Pervasive Games: Theory and Design

If you have read the book and now want to catch up with what has happened since it was written, this blog is the right place.  This page serves as a sort of table of contents for the blog.

There are two “deleted scenes” to the book that are only available here in this blog. Due to the “economic downturn” the page count of the book had to be dropped. So we cut out the two least important pieces. These are “the tech appendix” (officially The Technological Enablers of Pervasive Games) and the contributor bios.

Games

Mogi Mobile client

Let’s start with a list of the games that we have been covering in the blog. There is a piece on the last game developed in IPerG, Interference, which is briefly mentioned in the book. We have also written about Dollplay, the web game that was tied to Joss Whedon’s television series Dollhouse.

There is a piece on DJEEO, which is remarkable for the amount of players it has had, and Mogi, which should have been covered more thoroughly in the book. Also, Go Game came to Europe. There are also pieces on WarDriving and Buzzword Bingo, games (or play) that is not usually marketed as pervasive.

In GDC09 we learned a little more about Akoha and Chain Factor and in Knutepunkt 09 about AmerikA, Begyndelsen and the truly inspiring 1943. Walkabout was tested in Knutepunkt, but played in Helsinki some months later. We couldn’t make it to Come Out and Play, but David wrote us a report.

Other games we have discussed include Finnish pervasive larp chrnicle Neonhämärä, “world’s largest board game” Candyland, Prosopopeia and Momentum. We had to mention also one of our all time favourites, the Pervasive Drinking Game.

We have also reported on three art pieces that fall under the header of pervasive play, Alter Ego from Finland, Rape Me from Norway and Okänd, kvinna 2009-349701 from Sweden (the artist was later sentenced).

Design

There are certain subjects that we did not cover as deeply as we maybe should have in the book. The pieces here on adaptronic games and 360 degree illusion add a little depth to what was touched upon in the book.

In addition, we have discussed emoriddles, designing for coincidence, reported on tips learned from Sean Stewart, gaming in multiplexes, experimenting with the bleed and using reality as a sourcebook.

Pervasive films and books

La decima vittima

There is a limited amount of films that have had a significant influence on the development of pervasive games – or which have depicted play of pervasive games. Jaakko has been writing about those. Thus far he has covered La decima vittima, The Last of Sheila, Midnight Madness and Brüno. In the future there will be entries on, at least, The Game, Pavlovin koirat and killer.berlin.doc.

We have also from time to time mentioned books that we have found inspirational. This we should do more often. At the time of writing there are entries on Keri Smith’s and Improv Everywhere’s books, Sacha Baron Cohen’s unauthorized biography, as well as the classic The Club of Queer Trades.

Technology

Annika has been writing (well, ranting) about the tech side of pervasive games. If that is your cup of tea, check out her pieces on hardcore use of the IPhone, tracking players, tracking convicts and why Bluetooth is not a proximity technology.

Society and Media Culture

(A) Blair Witch Project , (B) graffiti movement, (C) Dance Dance Revolution , (D) zombie walks , (E) competitive skateboarding , and (F) Big Brother .

We see pervasive games situated in a larger cultural context of three interrelated societal shifts: Blur of the Real and the Fictive in media culture, increasing Struggle over Public Space, and the Rise of Ludus in the Society. After thinking about this stuff for years, we now see it everywhere. In the blog Markus has written about a huge personal ads in a newspaper, BASE jumps, identity and death and Second Life, the danger of extreme games and the internet driven television revolution that takes us all to monoculture. In addition there are pieces on graffiti, street mosaic, dancing, The Yes Men, graffiti carved into metal, and how larp can change the world.

Reviews

We have tried to point out reviews of the book in the blog. So far there  are these: Harviainen, Pettersson, Noyons and Holter.