttäjäkokemusta ja miten sitä voidaan käyttää uusien aarteenmetsästyskonseptien kehittämiseen. Insinööreillä, suunnittelijoilla ja tutkijoilla tulisi olla selkeä käsitys siitä, mikä käyttäjäkokemus on, mitkä ovat sen osat ja mikä tärkeintä, miten voimme vaikuttaa käyttäjän tyytyväisyyteen. Lisäksi pitäisi ymmärtää, miten käyttäjät toimivat elektronisten tuotteiden kanssa sekä miten ihmiset toimivat vuorovaikutuksessa toistensa kanssa ja miten eri osat vaikuttavat yhdessä käyttäjien kokemuksiin. Väitöskirja on pioneerityö käyttäjäkokemuksesta geokätköilyssä ja aarteenetsintä peleissä matkailun ja opetuksen kontekstissa. Tutkimus antaa myös mallin pelin kehittäjille, jotka suunnittelevat aarteenetsintäkonsepteja.Siirretty Doriast