Geocaching: Interactive Communication Channels Around the Game

Geocaching, a GPS-based mixed reality game with roughly five million participants and nearly 1.8 million active caches across 220 countries, serves as the focus of this examination of the interactive communication channels players use to collaborate. Drawing on a 2012 Eludamos study, the analysis argues that players themselves extend and develop the game, which makes geocaching a valuable pilot area for understanding social and collaborative design in games. Its central thesis is that the social and collaborative features of geocaching, supported by mixed reality design, offer a useful model for interactive communication in games more broadly.

The research relies on a qualitative internet survey of twenty-one geocachers, mostly middle-aged men across eight countries, whose high average technology orientation led the authors to classify them as "lead users." Rather than presenting quantitative conclusions, the study proposes an interaction-analysis framework for social awareness that examines the forms, activities, agents, places, and contents of awareness. It also situates geocaching within mixed reality theory, characterizing virtual caches as "amplified reality" and the activity as a mobile, socially driven pervasive game that blends physical and online play.

Findings on technology use show that players are typically technically oriented, relying on GPS devices, smartphones, and custom software, and depending heavily on online resources such as Geocaching.com, the Groundspeak forum, and local community networks. These channels, the study concludes, foster face-to-face interaction, trust, and a sense of community, while players function as innovators who have driven technological trends in GPS-based gaming. Supporting evidence includes examples such as LiveJournal communities, the Project APE marketing campaign for the 2001 Planet of the Apes remake, and the World Wide Flash Mob events.

From these observations, the authors derive design guidelines for mixed reality social games, including supporting shared experiences within communities, enabling event-based sharing, and facilitating easy distribution of player-made software tools. The overall conclusion is that geocaching illustrates emerging forms of computer-enabled community and interaction, offering lessons that are directly applicable to designers of multiplayer and mixed reality games.