The Map as Playground: Location-Based Games as Cartographical Practices

Sybille Lammes's paper examines how maps in location-based mobile games function as playing surfaces on which players inscribe their movements and local information while on the move. The central argument is that these games foreground the fluidity and performative character of mapping, so that maps are not merely representations consulted by players but mediators that produce new social spaces. Building on Latour's concept of mediators and Lefebvre's account of social space, the author proposes that such maps be understood as "navigational interfaces" rather than the "mimetic interfaces" Jesper Juul describes for casual games. The analysis draws on game studies alongside Science and Technology Studies and Human Geography.

The paper's case studies are three smartphone games: RunZombieRun, Paranormal Activity Sanctuary, and Own This World. In each, a real-world map, typically a Google map or aerial image, serves as the game board, with the player's physical position marked on it. The author contrasts these with analogue board games, which rely on what Latour calls immutable mobiles, since their map surfaces remain fixed even as pieces move. In the location-based games, the map image itself is continually altered by the player's movement, blurring the distinction between touring and mapping and between the physical world and the game world. The work also argues that these games resist the traditional idea of a "magic circle," producing instead a dispersed, casual form of play that integrates into everyday activity.

The paper concludes that these games expose the socially constructed nature of maps, in which references are chosen for their relevance rather than their resemblance to the environment. Drawing on November, Camacho-Hübner and Latour's notion of maps as chains of production, the author argues that players become aware of the networks, data, and selections that constitute a map. The study is primarily a conceptual and qualitative analysis of three titles, based on the author's engagement with the games and the theoretical literature, rather than on survey data or systematic sampling. Its contribution lies in reframing digital maps as processual, performative practices that shape spatial understanding.