Design Criteria for Pervasive Games in Historical Sites

Video games can be considered a strong asset in the tourism industry. It is a form of media that allows for interactive experiences. It also allows the virtual reconstruction of historical sites and cities that are difficult or impossible to reconstruct physically, thus, introducing historical sites to a new generation. Pervasive gaming (playing on site) can help augment the tourist's experience by using 21st-century technologies, such as augmented reality, to reconstruct the site virtually and to let the player experience the history of the sites in a more engaging way. This paper aims to provide stakeholders (decision makers, preservation professionals, and game designers) with a guide on how to start the development process of a pervasive game in historical sites for the purpose of promoting the Egyptian architectural heritage to the next generation according to their understanding capacity and expectations. This paper presents pervasive gaming as a platform for the virtual restoration of historical monuments as well as the revival of the intangible aspects of these sites, particularly the historical stories associated with them.

The Magic Circle: An Exploration in Immersive Theatre

When discussing theatre, most people will imagine a traditional audience-actor relationship, likely in a proscenium setting; the actors on stage inhabit the world of the story while audience members remain passive bystanders. Immersive theatre challenges this convention by bringing the audience into the world of the story. Comparable to being immersed in water, the audience members are fully submerged in this new world; senses are engaged and heightened, and curiosity is peaked. The audience becomes a part of the story world alongside the actors as the border between the real and the fictional becomes blurred. In the world of games and digital media, this border is known as the “magic circle”, a space with unique rules and values separate from day-to-day reality. Though this metaphor was created to describe a game space, it can be argued that audience members in immersive theatre performances have become “players” themselves. In this project, I explore the “play” aspect of immersive theatre, with a particular focus in the area of pervasive gaming. This project includes research from a variety of theatre practitioners, theorists, and game designers including Janet Murray, Josephine Machon, Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman. Inspired by that research, I am creating a pervasive game designed to be played in and around the city of Kingston. The goal of this project is to further understand the ways in which theatre and gaming are intrinsically linked while experimenting with form and pushing the boundaries of the magic circle.

Prime Example Ingress Reframing the Pervasive Game Design Framework (PGDF)

The growing availability of mobile communication infrastructure over the last decade has contributed significantly to the maturity of Pervasive Gaming. The massive success of games such as Ingress and Pokémon Go made pervasive gaming a viable option for transforming learning. By its adaptability to location and context, pervasive technology is a valuable support for the design of engaging learning experiences. Despite profound examples of pervasive gaming as learning tool, there is still a lack of reliable methodologies to construct purposeful pervasive learning experiences. The Pervasive Game Design Framework (PGDF) is intended to fill this gap. In this article, we present the PGDF using the example of Ingress. Ingress is a prominent pervasive game, as it has received huge attention since its appearance in 2012. A large community of players and third-party-tool suppliers has created a rich set of experiences since then. In this research, we examine Ingress according to PGDF’s categories based on a survey among long-term Ingress players (N=133). Founded on this analysis we identify three main benefits for Ingress players. Furthermore, we discuss the consequences of these findings on the PGDF. Summarizing, this work strengthens the applicability of the PGDF, in order to enable the construction of enriched pervasive learning experiences.