Designing Location-based Games : How to support players’ social interaction, physical activity and learning about their local environment

The earliest academic studies on location-based games (LBGs) were conducted in the early 2000’s, but the recent upsurge in the popularity and success of commercial LBGs has created a need to re-examine the genre in light of new empirical evidence. In 2016, Pokemon GO brought the LBG genre into a spotlight by being downloaded hundreds of millions of times and generating over 4 billion USD in lifetime revenue to date. Since then, new games such as Jurassic World: Alive, The Walking Dead: Our World and The Witcher: Monster Slayer have emerged. Understanding phenomena related to LBGs is important for various stakeholders from game designers to urban designers and educators. In this dissertation we take an inductive approach to LBG design by gathering evidence from popular commercial LBGs with six original research articles (Studies I-VI). The studies focus on game mechanics that are unique to the LBG genre, and how reported positive outcomes of playing LBGs can be tied to these mechanics. Through the six studies we derive a game mechanics -focused design framework for LBGs, which we name the Triune PoI System, where PoI stands for point of interest. The system consists of three central components: exploration, discovery and navigation, and at the heart of these lies moving to trigger gameplay. The Triune PoI System highlights the importance of LBGs to provide multimodal motivation for players to move and play, and the crucial importance of the playing locations, the PoIs for scaffolding positive outcomes. We demonstrate how the following benefits of playing LBGs (1) physical activity; (2) social interaction; and (3) learning and discovery; are ultimately tied to the Triune PoI System (Studies I-IV). We also investigate the effects of aggressive marketing and LBG game mechanics on players’ well-being (Study V). Here we identify that aggressive marketing can exhaust players, but that the overall LBG playing intensity had a strong significant association with psychological well-being in our sample. We also demonstrate that nostalgia and imagination play crucial roles in scaffolding perceived meaningfulness of playing LBGs (Study VI). Finally, we propose that the popularity of LBGs may be explained by them embodying aspects of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle that are missing in the urban way of living. TIIVISTELMÄ Varhaisimmat akateemiset tutkimukset paikkatietoon pohjautuvista peleistä julkaistiin jo vuosituhannen alussa, mutta pelien viimeaikainen suosio ja kaupallinen menestys antavat aihetta tarkastella paikkatietoon pohjautuvien pelien suunnittelua uuden empiirisen todistusaineiston valossa. Vuonna 2016 julkaistua Pokémon GO:ta on ladattu satoja miljoonia kertoja ja sen suosion inspiroimana on julkaistu sellaisia paikkatietoon pohjautuvia pelejä kuin Jurassic World: Alive, The Walking Dead: Our World sekä The Witcher: Monster Slayer. Näiden pelien ja niihin liittyvien ilmiöiden ymmärtäminen voi olla hyödyllistä monille eri tahoille, kuten pelisuunnittelijoille, kaupunkisuunnittelijoille ja koulutuksesta vastaaville. Tässä väitöskirjatutkimuksessa lähestytään paikkatietoon pohjautuvien pelien suunnittelua induktiivisesti kuuden alkuperäisartikkelin avulla. Tutkimuksessa selvitetään mitkä ovat paikkatietoon pohjautuvien pelien keskeisimmät pelimekaniikat ja miten raportoidut positiiviset vaikutukset nivoutuvat niihin. Tulokset osoittavat, että suosittujen paikkatietoon pohjautuvien pelien keskiössä on ns. "Triune PoI System", joka koostuu 3+1 komponentista: tutkiminen, löytäminen ja navigointi; sekä liikkuminen. Toisin sanoen pelaajat lähtevät tutkimaan ympäristöään, löytävät sieltä mielenkiintoisia kohteita ja navigoivat niiden luokse. Lisäksi pelien keskeisenä elementtinä on pelkästä liikkumisesta palkitseminen. Tutkimuksessa osoitetaan, että liikunta, sosiaalinen vuorovaikutus ja oppiminen on suosituissa peleissä, kuten Pokémon GO:ssa, keskeisesti sidottu Triune PoI Systemiin. Lisäksi selvitetään mitä vaikutuksia kaupallisten paikkatietoon pohjautuvien pelien markkinoinnilla ja mikrotransaktiomekanismeilla on pelaajien hyvinvointiin. Tutkimuksessa havaitaan, että markkinointi saattaa väsyttää pelaajia, mutta kokonaisuutena paikkatietoon pohjautuvien pelien pelaamisella ja hyvinvoinnilla on tilastollisesti merkitsevä vahva yhteys. Lisäksi osoitetaan, että nostalgia ja mielikuvitus tukevat tunnetta pelaamisen merkityksellistä. Lopuksi ehdotetaan, että paikkatietoon pohjautuvien pelien suosiota saattaa selittää niiden tarjoamat metsästäjä-keräilijä-elämän aspektit, joista urbaanissa miljöössä elävät ihmiset jäävät arkielämässään paitsi

