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Geogames and Geoplay pp 131–159Cite as

(Re-)Localization of Location-Based Games

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Part of the book series: Advances in Geographic Information Science ((AGIS))

Abstract

While location-based games (LBGs) have been around for some time, only few of them have succeeded in attracting a larger number of players. One reason is the difficulty of suitable embedding of game concepts in an environment. In order to reach players from different places, LBG concepts need to be relocalized in a way which preserves the particular attractiveness of a game. What are criteria for high-quality (re-)localization? While the problem has been recognized in the literature, a systematic derivation of computational criteria is missing. In this chapter, we propose three novel criteria of game localization: playability, breakability, and authenticity. They are b sed on consistency and similarity measures in a 3-tier model of game localization, understood as a mapping of game actions and narratives into environmental affordances. We illustrate the use of the criteria in terms of a simple conquer game with two different narratives and two different environmental embeddings, as well as with an existing multi-player geogame.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.parallelkingdom.com.

  2. 2.

    https://zombiesrungame.com/.

  3. 3.

    https://www.ingress.com/.

  4. 4.

    This problem has recently led to serious ethical complaints of the German public. Ingress players had erected portals inside the former concentration camp Sachsenhausen in Berlin, cf. http://www.zeit.de/zeit-magazin/leben/2015-07/ingress-smartphone-spiel-google-niantic-labs-kz-gedenkstaette.

  5. 5.

    http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-features/. This is the “Web Ontology Language”, a W3C recommendation for describing Web information with ontologies.

  6. 6.

    Knowledge is modeled here simply as a particular state, without taking into account any more sophisticated (modal) logic.

  7. 7.

    This is an informal notation, which illustrates the usage. A formal notation would make use of corresponding transition rules, see below.

  8. 8.

    Whether this strategy is always applicable seems an open question of research: can narratives always be formalized in terms of rules?

  9. 9.

    Environmental perception, as a matter of fact, can be considered a kind of simulation performed by our brains (cf. Hawkins and Blakeslee 2007; Scheider 2012).

  10. 10.

    The operator for subtracting a set from another one is \. The set difference of two graphs G 1 = (N 1, E 1)\G 2 = (N 2, E 2) is defined as N 1\N 2, E 1\E 2.

  11. 11.

    Denoted by dashes around sets. The size of a graph is defined as its number of edges.

  12. 12.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burg_Castle_(Solingen).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Cartography and Geoinformation, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Simon Scheider & Peter Kiefer

  2. Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, University Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands

    Simon Scheider

Authors
  1. Simon Scheider
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  2. Peter Kiefer
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Correspondence to Peter Kiefer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA

    Ola Ahlqvist

  2. Faculty of Information Systems and Applied Computer Sciences, University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany

    Christoph Schlieder

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Scheider, S., Kiefer, P. (2018). (Re-)Localization of Location-Based Games. In: Ahlqvist, O., Schlieder, C. (eds) Geogames and Geoplay. Advances in Geographic Information Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22774-0_7

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