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Learning in the City
through Pervasive Games
Nikolaos Avouris
[University of Patras GR]
Hybrid City 2013: Subtle rEvolutions
Athens, May 23-25 2013.

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current gaming culture
http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html

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Games in hybrid cities
Pervasive games facilitated by
information infrastructure and mobile
technologies use modern cities as
playgrounds
These games are conducive to learning

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Hybrid City II & games
• C. Chrisanthopoulou –The Alice inWanderland project:An Alternate Reality Game in the
city of Athens.
• M. Ivkovic, B. Piepgras, R. van Emden - Fun, games and collaborative plans: Benefits and
shortcomings of including interactivity and gaming into the collaborative urban planning.
• I.Theona – Experiencing cities as gamescapes.
• Z. Lekkas, H. Rizopoulos, D. Charitos – Investigating the hybrid spatial experience of a
location based game.
• I. Marmaras - Banoptikon videogame: City on the run.
• I. Mavrommati, G. Mylonas, I. Chatzigiannakis, O.Akribopoulos, M. Logaras - Large scale
multiplayer sensor based installations in public spaces:The case of the Words game.
• S. Papadopoulos, A. Malakasioti, G. Loukakis, G. Kalaouzis – CLOUDS: Urban Landscapes
inVideo Games – Representations and Spatial Narratives.
• E. Kolovou – CITYgories: Playing the urban space.
• M. Saridaki, E. Roinioti - RouteMate, a location based route learning system for users with
disabilities. A playful methodological experience in different urban European landscapes.
• A. Antonopoulou – Mass mediation:The “playful crowd” and the digital present.

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On Physical and Game Spaces
Any time we are engaged in playful
activity we cross a “magical circle”
and enter a new space: that of
game play.
New rules, new characters, new
stories evolve in this new space.

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In LaVita e Bella R. Benigni plays “hide
and seek” in a concentration camp

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Hybrid game spaces
Physical space
Game space

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Hybrid game spaces
Physical space
Game space
Virtual (Digital)
space

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o augments the Physical space
o Supports the Game Space by
imposing game mechanics
TheVirtual (Digital) Space:

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Technologies to support
connecting digital space to
physical and game spaces

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Intra-spaces connections
• QR codes/ NFC scanning
• Image recognition
• Gestures
• Location-based instructions
encoding

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Intra-spaces connections
QR codes (quick response codes)
(From Derby Museum, Connection to
QRPedia)
NFCtags (Near Field
Communication)
Source: NFC at Museum of London, Nokia
(Youtube)

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Gesture interaction modalities
Scan an image
(GoogleGoggles)
Source: Google Goggles at the
Getty Museum (Youtube)
Gesture-based
interaction
Source: RExplorer
(Youtube)

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Location-based instructions encoding
for progressing narration
http://www.whaiwhai.com/en
• Ruyi from
whaiwhai
(youtube,TGR)

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Primitive player actions
The players - through a mobile device -
perform actions (selection of an item, reply to
a quiz, etc.) that affect the state of the game.
The context of actions in game space and
physical space, and player identity, give
meaning to them.
e.g. proximity of two players may allow some
possible interactions between them, based on the
fact that they belong to the same or competing
teams.

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Examples of actions meaning
• Collecting a piece of information
• Unlocking next part of a story
• Receiving further instructions
• Replying to a question, doing a puzzle
• Linking objects (action as part of a sequence)
• Transporting “virtual objects” between
positions (action as part of a sequence)
• Modifying the state of an object, i.e. locking
or unlocking it

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Pervasive games & learning
De Souza & Delacruz (2006) claim that these
games facilitate learning :
• Social learning
– Multiuser activities content is created through
communication and collaboration
• Experiential learning
– The game provides opportunities for action and
reflection on action
• Situated learning
– Activity in relevant physical location
term used= augmented reality games

