Much harder than introduction, research context is 1500-2000 words and has its own section in the grading rubric. That is alright. I got this. It’s only noon, so there’s still time.

In research context, you analyse existing knowledge on the subject in a way that relates to your project. I was however told to first write things and then add references in order to have my own thoughts come across, and not just do a critical review of the references. I think the way to solve it is, that in here, where I try to think these things through, I’ll write what I’ve learnt through my research. Basically just listing different sources and the main takeaways. Afterwards, I might want to see what is expected of us in terms of “critically evaluating” sources and how to do that.

But first.

Sources and key takeaways

Source: Markus Montola, Jaakko Stenros, and Annika Waern (2009) Pervasive Games : Theory and Design

• Established genres for pervasive games:
  • Treasure hunts
  • Assassination games
  • Pervasive LARPs
  • Alternate reality games
    • Sophisticated puzzle-based gameplay
    • collaboration rather than competition, large self-organised player communities, internet-based game
    • Collective intelligence
• Emerging (as of 2006 lol) game genres
  • Urban adventure games
    • Takes the player to areas with some historical or cultural significance to solve puzzles and hollow stories + learn tidbits about history of the place
    • Solving a puzzle typically provides further instructions about how to find a new place
    • In Uncle Roy All Around You, player looks for Uncle Roy by following remote instructions from him.

—> My game took inspiration from treasure hunt genre, and urban adventure (esp uncle Roy all around you)

—> In Uncle Roy All Around you, there is a story theme of finding a missing character. This becomes important later.

• SHELBY LOCAN’S RUN
  • Combination of treasure hunt, a road rally, and a puzzle-solving marathon
  • Elaborate preparation, clues, if teams solved bonus clues they got extra stuff
  • They had an agenda that players would feel highest of highs and lowest of lows

—> Treasure hunt works well as a genre

—> Importance of teamwork

• REXplorer
  • Basically what I’m doing
  • Spirits in different town locations who share history
  • Paranormal activity detector displays an excited heartbeat near a sight, indicating that there is paranormal energy in the environment. In order to summon the spirit the player needs to cast a spell through performing the correct gesture with the detector. If summoning is successful, the spirit appears on the screen and begins to speak to the player
  • Nonlinear
  • Player can accept up to 3 quests in parallel
  • Keeping in mind people exploring the city with more people, contains a microphone that loudly tells the instructors
  • game requires multiple artefacts, so people take on different roles during the game
  • an interactive map to show the users’ path through the city and highlight point of interest they visited
  • Players can comment on blogs or take pictures using the camera in their paranormal activity detector
  • Single player considers it awkward to perform the spells, even one more player makes this better thought
  • Birdges a gap between an aural tourist guide and an urban adventure game

—> Spirits feel natural in locative game context

—> Interactive map