Abstract
This chapter dissects the two overarching arguments and claims made by scholars and designers about location-based games and their impact on their players’ experiences of public space. The first claim concerns their potential to facilitate social interaction and chance encounters with strangers and other players. The second encompasses claims about their ability to reconfigure their players’ relationships with the physical environment and everyday spaces in which the game is played. These claims position location-based games within a broader historical legacy of play in public space, including the importance of play in public life (through the work of Georg Simmel, Erving Goffman, Richard Sennett, and others) and their transgressive or subversive potential (including their lineage in the practices of the Situationist International, flâneurie, and parkour). The final section seeks to move beyond these discursive claims, arguing for an approach to studying location-based games that goes beyond the highly loaded—and often unempirical—pronouncements made about them.
Keywords
- Discursive Claims
- Location-based Gaming
- Location-based Game Designers
- Montola
- CCTV Closed Circuit Television
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Anthropy, A. (2012). Rise of the Videogame Zinesters. New York: Seven Stories Press.
Apperley, T. (2010). Gaming Rhythms: Play and Counterplay from the Situated to the Global. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures.
Arendt, H. (1998/1958). The Human Condition (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Ash, J. (2015). The Interface Envelope: Gaming, Technology, Power. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Augé, M. (1995). Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity (J. Howe, Trans.). New York: Basic Books.
Bell, M., et al. (2006). Interweaving Mobile Games with Everyday Life. Proceedings of CHI 2006. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20170701042214/http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~matthew/papers/CHIYoshiWithCopyright.pdf
Benford, S., et al. (2003). Copying with Uncertainty in a Location-based Game. IEEE Pervasive Computing, 2(3), 34–41.
Berreneche, C., & Wilken, R. (2015). Platform Specificity and the Politics of Location Data Extraction. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 18(4–5), 497–513.
Bunting, B. S. (2014). The Geocacher as Placemaker: Remapping Reality through Location-based Mobile Gameplay. In J. Farman (Ed.), The Mobile Story: Narrative Practices with Locative Technologies (pp. 167–174). London: Routledge.
Chang, M., & Goodman, E. (2006). Asphalt Games: Enacting Place through Locative Media. LEONARDO, 39(4). Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20170311223437/http://www.leoalmanac.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Asphalt-Games-Enacting-Place-Through-Locative-Media-Vol-14-No-3-July-2006-Leonardo-Electronic-Almanac.pdf
Davies, H. (2017). Towards an Ethics of Alternate Reality Games. In Digital Studies, Le champ numérique. Retrieved from http://web.archive.org/web/20180222053657/https://www.digitalstudies.org/articles/10.16995/dscn.36/
Davies, H., & Innocent, T. (2017). The Space between Debord and Pikachu. Proceedings of the 2017 DIGRA International Conference, 14(1). Retrieved from http://web.archive.org/web/20180221020121/http://www.digra.org/wp-content/uploads/digital-library/88_DIGRA2017_FP_Davies_Debord_and_Pikachu.pdf
Debord, G. (2006/1958). Theory of the Dérive. In K. Knabb (Ed. & Trans.), Situationist International Anthology (2nd ed., pp. 62–66). Berkeley, CA: Bureau of Public Secrets.
de Lange, M. (2010). Moving Circles: Mobile Media and Playful Identities. Dissertation submitted to Erasmus University Rotterdam. Retrieved from http://web.archive.org/web/20140530163136/ https://repub.eur.nl/pub/21334/DeLange-Moving_Circles_binnenwerk-web.pdf
Design Institute. (2003). Big Urban Game Background. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20040603152005/http://design.umn.edu:80/go/document/TCDC03.2.BUGBackground
de Souza e Silva, A. (2006). From Cyber to Hybrid: Mobile Technologies as Interfaces of Hybrid Spaces. Space & Culture, 9(3), 261–278.
de Souza e Silva, A. (2008). Alien Revolt (2005–2007): A Case Study of the First Location-based Game in Brazil. IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, 27, 18–28.
de Souza e Silva, A. (2017). Pokémon Go as an HRG: Mobility, Sociability, and Surveillance in Hybrid Spaces. Mobile Media & Communication, 5(1), 20–23.
de Souza e Silva, A., & Hjorth, L. (2009). Playful Urban Spaces: A Historical Approach to Mobile Games. Simulation & Gaming, 40(5), 602–625.
de Souza e Silva, A., & Sutko, D. M. (2009). Merging Digital and Urban Playspaces: An Introduction to the Field. In A. De Souza e Silva & D. M. Sutko (Eds.), Digital Cityscapes: Merging Digital and Urban Playspaces (pp. 1–17). New York: Peter Lang.