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Pervasive games & learning
Schrier (2006) identified an evaluation
framework for location-based games based
on so called 21st century learning skills:
http://www.p21.org/

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Pervasive games taxonomy
peadic
ludic
Action
games
Treasure
Hunts
Role Playing
Games
Partcipatory
Simulators
Situated
Language
Learning
Museum
Guides
Museum
Interactive
Guides
Museum Role
Playing Games
Adventure
Games
Fiction in
the City
Avouris N.,Yiannoutsou N. A review of mobile location-based games for
learning across physical and virtual spacesTo appear in Journal of
Universal Computer Science, vol 18. s&Yiannoutsou, 2012

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Examples of learning in the city
• Learning about the city (tourists,
awareness)
• Learning through the city (learning
inspired by landmarks, historic sites,
etc.)
• Learning to live in the city (citizens’
skills, solving everyday problems)

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Pervasive Games examples
• Carnival scrabble
• Who Killed Hannae
• Frequency 1550
• Invisible city

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We can adapt existing forms of games
•Hide & seek, treasure hunt, cops & robbers
•Party games, board-, trading- or role playing
games
•Computer games
Get support through design tools
•Heuristics
•Design guidelines
•Design frameworks
How to design pervasive city games?

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CarnivalScrabble

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CarnivalScrabble
• Based on the CityScrabble idea
(linking places-concepts)
• An activity in the 2013Treasure
Hunt game of Patras’ Carnival
• Over 80 competing groups
using their mobile phones for
following instructions
• over 200 points in the city of
Patras, the players where asked
to access and relate them to 28
themes.

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Who Killed Hannae
• A mystery story in the
city of Aalborg (Paay et
al. 2008) – existing novel
• Episodes of the book are
linked to sites of the city.
• Players play the role of a
detective
• Two players collaborate
to solve the mystery

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Who Killed Hannae
• The story is delivered in the
form of newspaper, digital
character interactions
• Users collect key evidence
(i.e. pictures of objects or
responses from digital
characters
When they are successful they are rewarded with a
half sign.
When two half signs are combined the next stop
appears on the map

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Frequency 1550
• The Place: Medieval Amsterdam
• The story: Players have to gain
366 points or days of citizenship (a
year and a day rule to earn civil
rights
• Two types of groups:
Headquarters and mobile groups
• Mobile groups undertake the role
of merchants, beggars, priests
with different status order in the
game

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Frequency 1550
• The headquarters digitally follow the mobile team
and guide them through the tasks, they receive
information from the mobile team and make further
investigations
• The mobile team implements the tasks: go to this
place and take a picture or a video. Involve specific
places of interest
• Six areas of medieval Amsterdam linked to different
assignments: labor, trade, religion, rules,
government, knowledge, defense

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Invisible City:
The Rebels vs Spies (RvS)
city game

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Invisible city
RebelsVs Spies:The original Mafia party game
Inspired by: Mafia game,
aka Night in Palermo,Werewolves, Assassins...
Asymmetrical information, informed
minorityVS un-informed majority
Final : Invisible city - RebelsVs Spies
oMultiplayer game for Android devices
oThe players move in the city, observe,
solve puzzles, compete and cooperate

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Invisible city
RebelsVs Spies:The original Mafia party game

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Rebels → Uninformed majority
Spies → Informed minority
Invisible city
RebelsVs Spies: Expanding the concept

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At the beginning of a round
the players gather together and
choose a leader
Invisible city
RebelsVs Spies: Expanding the concept

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A leader is elected who decides the
missions for each player
Invisible city
RebelsVs Spies: Expanding the concept

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The leader sends the missions to the players
and becomes a normal player
Some missions are critical, some are not
If a critical mission fails, the round goes to the spies
Invisible city
RebelsVs Spies: Expanding the concept

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Each player proceeds to find the location
mentioned in the assigned mission
Invisible city
RebelsVs Spies: Expanding the concept

