Lesser-Known Worlds: Bridging the Telematic Flows with Located Human Experience Through Game Design

Key insights

5 slides

The core argument

Location-based games are framed as cultural contributors, not novelties.

The paper argues that location-based games using mobile technology should be understood as potential contributors to cultural production and to people's engagement with urban space. It positions city sites as active participants in play.

Scoot 2 and beyond

Scoot 2 let players author their own puzzles for SMS distribution.

Scoot 2 was a web-based curatorial tool letting individuals and groups author their own puzzles for SMS distribution, shifting players toward co-design. The authors propose a future unified interface letting players both play and design location-based mods.

Limit of evidence. The evidence is primarily qualitative and drawn from small, exploratory deployments rather than broad empirical testing.

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Summary

This paper, presented at the DiGRA 2005 conference, argues that location-based games (LBGs), which use mobile technologies to structure play in real-world environments, should be understood not merely as commercial novelties but as potential contributors to cultural production and to people's engagement with urban space. The authors contend that such games can strengthen the relationships between particular groups and city locations, positioning urban sites as active participants in play rather than passive stages. The work frames cities as parallel infrastructures combining telematic information flows with sites of human experience, and it asks what creative opportunities LBGs open for everyday people using everyday devices.

The authors review existing LBGs and alternate reality games (ARGs), noting that many treat environments as backdrops for treasure hunts or combat, while a smaller set, such as GeoQuest in Marseille and Close Encounters in Los Angeles, engage more deeply with local history and communities. Drawing on user research with roughly eighty first-year university students, the paper finds a strong preference for playing with others in the same physical location, and it observes that games generate valuable social and creative artifacts before, during, and after play, including fan fiction, strategy guides, and modifications. These observations inform the design of Scoot, an experimental location-based game staged at the Creative Industries Precinct in Brisbane and at Federation Square in Melbourne, which used SMS messaging, online virtual worlds, and public displays to link players to local sites.

The paper reports on the two Scoot iterations. Scoot 1 was a time-limited event in which players solved clues in both physical and virtual spaces, with prizes supplied by local stakeholders, and it produced moments of delight as participants found new uses for familiar devices and spaces. Scoot 2 was a web-based curatorial tool that let individuals and groups author their own puzzles for SMS distribution, shifting players toward co-design. The authors conclude that Scoot encouraged players to see their neighborhoods as sites for creative engagement and their phones as play devices, and they propose a future unified interface allowing players to both play and design location-based mods in any setting. The evidence is primarily qualitative and based on small, exploratory deployments rather than broad empirical testing.