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A '''pervasive game''' is a [[video game]] where the gaming experience is extended out in the [[reality|real world]],<ref name="Benford2005-Bridging"/> or where the fictive world in which the game takes place blends with the physical world.<ref name="Nieuwdorp2007-Discourse"/> The "It's Alive" mobile games company described pervasive games as "games that surround you",<ref name="ItsAlive2005"/> while Montola, Stenros and Waern's book, ''Pervasive Games'' defines them as having "one or more salient features that expand the contractual magic circle of play spatially, temporally, or socially."<ref name="Montola2009-PG"/> The concept of a "[[Magic Circle (virtual worlds)|magic circle]]" draws from the work of [[Johan Huizinga]], who describes the boundaries of play.<ref name="Oppermann2009-thesis"/>
#REDIRECT [[Glossary_of_video_game_terms#Pervasive_game]] {{R to list entry}}

The origins of pervasive gaming are related to the concepts of [[pervasive computing]], [[ubiquitous computing]] and ubiquitous gaming.<ref name="Nieuwdorp2007-Discourse"/>

== Definitions ==

Pervasive games was first defined as "a LARP ([[Live action role-playing game]]) game that is augmented with computing and communication technology in a way that combines the physical and digital space together"<ref name="schneider2001-how2host"/>. Since then the term has become ambiguous, taking on the following definitions<ref name="Nieuwdorp2007-Discourse"/>:
* A game that depends primarily on ''pervasive technology and nonstandard input devices''
* An existing game that is ''augmented by computers'', resulting in a blend of the real and virtual worlds
* A game ''that pervades the real world in an undefined manner, and thus blends with it''
* A ''specific setting'' of the game world within the real world
* A game that ''blurs the boundaries between itself and the real world'', which can influence the concept of the ''[[Magic Circle (virtual worlds)|magic circle]]''
* A game that is ''an overlay'' of the real world or where the ''world becomes a game board''
* A game with a ''persistent presence'' in the real world, and thus available to the players at all times
* A game where the ''gameplay'' interacts with elements of the real world, thus challenging standard gameplay conventions
* A game where there is ''mutual interaction among players and elements in the real world''
* A game that blends ''with everyday experiences''

These definitions can be generalized as being from two perspectives: "a technological one that focuses on computing technology as a tool to enable the game to come into being" (i.e., the first two meanings on the list above) and "a cultural one that focuses on the game itself and, subsequently, on the way the game world can be related to the everyday world" (i.e., the last eight remaining meanings above). In definitive work by Markus Montola<ref name="Montola2009-PG"/>, pervasive games are summarily defined as having "one or more salient features that expand the contractual magic circle of play spatially, temporally, or socially.", in other words "expand the boundaries of plays"<ref name="Oppermann2009-thesis"/>.

== History ==

The first time the word "pervasive" was applied to gaming is around March or April of 2001, by Jennica Falk, in an article referring to the environment of the game, rather than the game itself. That same year Jay Schneider and Gerd Kortuem coined the term "pervasive gaming", admitting that they derived the term from pervasive computing<ref name="schneider2001-how2host"/>. Although the origins of [[ubiquitous computing]] and [[pervasive computing]] differ, they are often used interchangeably and both are the basis for pervasive gaming. Specifically, it is the technological perspective of pervasive games that borrows from '''both''' the cultural and the technological perspectives of [[pervasive computing]]. And, because [[ubiquitous computing]] and [[pervasive computing]] have been intermingled in the past, they both influence pervasive games<ref name="Nieuwdorp2007-Discourse"/>.

At Computer Science Lab at [[PARC_(company)|Xerox PARC]] in [[1988]], [[Mark Weiser]] set up a "ubiquitous computing" research program to "conceive a new way of thinking about computers in the world, one that takes into account the natural human environment and allows the computers themselves to vanish into the background"<ref name="Weiser91"/>. The program was designed such that computers were to cater to the wishes of the user, being of various sizes, aware of their location and easy to use. In [[1998]], Mark Bregman at [[IBM]] introduced "pervasive computing" as a commercial aspect where people have quick access to services anytime and anywhere<ref name="davidsson2004-designpatt"/>. Initially, the concepts of ubiquitous computing and pervasive computing were from different perspectives, but the two concepts were continuously redefined and related to other terms and concepts, leading to confusion and ambiguity<ref name="Nieuwdorp2007-Discourse"/>.

