what the hell happened to
location-based games?
nicolas nova - liftlab
Mobile Monday Amsterdam, Feb 2nd, 2009

studying users’practices to inform design&strategy

location-based games

location-based games such as Mogi

“Once devices were
\"Location-aware service
location-aware, business
integration into applications
applications were expected
began. A critical mass of
to take advantage of the
network and device support
capabilities in the next two
will occur through 2006.\"
to five years“
Gartner, 2003
Gartner, 2006

“Once devices were
\"Location-aware service
location-aware, business
integration into applications
applications were expected
began. A critical mass of
to take advantage of the
network and device support
capabilities in the next two
will occur through 2006.\"
to five years“
Gartner, 2003
Gartner, 2006
A “proximal” future... still expected

privacy

user interface: limited input/output
/zoolander phone/ ok but tedious

difficult to reach critical mass
Network
value
Number of nodes
hardware + software fragmentations + carrier “walled
gardens” = difficulty to have a critical mass

the importance of infrastructures

space is not homogeneous - continuity issues

infrastructure issue and location quality

Opportunities for the near future!

1. Reality is a mess and we have to
deal with it!
(some ideas to improve your products)

use proximity not location

self-declaration of player’s location

seamful design: “treasure troves” (aspyr)

“seamful design” (Chalmers)
reveal the “seams” and the
imperfections to the users
(limits, boundaries,
uncertainties)
...to allow users to lie
...to make them aware
of the limits

2. Reality is a mess and we don’t
want to deal with it
is there a solution?

the laser game scenario

What’s next?

next: games based on data aggregation

next: location-based games meet lifelogging

thanks!
nicolas.nova@gmail.com