2019
Leorke, Dale
Reappropriating, Reconfiguring and Augmenting the Smart City Through Play
In: Nijholt, Anton (Ed.): Making Smart Cities More Playable: Exploring Playable Cities, pp. 51-70, Springer Singapore, 2019, ISBN: 9789811397646.
Book chapter Open access
Abstract | Links | Tags: Civic engagement, Counterplay, Gamification, Play, Playable cities, Psychogeography, Smart city
@incollection{Leorke2019,
title = {Reappropriating, Reconfiguring and Augmenting the Smart City Through Play},
author = {Dale Leorke},
editor = {Anton Nijholt},
url = {https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202101131251},
doi = {10.1007/978-981-13-9765-3_3},
isbn = {9789811397646},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-06-23},
booktitle = {Making Smart Cities More Playable: Exploring Playable Cities},
pages = {51-70},
publisher = {Springer Singapore},
abstract = {This chapter examines the growing intersection of digital games and the ‘smart city’ model. It explores the various ways that games and playful practices can alternately support, challenge, or counter the push to instrumentalise, optimise, and ‘program’ the city through ubiquitous smart technologies and ‘sentient’ infrastructure. I begin with a brief overview of the smart city model and how digital games figure into its economic and cultural policies. I then examine current debates around how games and play might more broadly contribute to and counteract the smart city approach, through an analysis of different groups and movements that propose themselves as playful ‘alternatives’ to the smart city. I outline three broad conceptual categories into which these alternatives fit, which alternately propose to reappropriate, reconfigure, and augment the smart city. In doing so, I connecting each of these approaches not only to contemporary discourses around urban policy, but also historical and present visions of play in urban space.},
keywords = {Civic engagement, Counterplay, Gamification, Play, Playable cities, Psychogeography, Smart city},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {incollection}
}
This chapter examines the growing intersection of digital games and the ‘smart city’ model. It explores the various ways that games and playful practices can alternately support, challenge, or counter the push to instrumentalise, optimise, and ‘program’ the city through ubiquitous smart technologies and ‘sentient’ infrastructure. I begin with a brief overview of the smart city model and how digital games figure into its economic and cultural policies. I then examine current debates around how games and play might more broadly contribute to and counteract the smart city approach, through an analysis of different groups and movements that propose themselves as playful ‘alternatives’ to the smart city. I outline three broad conceptual categories into which these alternatives fit, which alternately propose to reappropriate, reconfigure, and augment the smart city. In doing so, I connecting each of these approaches not only to contemporary discourses around urban policy, but also historical and present visions of play in urban space.
Innocent, Troy; Leorke, Dale
Heightened Intensity: Reflecting on Player Experiences in Wayfinder Live
In: Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, vol. 25, iss. 1, pp. 18-39, 2019, ISSN: 1354-8565.
Journal article Open access
Abstract | Links | Tags: Digital games, Game design, Location-based game, Materiality, Mobile media, Play and public space, Playable cities, Psychogeography, Urban codemaking, Urban play
@article{Innocent2019,
title = {Heightened Intensity: Reflecting on Player Experiences in Wayfinder Live},
author = {Troy Innocent and Dale Leorke},
url = {https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202101131253},
doi = {10.1177/1354856518822427},
issn = {1354-8565},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-02-01},
journal = {Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies},
volume = {25},
issue = {1},
pages = {18-39},
abstract = {Location-based games use smartphones and other location-aware devices to incorporate their players’ actions in everyday, physical spaces – the streets and public spaces of the city – into the virtual world of the game. Scholars and designers of these games often claim that they reconfigure their players’ relationship with the people and environment around them. They argue these games either engage and immerse players more deeply in the spaces of the game or distance and detach them from the physical environment through the screen interface. To date, however, relatively few detailed empirical studies of these games have been undertaken to test out and critique these claims. This article presents a study of the 2017 iteration of the location-based augmented reality game Wayfinder Live, in which players use their phones to search for and scan urban codes hidden across Melbourne’s laneways, alleys, and public spaces. Players of the game were interviewed and invited to reflect on their experience. This article relates these experiences to the design and development of the game, particularly to five play design principles that characterize its approach to haptic play in urban space. We begin by outlining these principles and the motivations behind them. Then, drawing on an analysis of the player interviews, we evaluate the impact of the game on their perception of the city.},
keywords = {Digital games, Game design, Location-based game, Materiality, Mobile media, Play and public space, Playable cities, Psychogeography, Urban codemaking, Urban play},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Location-based games use smartphones and other location-aware devices to incorporate their players’ actions in everyday, physical spaces – the streets and public spaces of the city – into the virtual world of the game. Scholars and designers of these games often claim that they reconfigure their players’ relationship with the people and environment around them. They argue these games either engage and immerse players more deeply in the spaces of the game or distance and detach them from the physical environment through the screen interface. To date, however, relatively few detailed empirical studies of these games have been undertaken to test out and critique these claims. This article presents a study of the 2017 iteration of the location-based augmented reality game Wayfinder Live, in which players use their phones to search for and scan urban codes hidden across Melbourne’s laneways, alleys, and public spaces. Players of the game were interviewed and invited to reflect on their experience. This article relates these experiences to the design and development of the game, particularly to five play design principles that characterize its approach to haptic play in urban space. We begin by outlining these principles and the motivations behind them. Then, drawing on an analysis of the player interviews, we evaluate the impact of the game on their perception of the city.