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The University of Sydney Page 1
Playing around with Game StudiesChallenge of Locating “Culture” in Location-Based Games
Kyle MoorePhD Candidate, Department of Media and Communications Twitter: @kylejmoore
Crossroads in Cultural StudiesSydney, Australia17 December 2016
The University of Sydney Page 2
Overview of Doctoral Research
– Doctoral research, an ethnography of Sydney-based Ingress players
– Ingress, also developed by Niantic Labs, while still a subsidiary of Google
– Team-based Resistance vs Enlightened
– Exploring the sociocultural and material circumstance underscoring urban play
The University of Sydney Page 3
What is Ingress?
Developed by Niantic labs in 2012 prior to split from GoogleLocation-based alternate-reality game Fits within broad category of ‘urban mobile game’ Global player base, beyond just urban city centres Two teams – ENL and RESCapture-the-flag style game play Game with no foreseeable end
The University of Sydney Page 4
‘Situated Play’
– The notion that all play is underscored by socio-cultural and material circumstance
– Draws from HCI ‘situated actions’ (Suchman, 1987; 2007)
– ‘Situated Gaming’ – Yates and Littleton (1999);
gaming within ‘cultural niches’
– Apperley (2010); tensions between local and global, embodied player engages within this space
The University of Sydney Page 5
The University of Sydney Page 6
Aegis Nova AnomalySydney 25th of June
The University of Sydney Page 7
Mixed Methodology for Mobile Media
Draws from virtual ethnographic methods – treating Ingress as a multi-sited game ‘Play’ and organisation of community across multiple platforms – GChat, in-person, in-game Participant observations Chat logs and event historyScreen shots of locations and activitiesCentred around social events – farms, fracks, competitive micro-events and large scale global events
The University of Sydney Page 8
Resistance Players at Aegis Nova AnomalySydney, 25th of June 2016
The University of Sydney Page 9
Entering the Community
Initial interactions with Ingress community based on proximity Solo play easily transforms into co-operative or team-based play Visibility of game system – a log of player interactions – allow for easy means of contact and development of community Social events organised via online groups and platforms e.g. Google+Online groups recruit via in-game communications
The University of Sydney Page 10
Challenges
Everyday urban mobility – moving between points of interest and social interaction Community involvement – in depth engagement with communitiesReflexive research practices – community often willing to alter ‘everyday’ habits to attempt to accommodate me as researcher Shifting social landscape post ‘Pokémon Go’ – re-entering community for follow up interviews
The University of Sydney Page 11
Preliminary Conclusions
Play is situational i.e. it draws from sociocultural and material contextsOne of these being ‘gaming culture’ more broadly. Play also able to alter and reframe our understanding of these conditionsDraws from a range of localitiesnotions of ‘the local’ become intertwined with playGaming culture is localised and reframed through specific location-based gaming practices