== Staging a pervasive game ==

The staging of a pervasive game can be divided into three temporal phases: "pre-production", "run-time", and "post-production", but because we are dealing with games these phases can also be referred to as: "pre-game", "in-game", and "post-game", leaving the word "run-time" to mean that the game is running, but players are not necessarily playing<ref name="nevelsteen2015-pervasivemoo"/>. Because pervasive games make use of technology, the technology is started during or at the end of the pre-game phase and left running throughout the in-game phase. While players are playing in the in-game phases, the game can be continuously altered through the use of [[Gamemaster|game mastering]]. Because pervasive games take place in the physical world, another responsibility of the [[Gamemaster|game master]] is to keep players safe in the highly variable, possibly dangerous conditions of the physical world. A drawback of game mastering being that it can require a significant amount of human resources <ref name="Broll2006-AugmentedTech"/>. In order to support game mastering, tools can be used to automate the process. Such tools, among other things, can help process the potentially massive amounts of event information game masters must dealt with. Two ways a game master can influence the flow of the game is by: directly altering information in the technology guiding the game or by communicating directly with the players<ref name="nevelsteen2015-pervasivemoo"/>.

==Classification==
The term has been associated with [[ubiquitous games]], [[Augmented reality|augmented]] and [[mixed reality game]]s, [[mobile game]]s, [[alternate reality game]]s, [[Live action role-playing game|(enhanced) live action role playing]], [[affective gaming]], [[virtual reality]] games, [[smart toy]]s, [[Location-based game|location-based or location-aware games]], [[crossmedia]] games and [[augmented reality]] [[tabletop game]]s.<ref name="Nieuwdorp2007-Discourse"/> The book ''Digital Cityscapes'' categorizes "playful activities that use mobile technologies as interfaces and the physical space as the game board" into four categories; pervasive games is said to be the most general, with [[Urban gaming|urban games]], [[location-based mobile game]]s and [[hybrid reality game]]s being successively more specific.<ref name="deSouzaeSilva2009-Cityscapes"/>

==Examples==
Examples of pervasive games are ''[[Pokemon Go]]'',''[[Assassin (game)|The Killer]]'', ''[[The Beast (game)|The Beast]]'', ''[[Shelby Logan's Run]]'', ''[[BotFighters]]'', ''[[Mystery on Fifth Avenue (game)|Mystery on Fifth Avenue]]'', ''[[Momentum (game)|Momentum]]'', ''[[Pac-Manhattan]]'', ''[[Epidemic Menace]]'', ''[[Insectopia]]'', ''[[Vem Gråter]]'', ''[[REXplorer]]'', ''[[Uncle Roy All Around You]]'' and ''[[Amazing Race]]''.<ref name="Montola2009-PG"/>

Pervasive game examples built on the EQUIP 2 [[software architecture]], used in [[Equator IRC|Equator]] and thereafter in IPerG, include ''[[Can You See Me Now?]]'', ''[[Rider Spoke]]'', ''[[Day of the Figurines]]'', ''[[Love City]]'' and ''[[Exploding Places]]''.<ref name="Greenhalgh2013-Homepage"/> [[Niantic, Inc.]] launched ''[[Ingress (game)|Ingress]]'' in 2012, with about 500,000 players globally, and [[Pokémon Go]] in 2016.

==See also==
* [[Blast Theory]]
* [[Live-action virtual reality game]]
* [[Pervasive informatics]]
* [[The Game (mind game)]]
* [[Transreality gaming]]

