Pervasive Games: Theory

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Pervasive GamesTheory DesignJanuary 23, 2006
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What is game?

• We are not asking, What defines a game? or
  What are the pieces of a game?
• We are asking, What is the nature of an
  experience/activity that is describe as a game?

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The Play Concept

• We can understand a game to be an activity that
  embodies what Johann Huizinga (1950) called the
  play concept
• ...a voluntary activity or occupation executed
  within certain fixed limits of time and place,
  according to rules freely accepted but absolutely
  binding, having its aim in itself and accompanied
  by a feeling of tension, joy, and the
  consciousness that it is "different" from
  "ordinary life" (28).
• Now that we have a (loose) understand of what a
  game (kind of) is, how do we place all games in a
  comparative context?

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Play vs. Game

• Via linguistics, Huizinga (1950) was one of the
  first individuals to point out a close connection
  between the concepts of play and game.
• ...French has jeu, jouer Italian gioco,
  giocare Spanish juego, jugar Portuguese jogo,
  jogar Rumanian joc, juca while similar words
  occur in Catalan, Provencal and Rhaeto-Romanic...
  (36-37)
• The English language is one of the few
  languages that creates a distinction between the
  concepts of play and game.
• If a majority of languages create a connection
  between
• play and game
• what are the implications of said connection?

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PLAYis related toGAME(duh)

• Publishing in his native French (jeu, jouer),
  Roger Caillois (1958) sought to create a universe
  of play (13).
• ...games are arranged in a rank order of
  progression. They can be placed on a continuum
  between two opposite poles. At one extreme an
  almost indivisible principle, common to
  diversion, turbulence, free improvisation, and
  carefree gaiety...that can be designated by the
  term paidia. At the opposite extreme, this
  frolicsome and impulsive exuberance is almost
  entirely absorbed or disciplined by a
  complementary, and in some respects inverse,
  tendency to its anarchic and capricious nature
  there is a growing tendency to bind it with
  arbitrary, imperative, and purposely tedious
  conventions...I call this second component ludus
  (13).
• This approach was echoed in Gonzalo Frascas
  IDT Masters Thesis Videogames of the Oppressed
  (2001) with slight variation- he replaced the
  analog values with binary ones.

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A continuum between2 opposite poles

• An activities status as either Paidia or Ludus
  is a flowing designation that quickly changes
  with context.
• Arguably, there are superlative values (Pure
  Paidia Absolute Ludus), but that debate is not
  for this venue.
• Is there a point at which we can safely say
  that an activity is more paidia or more ludus?
• (and not just because I already plotted the
  point on the continuum)

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The Sum-ZeroThreshold

• Frasca (2001) used what I refer to a Sum-Zero
  Threshold to delineate his binary understanding
  of paidia and ludus.
• A Sum-Zero Condition is simply a winning
  condition being incorporated into an activity.
  The overall gains from the activity equal the
  overall losses so that their sum is zero.
• Where on the continuum would we locate
• -Playing Airplane?
• -Playing Fetch with your dog?
• -The Sims?
• -A Final Fantasy game?

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How does beingpervasive changegame?

• Pervasive spreading or spread throughout
  "armed with permeative irony...he punctures
  affectations" "the pervasive odor of garlic"
  "an error is pervasive if it is material to more
  than one conclusion"
• Ubiquitous omnipresent being present
  everywhere at once
• Locative indicates location.
• Mixed or Alternate Reality a merging of worlds
  or realities of perception.
• Viral A self-propagating practice or pattern
  that moves from person to person.
• Definitions via Google define function.

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Blurring the Magic Circle.

• Huizinga (1950) asserted that all games take
  place within a Magic Circle
• the negotiated limits of time and space in
  which the game activity is executed.
• Within the Magic Circle, we a prone to accept
  the rules and other limitations that a game
  imposes on us. Salen and Zimmerman (2004) refer
  to this concept as the lusory attitude of
  players. Players readily accept that games are
  systems with limits. The degree to which a player
  can rationalize why a certain limit exists
  affects his/her willingness to adopt a lusory
  attitude.
• Montola (2005) states that pervasive games are
  defined by their spatial, temporal, and social
  expansions of the Magic Circle.
• We are no longer fully aware of where a game is
  being played, when it is being played, or who it
  is being played with.
• Game rules are indistinguishable from social
  expectations and even laws. It is unclear where
  and when a player should adopt a lusory attitude.
  Some players enjoy this higher level of
  apprehension. Other players become uncomfortable
  stop playing the game.
• Do players have a safety net?

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Pervasive Gamesand Mobile Technology

• Blast Theory (2005) theorizes that when
  designing games with mobile technology as a key
  component, we must design for 4 states
• 1) Connected and Tracked A player is connected
  to a network and his/her location is being
  tracked.
• 2) Tracked, but not Connected A players
  location is being tracked, but he/she is not
  connected to a network.
• 3) Connected, but not Tracked A player is
  connected to a network, but his/her location is
  not being tracked.
• 4) Not Connected or Tracked A player is not
  connect to a network or being tracked. The player
  is completely off the grid.
• Will your designs take each state into account?

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Talk the Talk.

• Alternate Reality Game glossary available _at_
• http//www.unfiction.com/glossary/

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Examples

• Pac-manhattan
• http//www.pacmanhattan.com/
• Tombstone Holdem
• http//www.lastcallpoker.com/allin/
• Majestic
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majestic
• Can You See Me Now?
• http//www.canyouseemenow.co.uk/cambridge/en/intr
  o.php
• I Love Bess
• http//www.ilovebees.com/
• Edoc Laundry
• http//www.edoclaundry.com/

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References

• Benford, Steve, et. al. (2005) Can You See Me
  Now?. Viewed 23 January 2006,
• lthttp//www.crg.cs.nott.ac.uk/axc/documents/ToCH
  I_2005.pdfgt
• Caillois, Roger. (1958) Man, Play and Games.
  Chicago, Illinois. University of
• Illinois Press.
• Frasca, Gonzalo. (2001) Videogames of the
  Oppressed Videogames as a
• Means of Critical Thinking and Debate. Viewed
  29 December 2004,
• lthttp//www.ludology.org/articles/thesis/gt.
• Huizinga, Johann. (1950) Homo Ludens. Boston,
  Massachusetts. Beacon Press.
• Montola, Markus. (2005) Exploring the Edge of
  the Magic Circle
• Defining Pervasive Games. Viewed 23 January
  2006,
• lthttp//users.tkk.fi/mmontola/exploringtheedge.p
  dfgt
• Salen, Katie Zimmerman, Eric. (2004) Rules of
  Play Game Design
• Fundamentals. Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT
  Press.

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Pervasive GamesTheory DesignJanuary 23, 2006