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Learning in the City through Pervasive Games

Nikolaos Avouris

[University of Patras GR]

Hybrid City 2013: Subtle rEvolutionsAthens, May 23-25 2013.

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current gaming culture

http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html

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Games in hybrid cities

Pervasive games facilitated by information infrastructure and mobile technologies use modern cities as playgrounds

These games are conducive to learning

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Hybrid City II & games

• C. Chrisanthopoulou – The Alice in Wanderland project: An Alternate Reality Game in the city of Athens.

• M. Ivkovic, B. Piepgras, R. van Emden - Fun, games and collaborative plans: Benefits and shortcomings of including interactivity and gaming into the collaborative urban planning.

• I. Theona – Experiencing cities as gamescapes.

• Z. Lekkas, H. Rizopoulos, D. Charitos – Investigating the hybrid spatial experience of a location based game.

• I. Marmaras - Banoptikon videogame: City on the run.

• I. Mavrommati, G. Mylonas, I. Chatzigiannakis, O. Akribopoulos, M. Logaras - Large scale multiplayer sensor based installations in public spaces: The case of the Words game.

• S. Papadopoulos, A. Malakasioti, G. Loukakis, G. Kalaouzis – CLOUDS: Urban Landscapes in Video Games – Representations and Spatial Narratives.

• E. Kolovou – CITYgories: Playing the urban space.

• M. Saridaki, E. Roinioti - RouteMate, a location based route learning system for users with disabilities. A playful methodological experience in different urban European landscapes.

• A. Antonopoulou – Mass mediation: The “playful crowd” and the digital present.

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On Physical and Game Spaces

Any time we are engaged in playful activity we cross a “magical circle” and enter a new space: that of game play.

New rules, new characters, new stories evolve in this new space.

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In La Vita e Bella R. Benigni plays “hide and seek” in a concentration camp

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Hybrid game spaces

Physical space

Game space

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Hybrid game spaces

Physical space

Game space

Virtual (Digital) space

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o augments the Physical space

o Supports the Game Space by imposing game mechanics

The Virtual (Digital) Space:

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Technologies to support connecting digital space to physical and game spaces

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Intra-spaces connections

• QR codes/ NFC scanning

• Image recognition

• Gestures

• Location-based instructions encoding

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Intra-spaces connections

QR codes (quick response codes)

(From Derby Museum, Connection to

QRPedia)

NFCtags (Near Field

Communication)Source: NFC at Museum of London, Nokia (Youtube)

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Gesture interaction modalities

Scan an image (GoogleGoggles)

Source: Google Goggles at the Getty Museum (Youtube)

Gesture-based interaction

Source: RExplorer(Youtube)

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Location-based instructions encoding for progressing narration

http://www.whaiwhai.com/en

• Ruyi from

whaiwhai(youtube, TGR)

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Primitive player actions

The players - through a mobile device -perform actions (selection of an item, reply to a quiz, etc.) that affect the state of the game.

The context of actions in game space and physical space, and player identity, give meaning to them. e.g. proximity of two players may allow some possible interactions between them, based on the fact that they belong to the same or competing teams.

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Examples of actions meaning

• Collecting a piece of information

• Unlocking next part of a story

• Receiving further instructions

• Replying to a question, doing a puzzle

• Linking objects (action as part of a sequence)

• Transporting “virtual objects” between positions (action as part of a sequence)

• Modifying the state of an object, i.e. locking or unlocking it

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Pervasive games & learning

De Souza & Delacruz (2006) claim that these games facilitate learning :

• Social learning– Multiuser activities content is created through

communication and collaboration

• Experiential learning– The game provides opportunities for action and

reflection on action

• Situated learning– Activity in relevant physical location

term used= augmented reality games

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Pervasive games & learning

Schrier (2006) identified an evaluation framework for location-based games based on so called 21st century learning skills:

http://www.p21.org/

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Pervasive games taxonomy

peadic

ludic

Action

games

Treasure

Hunts

Role Playing

Games

Partcipatory

Simulators

Situated

Language

Learning Museum

Guides

Museum

Interactive

Guides

Museum Role

Playing Games

Adventure

Games

Fiction in

the City

Avouris N., Yiannoutsou N. A review of mobile location-based games for learning across physical and virtual spaces To appear in Journal of Universal Computer Science, vol 18. s&Yiannoutsou, 2012

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Examples of learning in the city

• Learning about the city (tourists, awareness)

• Learning through the city (learning inspired by landmarks, historic sites, etc.)

• Learning to live in the city (citizens’ skills, solving everyday problems)

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Pervasive Games examples

• Carnival scrabble

• Who Killed Hannae

• Frequency 1550

• Invisible city

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We can adapt existing forms of games•Hide & seek, treasure hunt, cops & robbers•Party games, board-, trading- or role playing games•Computer games

Get support through design tools•Heuristics•Design guidelines•Design frameworks

How to design pervasive city games?

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CarnivalScrabble

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CarnivalScrabble

• Based on the CityScrabble idea (linking places-concepts)

• An activity in the 2013 Treasure Hunt game of Patras’ Carnival

• Over 80 competing groups using their mobile phones for following instructions

• over 200 points in the city of Patras, the players where asked to access and relate them to 28 themes.

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Who Killed Hannae

• A mystery story in the city of Aalborg (Paay et al. 2008) – existing novel

• Episodes of the book are linked to sites of the city.

• Players play the role of a detective

• Two players collaborate to solve the mystery

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Who Killed Hannae

• The story is delivered in the form of newspaper, digital character interactions

• Users collect key evidence (i.e. pictures of objects or responses from digital characters

When they are successful they are rewarded with a half sign.When two half signs are combined the next stop appears on the map

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Frequency 1550

• The Place: Medieval Amsterdam

• The story: Players have to gain 366 points or days of citizenship (a year and a day rule to earn civil rights

• Two types of groups: Headquarters and mobile groups

• Mobile groups undertake the role of merchants, beggars, priests with different status order in the game

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Frequency 1550

• The headquarters digitally follow the mobile team and guide them through the tasks, they receive information from the mobile team and make further investigations

• The mobile team implements the tasks: go to this place and take a picture or a video. Involve specific places of interest

• Six areas of medieval Amsterdam linked to different assignments: labor, trade, religion, rules, government, knowledge, defense

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Invisible City:

The Rebels vs Spies (RvS)

city game

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Invisible city Rebels Vs Spies: The original Mafia party game

Inspired by: Mafia game, aka Night in Palermo, Werewolves, Assassins...

Asymmetrical information, informed minority VS un-informed majority

Final : Invisible city - Rebels Vs SpiesoMultiplayer game for Android devicesoThe players move in the city, observe, solve puzzles, compete and cooperate

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Invisible city Rebels Vs Spies: The original Mafia party game

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Rebels →Uninformed majoritySpies → Informed minority

Invisible cityRebels Vs Spies: Expanding the concept

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At the beginning of a roundthe players gather together and choose a leader

Invisible city Rebels Vs Spies: Expanding the concept

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A leader is elected who decides the missions for each player

Invisible city Rebels Vs Spies: Expanding the concept

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The leader sends the missions to the playersand becomes a normal playerSome missions are critical, some are notIf a critical mission fails, the round goes to the spies

Invisible city Rebels Vs Spies: Expanding the concept

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Each player proceeds to find the location mentioned in the assigned mission

Invisible city Rebels Vs Spies: Expanding the concept

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The players can choose to either succeed or fail

Invisible city Rebels Vs Spies: Expanding the concept

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After completing the mission players proceeds to the location for the next round

Invisible city Rebels Vs Spies: Expanding the concept

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Spatial expansionFrom the room →To the city

Locations are spread outPlayers cannot observe each otherMeaning and storyline is fragmented

Situated play and contextual knowledgeIncorporate contextual informationEngagement through physical involvementIntegrate a coherent narrative

Invisible city Rebels Vs Spies: Expanding the concept

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Looking at the learning experience

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Learning in “Who killed Hannae”

Participants all enjoyed walking through the city of Aalborg; in fact current residents of Aalborg claimed that they had learned new things about their city. For example, the existence of the Aalborg Convent, hidden near the central city shopping precinct, and its historical associations with the Danish resistance during World War II had not previously been known to any of the participants.” (Paay et al., 2008, p. 128).

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Learning in Frequency 1550• active experience of history through a location-

based game adds to historical awareness, knowledge and appreciation of the city and its history (constructionist approach, Raessens, 2007)

• [Akkerman, 09] observed that ... the city teams who enacted the story, were often distracted by all that was happening in real time in the street, so while trying to find their way through the city, searching for assignment locations and completing the assignments, students lost the sight of the overall structure of the game and its narrative and learning effect

Raessens, J. (2007) Playing History: Reflections on Mobile and

Location-Based Learning. pp. 200-217.

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[ Extract 1 ]R. Did you learn something about the city that you didn’t know before playing the game?A: We didn’t know any of it…. it was all new.S: Yes, everything was new ….M: …. we walk every day by these sites but we had no idea of all these things about them

Invisible cities: familiar places seen through a new perspective

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[ Extract 2 ]R: So, what would you say that you learned? S. That the church of Pantocratoras was an ancient temple before.M: I was impressed with the information about the Mayor (information about an ex Mayor during the period 1949-1967)

Historic layer

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[ Extract 3 ]R: Do you think that the game would be useful for a visitor who doesn’t know the city?A: The game is not about “getting to know” the city, it is about “discovering the city”. The game is not designed for a visitor who wants to learn what the characteristic sites of this city are. The questions are about discovering the invisible city-things that were hidden and not obvious when you look at the buildings for example.

Visitors vs locals learning

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Selective attention

[ Extract 4 ]

R: Did you have the chance to look around when you were playing?

K: I knew the surroundings more or less. ….

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discussion

Often Focus on factual information → game a vehicle for transferring new information to the player - Search for this information in an intriguing, engaging and pleasant way

Is information all there is to learn about a city?Embodied experienceLive the city through the game .. City narrative

Balance is needed between overworking in “making” activities and reflection

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… discussion

• Fragmented experiences: in the context of this type of games places are treated as a bunch of disconnected and de-contextualized things (Klopfer et al., 2005)

• Fun vs learn: The focus on the place and the mental riddles is the price the players have to “pay” in order for the fun to continue

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Participation

Citizen tiles / Zsolnay Cultural Quarter, Pecs

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ookl: citizen curator

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Mission tasks may be contributed through a web site (e.g. a school teacher can design a specific version of the game for a school party)

Contribution of facts, tasks, riddles by the citizens to be included into the game

[Sintoris et al. 2011 ]

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ευχαριστώ

hci.ece.upatras.gr/avouris

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Ideas for participatory tasks

• Stating preferences, voting on interesting objects, comments etc.

• Tagging: unstructured text associated with objects

• Debunking, criticizing: arguing against other peoples’ ideas, tags etc.

• Recording personal stories: personal memories associated to a site

• Linking objects or categorising: grouping of objects or associating them with themes (e.g. card sorting, cityscrabble)