Comparing Social Media Reactions to Early Game Songs and Final Boss Music in Single Player Adventure Games

Single player video games unite players through shared experiences, passion and knowledge about the game. We investigate the role of video game music in this setting. We analyse comments (n=1893) on 20 popular single player adventure game songs on social media sorted into four clusters based on the following two variables (1) age of the game; and (2) whether the song appears early on in the game or at the end. We discovered that there are more similarities in the types of comments and sentiments between early game songs across games than between songs from the same game. Early game songs had more comments related to nostalgia, sadness and "feeling of home" compared to late game songs. Comments on late game songs were more focused on players' experiences while playing. Overall, all 20 songs had overwhelmingly more comments on associations (both game and life related) than on the actual song itself

A Lightweight Co-Construction Activity for Teaching 21st Century Skills at Primary Schools

Employing learning processes that promote 21st Century skills is now a requirement in Finnish schools and elsewhere. Participatory design/co-design activities have shown to foster design thinking and computational thinking skills in primary school level participants, but a lightweight applicable model of such an activity is yet to be presented. We develop a lightweight hybrid co-construction method based on software development via two exploratory case studies in a Finnish primary school. For the purpose of evaluating objectively the motivating effects of our activity, we elaborate upon four concerning dimensions that arise from previous studies. In our resulting activity, an adult programmer is partnered with a group of children to, in this case, construct math games together. The children felt empowered and motivated by working with us in this way, however, further study is required on the effects this kind of an activity has in comparison to alternative teaching methods

Understanding Software Obfuscation and Diversification as Defensive Measures for the Cybersecurity of Internet of Things

Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as an umbrella term to describe connecting smart everyday objects (such as washing machines, toilets and sound systems), sensors and industrial machines to the internet. While IoT devices hold potential to greatly enhance quality of life through automating and optimizing mundane tasks, there are a great deal of security and privacy challenges. For this reason, practitioners and academics have explored various ways to enhance the multi-layered security of IoT devices. One of these methods is obfuscation, which has been successfully applied to make accessing devices more difficult for adversaries. In this study, we systematically processed the literature on applying obfuscation and diversification to improve IoT cybersecurity (81 articles) and clustered this research according the obfuscation target (code, data, interface, location, traffic). We then conducted a follow-up bibliometric review of the entire research profile of IoT cybersecurity (3,682 articles) to understand how these obfuscation and diversification approaches relate to the general cybersecurity landscape and solutions of IoT. We also derive a comprehensive list of benefits and shortcomings of enhancing IoT security through diversification, and present points of departure for future research