Dodson, S. (2002, August 15). Ready, Aim, Text. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20100416055259/http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2002/aug/15/electronicgoods.games
Drakopoulou, S. (2010). A Moment of Experimentation: Spatial Practice and Representation of Space as Narrative Elements in Location-based Games. Aether: Journal of Media Geography, 5A, 63–76.
D’Souza, A., & McDonough, T. (Eds.). (2006). The Invisible Flâneuse: Gender, Public Space, and Visual Culture. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Dyer-Witheford, N., & de Peuter, G. (2009). Games of Empire: Global Capitalism and Video Games. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Farley, M. (2016, July 29). I Went Looking for Jigglypuff and Found Guy Debord. City Paper. Retrieved from http://web.archive.org/web/20180110054303/http://www.citypaper.com/film/videogames/bcpnews-i-went-looking-for-jigglypuff-and-found-guy-debord-on-pokemon-go-20160729-story.html
Farman, J. (2012). Mobile Interface Theory: Embodied Space and Locative Media. New York: Routledge.
Flanagan, M. (2009). Critical Play: Radical Game Design. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Flintham, M., et al. (2003). Uncle Roy All Around You: Mixing Games and the Theatre on the City Streets. Proceedings of the 2003 DIGRA International Conference, 2, 168–177. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20180609071141/http://www.digra.org/wp-content/uploads/digital-library/05163.14092.pdf
Frith, J. (2013). Turning Life into a Game: Foursquare, Gamification, and Personal Mobility. Mobile Media & Communication, 1(2), 248–262.
Galloway, A. R. (2006). Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Games for Change. (n.d.) About Us. Retrieved from http://web.archive.org/web/20180222072249/http://www.gamesforchange.org/who-we-are/about-us/
Gazzard, A. (2011). Location, Location, Location: Collecting Space and Place in Mobile Media. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 17(4), 405–417.
Geertz, C. (2005/1972). Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight. Daedalus, 134(4), 56–86.
Getsy, D. J. (Ed.). (2011). From Diversion to Subversion: Games, Play, and Twentieth-Century Art. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Giddings, S. (2009). Events and Collusions: A Glossary for the Microethnography of Video Game Play. Games and Culture, 4(2), 144–157.
Goffman, E. (1980/1963). Behavior in Public Places: Notes on the Social Organization of Gatherings. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Goffman, E. (1986/1974). Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
Goggin, G. (2017). Locating Mobile Media Audiences in Plain View with Pokémon Go. In C. Hight & R. Harindranath (Eds.), Studying Digital Media Audiences: Perspectives from Australasia (pp. 39–59). London: Routledge.
Habuchi, I. (2005). Accelerating Reflexivity. In M. Ito, D. Okabe, & M. Matsuda (Eds.), Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life (pp. 165–182). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Hemment, D. (2006). Locative Arts. LEONARDO, 39(4), 348–355.
Henricks, T. S. (2006). Play Reconsidered: Sociological Perspectives on Human Expression. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Henthorn, J. (2016). Rewriting Neighbourhoods: Zombies, Run! and the Runner as Rhetor. In M. Wilson & T. Leaver (Eds.), Social, Casual and Mobile Games: The Changing Gaming Landscape (pp. 165–178). New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
Huizinga, J. (1949/1938). Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture (unknown, Trans.). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Jegers, K., & Wiberg, M. (2006). Pervasive Gaming in the Everyday World. IEEE Pervasive Computing, 5(1), 78–85.
Katz, J. E. (2006). Magic in the Air: Mobile Communication and the Transformation of Social Life. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Lankoski, P., et al. (2004). A Case Study in Pervasive Game Design: The Songs of North. Proceedings of NordiCHI 2004. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20180331045650/https://www.cp.eng.chula.ac.th/~vishnu/gameResearch/design_August_2005/p413-lankoski.pdf
Lantz, F. (2006). Big Games and the Porous Border Between the Real and the Mediated. Receiver, 16. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20070101235852/http://www.receiver.vodafone.com/16/articles/pdf/16_07.pdf
Lantz, F. (2007a). PacManhattan: The City as the Game’s Playground. In F. von Borries, S. P. Walz, & M. Böttger (Eds.), Space Time Play: Computer Games, Architecture and Urbanism (pp. 262–263). Basel: Birkhauser.
Lantz, F. (2007b). Big Urban Game: A Playful Connection of the ‘Twin Cities’. In F. von Borries, S. P. Walz, & M. Böttger (Eds.), Space Time Play: Computer Games, Architecture and Urbanism (pp. 390–391). Basel: Birkhauser.
