2021
Thibault, Mattia; Buruk, Oğuz; Hassan, Lobna; Hamari, Juho
Anagenesis: A Framework for Gameful, Playful and Democratic Future Smart Cities
In: Vesa, Mikko (Ed.): Organizational Gamification: Theories and Practices of Ludified Work in Late Modernity, pp. 201-229, Taylor & Francis, 2021, ISBN: 9780367321185.
Book chapter
Abstract | Tags: Augmented cities technologies, DIY urbanism, E-participation, Gamification, Smart city, Urban play
@incollection{Thibault2021b,
title = {Anagenesis: A Framework for Gameful, Playful and Democratic Future Smart Cities},
author = {Mattia Thibault and Oğuz Buruk and Lobna Hassan and Juho Hamari},
editor = {Mikko Vesa},
isbn = {9780367321185},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-02-25},
urldate = {2021-02-25},
booktitle = {Organizational Gamification: Theories and Practices of Ludified Work in Late Modernity},
pages = {201-229},
publisher = {Taylor & Francis},
abstract = {This chapter aims to go beyond extant gameful and playful approaches of urban management and governance by identifying the benefits and detriments in current approaches as well as elevating those benefits into a combined juxtaposed future vision of a playfully co-created city, Anagenesis. We ground our framework in the foundation laid out by three separate gameful phenomena: gamified e-participation, urban play initiatives (such as parkour or DIY urbanism) and games based on augmented cities technologies. We argue that while these separate phenomena all have their benefits and detriments, in democratic, playful and technologically enhanced activities organization, in meaningful combination, they provide an efficient and ethical way of engaging citizens in decisions regarding city-making and urban design.},
keywords = {Augmented cities technologies, DIY urbanism, E-participation, Gamification, Smart city, Urban play},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {incollection}
}
This chapter aims to go beyond extant gameful and playful approaches of urban management and governance by identifying the benefits and detriments in current approaches as well as elevating those benefits into a combined juxtaposed future vision of a playfully co-created city, Anagenesis. We ground our framework in the foundation laid out by three separate gameful phenomena: gamified e-participation, urban play initiatives (such as parkour or DIY urbanism) and games based on augmented cities technologies. We argue that while these separate phenomena all have their benefits and detriments, in democratic, playful and technologically enhanced activities organization, in meaningful combination, they provide an efficient and ethical way of engaging citizens in decisions regarding city-making and urban design.
Thibault, Mattia
ReClaim: Urban Gamification for City Reappropriations: Final Report
2021, ISBN: 978-952-03-2009-6.
Report Open access
Abstract | Links | Tags: Live-action role playing, Transurbanism, Urban gamification, Urban play, Urban toyification
@techreport{Thibault2021h,
title = {ReClaim: Urban Gamification for City Reappropriations: Final Report},
author = {Mattia Thibault},
url = {https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-03-2010-2},
isbn = {978-952-03-2009-6},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-01-01},
publisher = {Tampere University},
abstract = {ReClaim is a two-year, EU-funded research project dedicated to the study of Urban Gamification (MSCA-IF-2 017, grant agreement No 793835). The project is led by Dr Mattia Thibault (PI), supervised by Prof. Juho Hamari, and co-supervised by Dr Judith Veenkamp and Dr Gabriele Ferri. ReClaim ran between September 2018 and September 2020. This report offers an overview on its main activities and findings. After an introduction and an overview of the project outreach, the report is structured into five distinct sections. After a Visual Abstract, the first section presents the research outcomes related to the conceptualisation of “urban gamification”, its strategies and applications, and how it can help us rethink gamification altogether. The second section offers a preview on the results of two series of expert interviews (a traditional one and a boardgame-based one) with designers and academics involved in pervasive games, urban play, larps, DIY urbanism and similar. The third section presents several studies dedicated to specific case studies or fields of application of urban gamification (tourism, sustainability, memory etc.). The fourth section is dedicated to the practical implementations and designs that were part of the project, notably the urban toyification activity Jurassic Tampere and the playful data visualisation device ROOK. The fifth section, finally, throws a glance at the future of urban spaces and at the role of play within them exploring the concept of transurbanism. The report terminates with some conclusions and a detailed account of the project’s academic outcomes. Two appendices are dedicated to the professional profile of the PI of ReClaim, Mattia Thibault, and to a photo album.