WHEN TO SET GOALS THAT HOLD? LONGITUDINAL EVIDENCE FROM INFORMATION SYSTEM-SUPPORTED SMOKING CESSATION

Goal setting literature suggests that individuals set their goals more frequently on temporal landmarks, e.g. the New Year’s day (known as the fresh start effect). What remains unclear is whether setting goals on temporal landmarks has also a positive impact on goal attainment. We investigated goal setting and attainment behaviours in the context of an information system dedicated for smoking cessation with design features to promote such behaviours. We collected data from almost 1 million unique users from 2015 to 2021 and studied the effects of goals set on temporal landmarks on goal attainment for two groups: (1) users in their first attempts; and (2) users who continuously set the same goal. The results show that setting goals on temporal landmarks have mostly a negative influence on goal attainment for the first group. However, for the second group, setting goals on temporal landmarks is largely positively correlated with goal attainment

Dark Desires? Using the Theory of Basic Desires to Better Understand Toxic Behavior in Multiplayer Online Games

Within the context of multiplayer online battle arena video games (MOBAs) toxic behavior (TB) remains a complex and yet unsolved socio-technological challenge. While significant work has been done recently, there is a lack of theory-guided approaches for curbing TB. In this work, we test the motivational theory of basic desires for explaining the occurrence of TB. For this, we used a survey approach and collected a sample consisting of players of the successful MOBAs League of Legends and Dota 2 (n = 308). Using a PCA, results indicate two underlying factors of the 16 basic desires (i.e., physiological and social factors). Consequently, both factors hold the potential to explain TB. In addition, the predisposition age showed a significant influence on TB in our sample. These findings highlight the 16 basic desires as a promising frame for understanding the antecedents of TB

Into the Unown : Improving location-based gamified crowdsourcing solutions for geo data gathering

Crowdsourcing has been recently successfully used to gather rich geo data in location-based games such as Pokémon GO. However, the academic literature has demonstrated that the selected crowdsourcing practices have led to the reinforcement of existing geographic biases, favouring rich areas and urban neighbourhoods over poor and rural areas. In this work, we investigate through two studies whether these biases could be mitigated by improving the crowdsourcing platform (Study 1) and supporting the crowdsourcing tasks with open map resources (Study 2). As an outcome of the first study, we derived 15 recommendations across six thematic areas for optimising the crowdsourcing processes. In the follow-up study, we demonstrated with a proof-of-concept work the potential to computationally improve the point of interest coverage particularly in developing countries and rural areas, and highlighted the potential of utilising open map services to build decision support systems for assisting in the evaluation of the crowdsourced content.Peer reviewe

Proceedings of the 54th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2021

Pokémon has become the most profitable cross-media franchise since its creation 25 years ago. In this conceptual work, we go through the current eight generations of Pokémon games, movies and anime episodes to understand why the franchise appeals to humans. We focus on the following four core themes: (1) relationship with the Pokémon creatures; (2) exploration and adventure; (3) social connectedness and acceptance; and (4) green technologies and living in symbiosis with the environment. We discuss how these themes resonate with human primal desires and what aspects of Pokémon transcend into the real world. Our findings indicate that the Pokémon world is able to offer humans aspects of the hunter-gatherer era that are missing from the current urban way of living. The franchise appeals to human primal desires by being about exploring the world, understanding it and finding harmony with other living creatures. Our findings support previous work on the appeal of specific Pokémon games, and contributes to our understanding of what has made the franchise popular.</p

When Player Communities Revolt Against the Developer : A Study of Pokémon GO and Diablo Immortal

Several popular contemporary online multiplayer games and franchises are developed and managed with the aid of multiple data sources. Despite the control and insight that the utilization of data brings to game design and business decisions, video game developers occasionally receive backlash from their player communities. Examples include the announcement of Diablo Immortal at BlizzCon 2018, and the #HearUsNiantic campaign among Pokémon GO players in August 2021. In this article we analyze these two examples and demonstrate the importance of understanding player behavior more broadly than what can be derived from quantitative in-game data. In both the analyzed cases, players’ offline culture played a paramount role in the backlash. We argue that the primary reason for the observed backlash is that the players’ lives have become intertwined with digital products, and hence, changing these products alters the players’ lives as well.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe