Learning in the city through pervasive gaming

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Learning in the City through Pervasive Gaming

Nikolaos Avouris[Univ. Patras, GR]

rePLAYCE:theCITY, Gessnerallee, Zürich, Nov 7-9/2013

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Our point of viewInteraction design –>study of human-computer interaction-> learning technologies

design of mobile applications->design of mobile games

MuseumScrabble

BenakiMS CityScrabbleInvisibleCity RvS

Invaders Zone

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Mobile Games• Multiplayer games in which the play is

affected by the players’ location. They involve embedding location-specific contextual information in physical space, defining an interlinked physical and digital space through the use of mobile devices, wireless and sensing technologies.

• Alternative terms used are hybrid reality games(emphasis in the interlinking of physical and digital realities), augmented reality games, or pervasive games (emphasis on the extension of game in temporal, spatial and social dimensions).

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Mobile games: examples• The most cited (first generation) location

based games: Savannah [Benford, 04], [Benford, 05a],

[Benford 05b], FeedingYoshi [Bell, 06], Mobilegame[Schwabe 05], [Göth, 04], UncleRoy [Benford, 06], Camelot[Verhaegh, 06], [Soute, 07], [Soute, 10], CitiTag [Vogiazou, 07],

[Vogiazou, 05], Relive the Revolution (RTR), [Schrier 06],

[Schrier 05], CityExplorer [Matyas 07], [Schlieder 06], Hitchers[Drozd 06], Mogi [Licoppe 08], [Licoppe 05], Jindeo [Licoppe 06],

Riot! [Blythe 06], Frequency1550 [Raessens 07],

MobileHunters [Lonthoff 07] and AlienRevolt [De Souza

08]. From [Avouris&Yiannoutsou 2012]

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Mobile games: examples• The most cited (first generation) location

based games: Savannah [Benford, 04], [Benford, 05a],

[Benford 05b], FeedingYoshi [Bell, 06], Mobilegame[Schwabe 05], [Göth, 04], UncleRoy [Benford, 06], Camelot[Verhaegh, 06], [Soute, 07], [Soute, 10], CitiTag [Vogiazou, 07],

[Vogiazou, 05], Relive the Revolution (RTR), [Schrier 06],

[Schrier 05], CityExplorer [Matyas 07], [Schlieder 06], Hitchers[Drozd 06], Mogi [Licoppe 08], [Licoppe 05], Jindeo [Licoppe 06],

Riot! [Blythe 06], Frequency1550 [Raessens 07],

MobileHunters [Lonthoff 07] and AlienRevolt [De Souza

08]. From [Avouris&Yiannoutsou 2012]

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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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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)

NFCtags (Near Field

Communication)

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Gesture interaction modalities

Scan an image

Invaders Zone using Vuforiaframework

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

http://www.whaiwhai.com/en

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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 & physical space, and the player identity, give meaning to the actions. 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

14TimeMachine project

Our cities contain an invisible layer of cultural heritage

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Gap between “high” and “popular” culture

• Young generations are attracted by “popular” cultures, like the game culture

• It has been observed that there is a distance of young generations from “high culture”, e.g. the official cultural institutions, monuments, heritage *

• This gap may be bridged by mobile city games with learning potential

* EC. Access of Young People to Culture, Final Report EACEA/2008/01

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Can mobile city games lead to learning ?

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Mobile 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 takes place in relevant physical location

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Mobile games & learning

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

http://www.p21.org/

http://www.p21.org/

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Pervasive fun vs learning games

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. (2012) A review of mobile location-based games for learning across physical and virtual spaces Journal of Universal Computer Science, vol 18.

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Examples of learning in the city

• Learning about the city (tourists, discovery of new facts)

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

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

Int. Observatory for Smart City Learning

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Examples

• CityScrabble (linking game)

• InvisibleCity (party game made city game)

• Who Killed Hannae (fiction in the city)

• Frequency 1550 (education city game)

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CityScrabble

A B C

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CityScrabble: Connect spots to keys/themes

By scanning an object you can select it. By pressing the lock the object may be connected to a key, thus points may be gained if the connection is correct.

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CarnivalScrabble : large scale implementation of

CityScrabble

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Patras’ Carnival: the treasure hunt game

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patras_Carnival

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patras_Carnival

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CarnivalScrabble

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

• 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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Learning in CityScrabble

• The game was designed with a top-down strategy in mind, where the players pursue their goal by selecting a topic, searching for objects of interest, creating links and so on.

• However, some of the teams switched to bottom-up strategies, first scanning an object and then flipping through the topics searching for a hint that can be used in a meaningful link.

Based on Sintoris et al. 2012, evaluation of MuseumScrabble

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CityScrabble: disconnected places

Places as cut out letters just factual disconnected information (Klopfer et al., 2005) e.g.

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Visual vs cognitive hints: preference to visual hints that were consumed faster in the first part of the game

Preference for visual keys

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Invisible City:

Rebels vs Spies (RvS)

www.invisiblecity.gr

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

Asymmetrical information, informed minority VS un-informed majoritya social game of trust, deception, observation and performance

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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


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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


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


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The players can choose to either succeed or fail


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


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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


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RvS: a session of play

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Game evaluation study

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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. ….

They missed the no-game related parts of activity, they used the “game lens” to look into the city

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Fragmented experience

• More interesting the meeting points where all players gathered than the executing the tasks when learning about the city takes place.

• Tasks interrupted by other events

• Tiring experience

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Who Killed Hannae(fiction in the city)

• 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 and the story continues

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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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Frequency 1550 (education game)

• 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 teams in each group: Headquarters (HQT) and mobile City Team (CT)

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

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Frequency 1550

• The headquarters monitor the mobile team and guide them through the tasks, they receive information from the mobile team and make further investigations (Directing the game)

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

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

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Learning in Frequency 1550• Active experience of history 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, they lost the sight of the overall structure of the game and its narrative and learning effect

• Directors (HQT) learned more than Actors (CT)

Akkerman, eta l. 2009

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Learning in Frequency 1550

• Players did not pay attention to the backstory, the technology drew their attention

• Not reading the texts that delivered them historic information and advanced the story, they were more triggered to complete the assignments

Akkerman, eta l. 2009

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Learning in Mobile city games

Games mostly focus on factual information → games as vehicles for transferring new information to the playersYet searching for this information in an intriguing, engaging and pleasant activity.

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Learning in Mobile city games

However information is all there is to learn about a city?

Embodied experienceCity narrative

Balance is needed between exhausting players with “making” activities and more cognitive problem solving activity

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… discussion

• in the context of this type of games places or buildings are treated as a bunch of disconnected and de-contextualized things

• Game vs Fun: Players observed that the needed attention on the place and on factual information is “the price they had to pay” in order for the fun to continue

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… discussion

• Narrative is lost because attention is drawn to physical activity, city life distraction, etc

• No reading instructions, backstories, background information, the players were eager to complete the assignments

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Players as game designers

Contribution of new objects, in InvisibleCity

Rubén Muñoz and Christos Sintoris, 2012

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

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Players as Designers

• Contributing content

• Modifying game elements

• Using existing design patterns

– Previous design knowledge is re-used in new design problems

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Learning through participation in game design

• Active –constructive learning (users: co-creators of new ideas, knowledge and products, public meta-artifacts)

• Rich learning opportunities: analysis and synthesis around the city space and the spatial content that is going to be integrated in the game

• Ownership of information

• Participation in design communities

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Designing CityScrabble

• Choosing from a set of different types of links:

(i.e. Stars: One to many, Chains:A is linked to B, B is linked to C etc, Thematic lists: linking concepts to objects )

• Content

– Selecting the places of the city that will become part of the game – analyzing them according to the structure of the game

• Events (bonus elements, dangerous zones etc)

• Rules: When do you win (score)

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Playing by constructing your game

Two teams compete by creating questions relating to modern art gallery exhibits

Di Loreto et al. 2013, Conference on Intelligent Environments

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Open Design Patterns

Deriving Design Patterns through a game design workshop

Similar to: Pervasive Games Design PatternsDavidsson, Peitz, & Björk, 2004, Björk &Peitz, 2007

Game Ontology Project (Hochhalter, Lichti, & Zagal, 2005)

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Pompeii Game Design Workshop

• The task is to design a game for the archaeological site of Pompeii, given design material and a design framework

• Objective is to observe design activity of different design groups and deduce common design patterns for this class of games

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Pompeii Game Design Workshop

The aim of the activity is each group to design a game where the players move in the archaeological site and use mobile devices (e.g. smartphones) in order to:

– have fun

– discover the site and learn

– interact with each other

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The Pompeii Design Workshop

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The Pompeii Design Workshop

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Pompeii Design Workshop: the Worksheet

The objectiveWhat is the aim of the game? What will you explain to the players that they have to do? How will the player know about success?

The rulesWhat are the basic rules? How are they guide the game to the end? Are there roles? Is there a narrative?

Use of tools & technology How will the mobile will be used? As information screens, communication, barcode scanners, GPS, maps, radar, compass, flashlight...?

Mechanisms How are the rules enforced? How is the game paced? Is there immersion in the atmosphere of the game? What about player communication? Awareness of the actions of the other players? Competion? Cooperation? Deception?

Location and real-world objects How are they involved in the game? How are the players interacting with them?

Behaviors and aesthetic result How do you expect the game to evolve over time? How will the players feel playing it?

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32 game designs were produced in 6 workshops in 4 different countries

Zakynthos, GR :

Summer School on Technologies for Cultural Heritage

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Design workshops

Pecs, HU,

Erasmus IP on cultural heritage management

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Games: the titles

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Deriving design patterns

By applying methods from content analysis and grounded theory we identified codes in the design documents and used these codes to extract what patterns and strategies the designers followed

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Design Patterns

http://hci.ece.upatras.gr/l-bags/ (soon in English)

http://hci.ece.upatras.gr/l-bags/

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The cooperation and competition between players/groups is adjusted by controlling information provided to them. Information Awareness regulates competition. In a same-place game, there is the possibility of information because the players are close (e.g. see and hear the opponent ) . Information can flow accidentally (eg a sound from the device other players may reveal some information ) .

Wrong information may be deliberately delivered (see patterns bluff, sabotage).

If the mobile devices are personal telephones of players, they can be used as phones for coordination and information exchange, bypassing or expanding information channels of the game.

Information awareness concerns management of the information that is known to the players, it may concern actions of other players or teams or information about them (such as their score, position in space, etc.). One example is the fog of war , where the actions of the opponent is hiding behind a veil .

Can be combined with diversification of players (two players with different characteristics have access to more information if found close together, see also co-location).

Associated with heuristics 3.7

Information awarenessCooperation

Competition

Control

Players diversificationFog of war

sabotage

bluffing

Co-located players

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Experimental use of design patterns

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Using design patterns

Using it as a checklist

Getting new ideas

Refining an initial idea

Checking old solutions to new problems

Relating structure of the game to game elements

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The Pompeii workshop

An open repository of design knowledge for city mobile games

hci.ece.upatras.gr/pompeiigame/

Sintoris et al. (2014) on Design patterns

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thanks

hci.edu.gr

Learning in the city through pervasive gaming

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