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The players can choose to either
succeed or fail
Invisible city
RebelsVs Spies: Expanding the concept

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After completing the mission players
proceeds to the location for the next round
Invisible city
RebelsVs Spies: Expanding the concept

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Spatial expansion
From the room →To the city
Locations are spread out
Players cannot observe each other
Meaning and storyline is fragmented
Situated play and contextual knowledge
Incorporate contextual information
Engagement through physical involvement
Integrate a coherent narrative
Invisible city
RebelsVs Spies: Expanding the concept

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Looking at the learning
experience

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Learning in “Who killed Hannae”
Participants all enjoyed walking through the
city of Aalborg; in fact current residents of
Aalborg claimed that they had learned new
things about their city. For example, the
existence of theAalborg Convent, hidden
near the central city shopping precinct, and its
historical associations with the Danish
resistance duringWorldWar II had not
previously been known to any of the
participants.” (Paay et al., 2008, p. 128).

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Learning in Frequency 1550
• active experience of history through a location-
based game adds to historical awareness,
knowledge and appreciation of the city and its
history (constructionist approach, Raessens, 2007)
• [Akkerman, 09] observed that ... the city teams who
enacted the story, were often distracted by all that
was happening in real time in the street, so while
trying to find their way through the city, searching
for assignment locations and completing the
assignments, students lost the sight of the overall
structure of the game and its narrative and learning
effect
Raessens, J. (2007) Playing History: Reflections on Mobile and
Location-Based Learning. pp. 200-217.

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[ Extract 1 ]
R. Did you learn something about the city that
you didn’t know before playing the game?
A:We didn’t know any of it…. it was all new.
S:Yes, everything was new ….
M: …. we walk every day by these sites but we
had no idea of all these things about them
Invisible cities: familiar places seen
through a new perspective

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[ Extract 2 ]
R: So, what would you say that you learned?
S.That the church of Pantocratoras was an
ancient temple before.
M: I was impressed with the information
about the Mayor (information about an ex
Mayor during the period 1949-1967)
Historic layer

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[ Extract 3 ]
R: Do you think that the game would be useful for
a visitor who doesn’t know the city?
A:The game is not about “getting to know” the
city, it is about “discovering the city”. The game
is not designed for a visitor who wants to learn
what the characteristic sites of this city are.The
questions are about discovering the invisible city-
things that were hidden and not obvious when
you look at the buildings for example.
Visitors vs locals learning

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Selective attention
[ Extract 4 ]
R: Did you have the chance to look around when
you were playing?
K: I knew the surroundings more or less. ….

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discussion
Often Focus on factual information → game a
vehicle for transferring new information to the
player- Search for this information in an
intriguing, engaging and pleasant way
Is information all there is to learn about a city?
Embodied experience
Live the city through the game .. City narrative
Balance is needed between overworking in
“making” activities and reflection

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… discussion
• Fragmented experiences: in the context of
this type of games places are treated as a
bunch of disconnected and de-
contextualized things (Klopfer et al., 2005)
• Fun vs learn:The focus on the place and
the mental riddles is the price the players
have to “pay” in order for the fun to
continue

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Participation
Citizen tiles / ZsolnayCultural Quarter, Pecs

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ookl: citizen curator

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Mission tasks may be
contributed through a web
site (e.g. a school teacher
can design a specific version
of the game for a school
party)
Contribution of facts,
tasks, riddles by the
citizens to be included into
the game
[Sintoris et al. 2011 ]

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ευχαριστώ
hci.ece.upatras.gr/avouris

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Ideas for participatory tasks
• Stating preferences, voting on interesting
objects, comments etc.
• Tagging: unstructured text associated with
objects
• Debunking, criticizing: arguing against other
peoples’ ideas, tags etc.
• Recording personal stories: personal
memories associated to a site
• Linking objects or categorising: grouping of
objects or associating them with themes (e.g.
card sorting, cityscrabble)