== References ==
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name="Benford2005-Bridging">{{Citation|first1=Steve |last1=Benford |first2=Carsten |last2=Magerkurth |first3=Peter |last3=Ljungstrand |author-link= |title=Bridging the physical and digital in pervasive gaming |url=http://www.pervasive-gaming.org/Publications/ACM-Bridging-the-Physical-and-Digital-in-Pervasive-Gaming.pdf |series=Communications of the ACM |year=2005 |pages=54–57 |publisher=ACM |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141111144210/http://www.pervasive-gaming.org/Publications/ACM-Bridging-the-Physical-and-Digital-in-Pervasive-Gaming.pdf |archivedate=11 November 2014 }}</ref>
<ref name="Nieuwdorp2007-Discourse">{{Cite journal | last1 = Nieuwdorp | first1 = E. | title = The pervasive discourse | doi = 10.1145/1279540.1279553 | journal = Computers in Entertainment | volume = 5 | issue = 2 | pages = 13 | year = 2007 | pmid = | pmc = }}</ref>
<ref name="ItsAlive2005">{{cite web
| title = What is Pervasive Gaming?
| publisher= It's Alive Mobile Games AB
| url = http://www.itsalive.com/page.asp?sa=0&id=1069
| accessdate = 2013-10-18
| archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20050224025131/http://www.itsalive.com/page.asp?sa=0&id=1069
| archivedate=24 February 2005}}</ref>
<ref name="Montola2009-PG">{{cite book | title = Pervasive Games. Theory and Design. Experiences on the Boundary Between Life and Play. | first1= Markus | last1 = Montola | first2= Jaakko | last2= Stenros | first3 = Annika | last3= Waern | year= 2009 | publisher = Morgan Kaufmann Publishers | pages = }}</ref>
<ref name="deSouzaeSilva2009-Cityscapes">{{cite book | title = Digital Cityscapes: merging digital and urban playspaces | first1 = Adriana | last1 = de Souza e Silva | first2 = Daniel M. | last2 = Sutko | year = 2009 | publisher = Peter Lang Publishing, Inc | location= New York | pages = }}</ref>
<ref name="Greenhalgh2013-Homepage">{{cite web
| last = Greenhalgh
| first = Chris
| title = Chris Greenhalgh's Home Page
| date =
| url = http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~cmg/
| accessdate = 2013-10-17
| archiveurl =
| archivedate =
| quote= collaborations with performance artists [[Blast Theory]] ([[Rider Spoke]], [[Day of the Figurines]]) and [[Active Ingredient]] ([[Love City]], [[Exploding Places]])}}</ref>
<ref name="Oppermann2009-thesis">{{Citation
| last = Oppermann
| first = Leif
| title = Facilitating the development of location-based experiences
| publisher = University of Nottingham
|date=April 2009
| url = http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?did=1&uin=uk.bl.ethos.508291
| id = uk.bl.ethos.508291}}</ref>
<ref name="schneider2001-how2host">{{cite conference
| first = Jay
| last = Schneider
| first2 = Gerd
| last2 = Kortuem
| author-link =
| title = How to Host a Pervasive Game: Supporting Face-to-Face Interactions in Live-Action Roleplaying
| book-title = Designing Ubiquitous Computing Games Workshop at UbiComp (position paper)
| pages = 1-6
| year = 2001
| location = Atlanta, Georgia, USA}}</ref>
<ref name="nevelsteen2015-pervasivemoo">{{cite book
| last = Nevelsteen
| first = Kim JL
| title = A Survey of Characteristic Engine Features for Technology-Sustained Pervasive Games
| publisher = Springer International Publishing
| series = SpringerBriefs in Computer Science
| date = 2015
| doi = 10.1007/978-3-319-17632-1}}</ref>
<ref name="davidsson2004-designpatt">{{Citation
| first = Ola
| last = Davidsson
| first2 = Johan
| last2 = Peitz
| first3 = Staffan
| last3 = Björk
| title = Game design patterns for mobile games
| year = 2004
| place = Finland
| publisher = Nokia Research Center}}</ref>
<ref name="Weiser91">{{cite web
| url=http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=329126
| title=The Computer for the 21st Century
| year=1991
| last=Weiser
| first=Mark
| authorlink=Mark Weiser
|accessdate=2012-12-19}}</ref>
<ref name="Broll2006-AugmentedTech">{{Cite book | last1 = Broll | first1 = W. | last2 = Ohlenburg | first2 = J. | last3 = Lindt | first3 = I. | last4 = Herbst | first4 = I. | last5 = Braun | first5 = A. K. | doi = 10.1145/1230040.1230097 | chapter = Meeting technology challenges of pervasive augmented reality games | title = Proceedings of 5th ACM SIGCOMM workshop on Network and system support for games - NetGames '06 | pages = 28 | year = 2006 | isbn = 1595935894 | pmid = | pmc = }}</ref>

}}

{{Pervasive games}}
{{Mixed reality}}

[[Category:Pervasive games| ]]
[[sv:Verklighetsspel]]

Revision as of 09:19, 22 September 2017

A pervasive game is a video game where the gaming experience is extended out in the real world,[1] or where the fictive world in which the game takes place blends with the physical world.[2] The "It's Alive" mobile games company described pervasive games as "games that surround you",[3] while Montola, Stenros and Waern's book, Pervasive Games defines them as having "one or more salient features that expand the contractual magic circle of play spatially, temporally, or socially."[4] The concept of a "magic circle" draws from the work of Johan Huizinga, who describes the boundaries of play.[5]

The origins of pervasive gaming are related to the concepts of pervasive computing, ubiquitous computing and ubiquitous gaming.[2]

Definitions

Pervasive games was first defined as "a LARP (Live action role-playing game) game that is augmented with computing and communication technology in a way that combines the physical and digital space together"[6]. Since then the term has become ambiguous, taking on the following definitions[2]:

  • A game that depends primarily on pervasive technology and nonstandard input devices
  • An existing game that is augmented by computers, resulting in a blend of the real and virtual worlds
  • A game that pervades the real world in an undefined manner, and thus blends with it
  • A specific setting of the game world within the real world
  • A game that blurs the boundaries between itself and the real world, which can influence the concept of the magic circle
  • A game that is an overlay of the real world or where the world becomes a game board
  • A game with a persistent presence in the real world, and thus available to the players at all times
  • A game where the gameplay interacts with elements of the real world, thus challenging standard gameplay conventions
  • A game where there is mutual interaction among players and elements in the real world
  • A game that blends with everyday experiences

These definitions can be generalized as being from two perspectives: "a technological one that focuses on computing technology as a tool to enable the game to come into being" (i.e., the first two meanings on the list above) and "a cultural one that focuses on the game itself and, subsequently, on the way the game world can be related to the everyday world" (i.e., the last eight remaining meanings above). In definitive work by Markus Montola[4], pervasive games are summarily defined as having "one or more salient features that expand the contractual magic circle of play spatially, temporally, or socially.", in other words "expand the boundaries of plays"[5].

History

The first time the word "pervasive" was applied to gaming is around March or April of 2001, by Jennica Falk, in an article referring to the environment of the game, rather than the game itself. That same year Jay Schneider and Gerd Kortuem coined the term "pervasive gaming", admitting that they derived the term from pervasive computing[6]. Although the origins of ubiquitous computing and pervasive computing differ, they are often used interchangeably and both are the basis for pervasive gaming. Specifically, it is the technological perspective of pervasive games that borrows from both the cultural and the technological perspectives of pervasive computing. And, because ubiquitous computing and pervasive computing have been intermingled in the past, they both influence pervasive games[2].

At Computer Science Lab at Xerox PARC in 1988, Mark Weiser set up a "ubiquitous computing" research program to "conceive a new way of thinking about computers in the world, one that takes into account the natural human environment and allows the computers themselves to vanish into the background"[7]. The program was designed such that computers were to cater to the wishes of the user, being of various sizes, aware of their location and easy to use. In 1998, Mark Bregman at IBM introduced "pervasive computing" as a commercial aspect where people have quick access to services anytime and anywhere[8]. Initially, the concepts of ubiquitous computing and pervasive computing were from different perspectives, but the two concepts were continuously redefined and related to other terms and concepts, leading to confusion and ambiguity[2].

Staging a pervasive game

The staging of a pervasive game can be divided into three temporal phases: "pre-production", "run-time", and "post-production", but because we are dealing with games these phases can also be referred to as: "pre-game", "in-game", and "post-game", leaving the word "run-time" to mean that the game is running, but players are not necessarily playing[9]. Because pervasive games make use of technology, the technology is started during or at the end of the pre-game phase and left running throughout the in-game phase. While players are playing in the in-game phases, the game can be continuously altered through the use of game mastering. Because pervasive games take place in the physical world, another responsibility of the game master is to keep players safe in the highly variable, possibly dangerous conditions of the physical world. A drawback of game mastering being that it can require a significant amount of human resources [10]. In order to support game mastering, tools can be used to automate the process. Such tools, among other things, can help process the potentially massive amounts of event information game masters must dealt with. Two ways a game master can influence the flow of the game is by: directly altering information in the technology guiding the game or by communicating directly with the players[9].

Classification

The term has been associated with ubiquitous games, augmented and mixed reality games, mobile games, alternate reality games, (enhanced) live action role playing, affective gaming, virtual reality games, smart toys, location-based or location-aware games, crossmedia games and augmented reality tabletop games.[2] The book Digital Cityscapes categorizes "playful activities that use mobile technologies as interfaces and the physical space as the game board" into four categories; pervasive games is said to be the most general, with urban games, location-based mobile games and hybrid reality games being successively more specific.[11]

Examples

Examples of pervasive games are Pokemon Go,The Killer, The Beast, Shelby Logan's Run, BotFighters, Mystery on Fifth Avenue, Momentum, Pac-Manhattan, Epidemic Menace, Insectopia, Vem Gråter, REXplorer, Uncle Roy All Around You and Amazing Race.[4]

Pervasive game examples built on the EQUIP 2 software architecture, used in Equator and thereafter in IPerG, include Can You See Me Now?, Rider Spoke, Day of the Figurines, Love City and Exploding Places.[12] Niantic, Inc. launched Ingress in 2012, with about 500,000 players globally, and Pokémon Go in 2016.

See also

References

  1. ^ Benford, Steve; Magerkurth, Carsten; Ljungstrand, Peter (2005), Bridging the physical and digital in pervasive gaming (PDF), Communications of the ACM, ACM, pp. 54–57, archived from the original (PDF) on 11 November 2014 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ a b c d e f Nieuwdorp, E. (2007). "The pervasive discourse". Computers in Entertainment. 5 (2): 13. doi:10.1145/1279540.1279553.
  3. ^ "What is Pervasive Gaming?". It's Alive Mobile Games AB. Archived from the original on 24 February 2005. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  4. ^ a b c Montola, Markus; Stenros, Jaakko; Waern, Annika (2009). Pervasive Games. Theory and Design. Experiences on the Boundary Between Life and Play. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.
  5. ^ a b Oppermann, Leif (April 2009), Facilitating the development of location-based experiences, University of Nottingham, uk.bl.ethos.508291
  6. ^ a b Schneider, Jay; Kortuem, Gerd (2001). "How to Host a Pervasive Game: Supporting Face-to-Face Interactions in Live-Action Roleplaying". Designing Ubiquitous Computing Games Workshop at UbiComp (position paper). Atlanta, Georgia, USA. pp. 1–6.
  7. ^ Weiser, Mark (1991). "The Computer for the 21st Century". Retrieved 2012-12-19.
  8. ^ Davidsson, Ola; Peitz, Johan; Björk, Staffan (2004), Game design patterns for mobile games, Finland: Nokia Research Center
  9. ^ a b Nevelsteen, Kim JL (2015). A Survey of Characteristic Engine Features for Technology-Sustained Pervasive Games. SpringerBriefs in Computer Science. Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-17632-1.
  10. ^ Broll, W.; Ohlenburg, J.; Lindt, I.; Herbst, I.; Braun, A. K. (2006). "Meeting technology challenges of pervasive augmented reality games". Proceedings of 5th ACM SIGCOMM workshop on Network and system support for games - NetGames '06. p. 28. doi:10.1145/1230040.1230097. ISBN 1595935894.
  11. ^ de Souza e Silva, Adriana; Sutko, Daniel M. (2009). Digital Cityscapes: merging digital and urban playspaces. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.
  12. ^ Greenhalgh, Chris. "Chris Greenhalgh's Home Page". Retrieved 2013-10-17. collaborations with performance artists Blast Theory (Rider Spoke, Day of the Figurines) and Active Ingredient (Love City, Exploding Places)
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