The Fortress of Monemvasia as Playground for a Location Based Game

This paper reports an ongoing study of "If … in Monemvasia," a location-based multiplayer mobile game deployed at the medieval fortress town of Monemvasia in southeastern Greece. The game is run by an Environmental Education Center that hosts school class visits, and it has been integrated into its program since February 2016. In the first three months, it was played 18 times by 343 secondary-level pupils, averaging 19 per session. Players, organized into four teams of three to five, move through the town to associate seventeen role-playing missions, framed around three states (Siege, Rebuilding, and Everyday Life), with landmarks revealed through GPS "hot zones" on Android tablets. Correct associations earn points, incorrect ones carry no reward, and the design emphasizes using historical concepts such as repeated invasions, multicultural architecture, limited space, and reliance on rainwater as lenses for observing the environment rather than as facts to memorize.

The authors argue that tying historical analysis to physical exploration can foster historical thinking, with deeper reflection occurring in post-play discussion. The study's data sources include recorded team discourse, questionnaires gathered from all 18 sessions, a video-recorded reflective discussion, researcher observation notes, and location and log data tracking each team's paths and association timing. Preliminary observations indicate that students became engaged, discussed missions and landmark descriptions, and sought additional information from locals. Notable behavioral patterns include strategic searching through steep, narrow alleys, which costs physical effort but offers geographic reflection, and the value of a printed "cheat sheet" for tracking missions and supporting team cooperation. The analysis is still in progress, so conclusions about learning outcomes remain provisional.