On Friday we were talking with Jaakko in a Finncon/Animecon 2009 panel on pervasive games. The panel was chaired by researcher Tanja Sihvonen and we also had novelist Anne Leinonen bring in some fresh air. It was a good setup; Tanja and Anne were wondering about things, while me and Jaakko tried to explain them. Got a surprisingly large audience too, even though some of the faces in the crowd have probably heard me and Jaakko on the topic on five occasions.
You know you’ve been talking about your stuff too long when your friends start to ridicule you about it. That happened already this spring in Norway’s Knutepunkt 2009. In the “Secret Drinking Workshop” they established The Pervasive Drinking Game (by Hakkarainen & Seppänen 2009). It’s secret and supposed to be played in secret, but since pervasive game secrets are also supposed to be spoiled in the internet, here is my understanding of the rules…
- When you hear the word “pervasive”, you take a sip of your chosen alcoholic beverage.
Apparently, there were people playing it during our Knutepunkt lecture without us noticing. In fact, I think they still are, wherever they are — it’s a pervasive drinking game, you see.
It has some ancestry in Buzzword Bingo — here’s the missing link.
Photograph from Finncon, by Suvi Korhonen.
Pervasive Games: Theory and Design 
There are more rules than the 1 – for example alcoholic consumption is supposed to be hidden. Unfortunately, the pervasive drinking game is itself a pervasive game, including temporal expansion, and none of the rules specify when the game ends.
So reading this blog is a path leading straight to alcoholicism. Now that I got the book, I think I’ll need to reserve a place in rehab.
By: Eirik on July 29, 2009
at 08:29
Ah, I thought the secrecy part was formally a part of the Secret Drinking Workshop, not of the Pervasive Drinking Game.
Nice to hear you got the book, hope you will enjoy it!
– M
By: Montola on July 29, 2009
at 12:18
I thought the Secret Drinking Workshop IS the Pervasive Drinking Game! Not that one is supposed to talk about either.
By: mikepohjola on August 1, 2009
at 07:36
Mike: what do you mean? There is no secret drinking workshop. There has never been a secret drinking workshop. We have always been at war with Oceania.
I ordered the book through the ad libris system (capris.no / adlibris.se / adlibris.fi). My experience is that they are often cheaper and always faster than amazon, especially if you become the victim of import taxes. In this case, I was right. About a week from order to arrival. No toll. In the process of enjoying it.
By: Eirik on August 3, 2009
at 09:05