Can pervasive games encourage engagement with important

locations?

Dr Brett Wilkinson Presenting the work of:

Mr Patrick Armstrong and Dr Brett Wilkinson

Video Game Players • The idea that video games are for children

is incorrect • Over the last decade:

– Gamer average age is 32 – Evenly split between male and female

• Extensively investigated as motivational tools in education

• New types of game style for new generation of mobile, location aware devices like smart phones and tablets

Pervasive Gaming

• Incorporate real world elements into the game world

• Pervasive games feature: – Persistent game play – Quick short play periods rather than single

long sessions – Use location services, augmented reality,

Improve lecture attendance

A focus on lecture attendance • Lecture attendance has a direct positive impact

on student grades

• Absence dynamics can be divided into three groups: – High motivation: Injury, sickness, emergency’s – Medium motivation: Conflict of priorities – Low motivation: Non-essential, non-academic

• Over 60% of absences fall into low motivation

Experiment Aim • Use the motivational benefits of games to

direct user movement

• Reward through game play for being at a physical location within a specified window

• Conduct a preliminary investigation into use persistent gaming concepts to achieve this goal.

Pervasive Games • Deeper involvement with the game world than

just using GPS location. • Look to extend the game experience into the

physical environment • Seek to incorporate

– Anywhere / Anytime idea. Short play sessions over extended interaction

– Player location matters and is relevant – Persistent gameplay that continues even when not

being directly controlled – Connects and communicates game state changes – Social gameplay aspects

Game Design • Resource collection

and Virtual pet management.

• Resources planted in the real world tracked by GPS and harvested after a germination period to feed pet.

• Game play area focused on Flinders University campus

• Augmented Reality used to increase the game world / real world connection

Pet Interaction screen Resource Management screen

Use of an Essential Location • Gameplay is

unwinnable by itself

• Participants must, without instruction, utilize a large resource node at an essential location

• Failure to use the essential location makes pet survival impossible

Essential Location: Lecture Theatre South 3

Results • All participants were familiar with mobile

devices and nearly all played video games regularly

• All participants found the game easy to play and understand, suggesting game failure was not due to misunderstanding

• Users raised issues with the empathic relationship with the pet, 40% of users felt limited connection with the virtual pet.

Results • Users had three key issues with the game

style: – Insufficient communication from pet – Underdeveloped feedback cycle between pet

and player – Lack of a social component

• All but two participants utilized the

essential location and kept their pet alive, using varied movement patterns per user.

Results • One pet death was the result of the player

rushing to the essential location and ignoring other resources

• One participant failed to make use of the essential location

• This manifested in the: – Least amount of time played – Lowest number of resources planted per minute,

before pet death, during gameplay • This player also showed one of the two lowest

empathic relationships to the pet

Results – Possible Influences

• Movement logs showed anomalous movement possible due to the topography of Flinders University

Flinders University topography looking down from the essential location

Conclusions

• Results suggest pervasive game techniques can be used to direct player movement

• Suggested improvements by players in line with pervasive game play ideals

Future Work • Introduce fixed time frame resources to

accurately simulate lecture start times

• Additional effort to ensure empathic relationship with virtual pet is effective and engaging

• Open ended testing.

• Remove topographical concerns as possible influences