Waves 200813 productiveplayer
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The Productive Player in Location-based Games (LBGs) Waves, August, 2013 1
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When playing games players are productive. How do we design for this participation and production? How do players of location-based games relate to places and produce places through their actions?
Transcript of Waves 200813 productiveplayer
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The Productive Player
in Location-based Games (LBGs)
Waves, August, 2013
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Introduction• Stine Ejsing-Duun
o Assistant professor, Aalborg University Copenhagen, Inst. Communication
o Part of Communication, ICT, Learning and Design research group (K-ILD)
• Research experience: o Location-based games, Serious Games on a Global Market Space
(DPU/Center for Playware)o LEV VEL (human robot interaction, health for elderly)o Production as a learning approach in schools (Danish Ministery of
Education)o Osaka, Japan (Ishiguro, AMS, Robotics, Geminoid)o Washington DC, USA (Allison Druin, HCI lab)
• Research interest: o How technologies are changing our being in the world, i.e., the
transcendence that technologies and our use thereof affords
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Agenda• What are location-based games?• Focusing on: Game, rules and framing• Players are productive – even when
little cues are given
• Based on dissertation: Location-based Games: From Screen to Street, 2011
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What’s a game?
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Are these games?
What is a game?• A game is a rule-based system with a variable
and quantifiable outcome, where different outcomes are assigned different values, the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome, the player feels emotionally attached to the outcome, and the consequences of the activity are negotiable. (Juul, 2005, p. 36)
6• A game is a rule-based system with a variable and quantifiable outcome, where different outcomes are assigned different values, the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome, the player feels emotionally attached to the outcome, and the consequences of the activity are negotiable. (Juul, 2005, p. 36)
• A game is a rule-based system with a variable and quantifiable outcome, where different outcomes are assigned different values, the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome, the player feels emotionally attached to the outcome, and the consequences of the activity are negotiable. (Juul, 2005, p. 36)
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What does that imply?• Rules are defining for games• Purpose of the rules?
o Rules specify limitations and affordanceso Affords players meaningful actions that were not otherwise
available o Rules give structure
(Juul, 2005, p. 58)o Rules can be understood as a co-existence of presence and
intentionality (Walther, 2007c)
• We expect that there is a certain ”control”• We read intentions into games
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Location-based game definition
• LBGs are games in which the players’ immediate surroundings and the locations they visit result in a direct influence on the outcome of the game
• Site-specific • Site-adaptable • Location-free
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Framing play• Gregory Bateson, Framing• ”This is play” is a framing that:
o Is a psychological concept o Delimits a set of messages or meaningful actionso "These actions, in which we now engage, do not
denote what would be denoted by these actions which these actions denote.” (Bateson 1976: 121)
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Location-based games• Picture frame does NOT work as a metaphor• The ”limits” are not always clear• One of the following questions cannot be
answered clearly:o Where is the game happening?o When are we playing?o Who is part of the game?
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Rules in LBGs• Constitutive rules
o Make activities possible and regulative rules that legalize activities
o Constitutive rules determine an action’s value or meaning
• Regulative ruleso Regulate activities that we perform independently of the
rules
• In LBGs: o Regulative rules are often negotiated by playerso Constitutive rules are often regulated by the LBG system
not all computed by the program o A game master or players can be part of the system
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Who is controlling the framing?
• Materialized rules• Referee/Game-master • Negotiation by players
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FRAMINGAmbiguity as design feature (Gaver et al., 2003)
- Ambiguous context
- Ambiguous relationship
- Ambiguous information
Marcel Duchamp, 1917
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Ambiguity• What, who and where is (part of) the game?
o Uncle Roy All Around Me? (Design)o Tough road (Players)
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The Productive Player
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Intentionality in LBGs• 1) The player’s meta-motivation is directed
toward a certain state of arousal, i.e., they play to experience pleasurable arousal (whether being scared, having fun, challenged etc.)
• 2) The LBG is intended to support certain actions as it directs the player’s attention and actions through the narrative, rules, points, and objectives of the game.
• 3) Players read intentions into the game.
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Creativity & rules• Creativity through (Boden, 2009):
o 1) Combination: exploiting shared conceptual structures to create analogies or metaphors
• Process is controlled by associative rules • William Harvey: Heart as a pump
o 2) Exploration: depends on culturally accepted ways of thinking, e.g. recognized theory or artistic genre
• Conceptual space is limited by generative rules• Conceptual space is examined
o 3) Transformation : implies that a conceptual space is altered• Changing the rules for the conceptual space
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Players combine…• Narrative with surroundings
o Land of Possibilities?o Visions of Sara
• Knowledge of surroundings with in-game story
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Players explore…• Players create locations
• Foursquare: Players set up venueso E.g.: Location called “Platform 9 ¾” at Kings
Cross Station in Londono Comments by Foursquare players:
• “You have to run at it hard! No hesitation!”; • “If it’s good enough for Harry Potter, it’s
good enough for me”; “Just be sure not to run into the wrong wall”;
• “Careful U might run into a real wall”; • “I came here last week. The steps are as
follows: 1: Run at the platform as fast as you can. 2: Enjoy Hogwarts until you wake up from your head injury”
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Players explore…• The dynamics of the game
o CitySneak (2005)• Concept of surveillance
o Frequency 1550 (2005)• Amsterdam as a historical site
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Players transform…• Tough Road
o Cooperativeso Revolt
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Productive players• Enter the world with a premise• Sense the world through the game• Act in the world using the frameset
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Thanks!
Feel free to contact me:
Stine Ejsing-Duun• E-mail: [email protected]• Twitter: AgentNifty• LinkedIn • Or IRL
Rules in LBGs• Infinite affordances (McGonigal 2006/Montola et al. 2009)
o When any object can conduct infinite variations of game moves
o In LBG: often not infinite but ambiguous
• Gaming affordance of (urban) space