Laxton, S. (2011). From Judgement to Process: The Modern Ludic Field. In D. J. Getsy (Ed.), From Diversion to Subversion: Games, Play, and Twentieth-Century Art (pp. 3–24). University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Lee, J. H., Windleharth, T., Yip, J., & Schamlz, M. (2017). Impact of Location-based Augmented Reality Games on People’s Information Behaviour: A Study of Pokémon Go. iConference 2017 Proceedings, 459–468.
Lehtonen, T., & Mäenpää, P. (1997). Shopping in the East Centre Mall. In P. Falk & C. Campbell (Eds.), The Shopping Experience (pp. 136–165). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Leorke, D. (2012, September 13). Interview: NYU and Zynga’s Frank Lantz on Games in the Real World. Crikey. Retrieved from http://web.archive.org/web/20160113195201/https://blogs.crikey.com.au/game-on/2012/09/13/interview-nyu-and-zyngas-frank-lantz-on-games-in-the-real-world/
Licoppe, C., & Inada, Y. (2006). Emergent Uses of a Multiplayer Location-aware Mobile Game: The Interactional Consequences of Mediated Encounters. Mobilities, 1(1), 39–61.
Licoppe, C., & Inada, Y. (2008). Geolocalized Technologies, Location-aware Communities, and Personal Territories: The Mogi Case. Journal of Urban Technology, 215(3), 5–24.
Licoppe, C., & Inada, Y. (2010). Locative Media and Cultures of Mediated Proximity: The Case of the Mogi Game Location-aware Community. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 28, 691–709.
Ling, R. (2004). The Mobile Connection: The Cell Phone’s Impact on Society. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann.
Luke, R. (2005). The Phoneur: Mobile Commerce and the Digital Pedagogies of the Wireless Web. In P. P. Trifonas (Ed.), Communities of Difference: Culture, Language, Technology (pp. 185–204). Gordonsville: Palgrave Macmillan.
Lütticken, S. (2010). Playtimes. New Left Review, 66(Nov.–Dec.), 125–140.
Mäyrä, F., & Lankoski, P. (2009). Play in Hybrid Reality: Alternative Approaches to Game Design. In A. de Souza e Silva & D. Sutko (Eds.), Digital Cityscapes: Merging Digital and Urban Playspaces (pp. 129–147). New York: Peter Lang Publishers.
McCall, R., & Baillie, L. (2017). Ethics, Privacy, and Trust in Serious Games. In R. Nakatsu, M. Rauterberg, & P. Ciancarini (Eds.), Handbook of Digital Games and Entertainment Technologies (pp. 611–640). Singapore: Springer.
McGonigal, J. (2006). This Might be a Game: Ubiquitous Play and Performance at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century. Dissertation submitted to the University of California. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20170309050415/http://www.avantgame.com/McGonigal_THIS_MIGHT_BE_A_GAME_sm.pdf
Montola, M. (2009). Games and Pervasive Games. In M. Montola, J. Stenros, & A. Waern (Eds.), Pervasive Games: Theory and Design (pp. 7–23). Burlington, MA: Morgan Kaufmann.
Montola, M. (2012). On the Edge of the Magic Circle: Understanding Role-Playing and Pervasive Games. Dissertation submitted to the University of Tampere, Finland. Retrieved from http://web.archive.org/web/20180212032439/http://tampub.uta.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/66937/978-951-44-8864-1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Montola, M., Stenros, J., & Waern, A. (2009). Designing Social Expansion. In M. Montola, J. Stenros, & A. Waern (Eds.), Pervasive Games: Theory and Design (pp. 117–129). Burlington, MA: Morgan Kaufmann.
Moore, K. (2017). Playing with Portals: Rethinking Urban Play with Ingress. In E. Torner, E. L. Waldron, & A. Trammell (Eds.), Analog Game Studies Volume II (pp. 195–206). Pittsburgh: ETC Press.
Mould, O. (2009). Parkour, the City, the Event. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 27(4), 738–750.
Nova, N., & Girardin, F. (2007). Catchbob! Debord’s Derive and Pervasive Gaming. In F. von Borries, S. P. Walz, & M. Böttger (Eds.), Space Time Play: Computer Games, Architecture and Urbanism: The Next Level (pp. 300–301). Basel: Birkhauser.
Paavilainen, J., Alha, K., Korhonen, H., Koskinen, E., Mäyrä, F., & Stenros, J. (2017). The Pokémon Go Experience: A Location-based Augmented Reality Mobile Game Goes Mainstream. Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference, 2493–2498.
Palmer, S., & Popat, S. (2008). Dancing in the Streets—A Design Case Study. Interactions (New York), XV(3), 55–59 Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20170922063147/http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/74745/8/palmer2.pdf
Pearce, C. (2006). Games AS Art: The Aesthetics of Play. Visible Language, 40(1), 66–89.
Richards, L. (2017, July 6). Pokémon Go and Plymouth: How Games Are Impacting Urban Design. Ars Technica. Retrieved from http://web.archive.org/web/20171203070332/https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/07/pokemon-go-plymouth-urban-design/
Sennett, R. (2002/1977). The Fall of Public Man. London: Penguin Books.
Shklovski, I., & de Souza e Silva, A. (2013). An Urban Encounter: Realizing Online Connectedness through Local Urban Play. Information, Communication & Society, 16(3), 340–361.
Simmel, G. (1950/1917). Sociability: An Example of Pure, or Formal, Sociology. In Kurt H. Wolff (Trans. and Ed.), The Sociology of Georg Simmel (pp. 40–57). Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
Sorkin, M. (1992). Introduction: Variations on a Theme Park. In M. Sorkin (Ed.), Variations on a Theme Park: The New American City and the End of Public Space (pp. xi–xv). New York: Hill and Wang.
Sparrow, J. (2016, July 12). Live in the Moment: The Situationists and Pokémon Go. Overland. Retrieved from http://web.archive.org/web/20171203070337/https://overland.org.au/2016/07/live-in-the-moment-the-situationists-pokemon-go/?platform=hootsuite
Stagi, L. (2015). Crossing the Symbolic Boundaries: Parkour, Gender and Urban Spaces in Genoa. Modern Italy, 20(3), 295–305.
Stark, E. (2016). Playful Places: Uncovering Hidden Heritage with Ingress. In M. Wilson & T. Leaver (Eds.), Social, Casual and Mobile Games: The Changing Gaming Landscape (pp. 149–164). New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
Stenros, J., & Montola, M. (2009). Historical Influences on Pervasive Games. In M. Montola, J. Stenros, & A. Waern (Eds.), Pervasive Games: Theory and Design (pp. 53–70). Burlington, MA: Morgan Kaufmann.
Stenros, J., Montola, M., & Waern, A. (2009). The Ethics of Pervasive Gaming. In M. Montola, J. Stenros, & A. Waern (Eds.), Pervasive Games: Theory and Design (pp. 197–213). Burlington, MA: Morgan Kaufmann.
Stroud, M. (2002, February 8). Have Cell Phone, Will Shoot. Wired. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20160210031458/https://www.wired.com/2002/02/have-cell-phone-will-shoot/
Struppek, M., & Willis, K. S. (2007). Botfighters: A Game that Surrounds You. In F. von Borries, S. P. Walz, & M. Böttger (Eds.), Space Time Play: Computer Games, Architecture and Urbanism (pp. 226–227). Basel: Birkhauser.
Tran, A. (2008). Parkour: Issues of Gender. Girl Parkour. Retrieved from http://web.archive.org/web/20180208014108/http://www.girlparkour.org/articles/2008/05/parkour-issues-of-gender
Tuters, M., & Varnelis, K. (2006). Beyond Locative Media: Giving Shape to the Internet of Things. LEONARDO, 39(4), 357–363.
Virilio, P. (1997/1985). The Overexposed City. In N. Leach (Ed.), Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory (pp. 381–390). New York: Routledge.
Walther, K. (2006). Pervasive Gaming: Formats, Rules and Space. Fibreculture, 8. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20170317080443/http://eight.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-053-pervasive-gaming-formats-rules-and-space/
Wark, M. (2007). Gamer Theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wark, M. (2008). 50 Years of Recuperation of the Situationist International. New York: Princeton University Press.
Wilken, R. (2014). Proximity and Alienation: Narratives of City, Self, and Other in the Locative Games of Blast Theory. In J. Farman (Ed.), The Mobile Story: Narrative Practices with Locative Technologies (pp. 175–191). New York: Routledge.
Wilken, R. (2016). The De-gamificiation of Foursquare. In M. Wilson & T. Leaver (Eds.), Social, Casual and Mobile Games: The Changing Gaming Landscape (pp. 179–192). New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
Wilken, R., & Bayliss, P. (2014). Locating Foursquare: The Political Economics of Mobile Social Software. In R. Wilken & G. Goggin (Eds.), Locative Media (pp. 177–192). London: Taylor & Francis.
Winegarner, B. (2016, July 15). Forget Pokémon Go, There’s Another Augmented Reality Game That’s Way Better. Quartz. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20171114154922/https://qz.com/732809/forget-pokemon-go-theres-another-augmented-reality-game-thats-way-better/
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Leorke, D. (2019). ‘The City Becomes the Game’s Playground’: Discursive Claims. In: Location-Based Gaming. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0683-9_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0683-9_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-0682-2
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-0683-9
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)