},
keywords = {Live-action role playing, Transurbanism, Urban gamification, Urban play, Urban toyification},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {techreport}
}
ReClaim is a two-year, EU-funded research project dedicated to the study of Urban Gamification (MSCA-IF-2 017, grant agreement No 793835). The project is led by Dr Mattia Thibault (PI), supervised by Prof. Juho Hamari, and co-supervised by Dr Judith Veenkamp and Dr Gabriele Ferri. ReClaim ran between September 2018 and September 2020. This report offers an overview on its main activities and findings. After an introduction and an overview of the project outreach, the report is structured into five distinct sections. After a Visual Abstract, the first section presents the research outcomes related to the conceptualisation of “urban gamification”, its strategies and applications, and how it can help us rethink gamification altogether. The second section offers a preview on the results of two series of expert interviews (a traditional one and a boardgame-based one) with designers and academics involved in pervasive games, urban play, larps, DIY urbanism and similar. The third section presents several studies dedicated to specific case studies or fields of application of urban gamification (tourism, sustainability, memory etc.). The fourth section is dedicated to the practical implementations and designs that were part of the project, notably the urban toyification activity Jurassic Tampere and the playful data visualisation device ROOK. The fifth section, finally, throws a glance at the future of urban spaces and at the role of play within them exploring the concept of transurbanism. The report terminates with some conclusions and a detailed account of the project’s academic outcomes. Two appendices are dedicated to the professional profile of the PI of ReClaim, Mattia Thibault, and to a photo album.
2020
Nansen, Bjørn; Apperley, Thomas H.
The Digitization of Children's Public Play Spaces
In: McQuire, Scott; Wei, Sun (Ed.): Communicative Cities and Urban Space, pp. 76-91, Routledge, 2020, ISBN: 978-0-367-51560-7.
Book chapter
Abstract | Links | Tags: Children, Digitization, Playgrounds, Urban play
@incollection{Nansen2020,
title = {The Digitization of Children's Public Play Spaces},
author = {Bjørn Nansen and Thomas H. Apperley},
editor = {Scott McQuire and Sun Wei},
url = {http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202101221640},
doi = {10.4324/9781003054436},
isbn = {978-0-367-51560-7},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-12-31},
urldate = {2020-12-31},
booktitle = {Communicative Cities and Urban Space},
pages = {76-91},
publisher = {Routledge},
abstract = {This chapter explores the collision of digital technology and children’s public play spaces, as part of the broader trajectories of the communicative city in which the historical distinctions between the digital and the non-digital are blurred through mobile, locative, and ambient urban media. The digitization of children’s public space is, in common with many other social contexts, predominantly occurring through the widespread and often incidental use of personal mobile devices that occurs around children’s public play. Public playgrounds, which grew in number and popularity in the early twentieth century in response to the street as the default public space of children’s play making way for the car, were from their origins associated with children’s safe outdoor recreation and physical health. The penetration of mobile media infrastructures into playgrounds disrupts this understanding of the playground as a site that is “unmediated” by technological media.},
keywords = {Children, Digitization, Playgrounds, Urban play},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {incollection}
}
This chapter explores the collision of digital technology and children’s public play spaces, as part of the broader trajectories of the communicative city in which the historical distinctions between the digital and the non-digital are blurred through mobile, locative, and ambient urban media. The digitization of children’s public space is, in common with many other social contexts, predominantly occurring through the widespread and often incidental use of personal mobile devices that occurs around children’s public play. Public playgrounds, which grew in number and popularity in the early twentieth century in response to the street as the default public space of children’s play making way for the car, were from their origins associated with children’s safe outdoor recreation and physical health. The penetration of mobile media infrastructures into playgrounds disrupts this understanding of the playground as a site that is “unmediated” by technological media.
Innocent, Troy; Leorke, Dale
(De)coding the City: Analyzing Urban Play through Wayfinder Live
In: American Journal of Play, vol. 12, iss. 3, pp. 270-304, 2020, ISSN: 1938-0399.
Journal article Open access
Abstract | Links | Tags: Affect, Assemblage, Coding, Decoding, Encoding, Interface, Location-based game, Urban play, Wayfinder Live
@article{Innocent2020,
title = {(De)coding the City: Analyzing Urban Play through Wayfinder Live},
author = {Troy Innocent and Dale Leorke},
url = {https://www.journalofplay.org/sites/www.journalofplay.org/files/pdf-articles/12-3-Article-2-Decoding-the-city.pdf},
issn = {1938-0399},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-03-22},
journal = {American Journal of Play},
volume = {12},
issue = {3},
pages = {270-304},
abstract = {The authors use the location-based, augmented-reality game Way finder Live, which one of them designed, as a case study to analyze urban play. Acknowledging the difficulty of defining urban play, they expand existing approaches to the topic by drawing on current theories about interfaces, assemblages, and coding in such fields as media and cultural studies, game and play studies, and urban studies. They consider Way finder Live as an interface--a site of both connection and translation--for urban play, one that encourages its players to test a given city's physical and social boundaries. They argue that the game offers a fruitful, if always contingent and contextual, framework for analyzing digitally mediated urban play. Key words: affect; assemblage; coding; decoding; encoding; interface; location-based gaming; urban play; Way finder Live.},
keywords = {Affect, Assemblage, Coding, Decoding, Encoding, Interface, Location-based game, Urban play, Wayfinder Live},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
The authors use the location-based, augmented-reality game Way finder Live, which one of them designed, as a case study to analyze urban play. Acknowledging the difficulty of defining urban play, they expand existing approaches to the topic by drawing on current theories about interfaces, assemblages, and coding in such fields as media and cultural studies, game and play studies, and urban studies. They consider Way finder Live as an interface--a site of both connection and translation--for urban play, one that encourages its players to test a given city's physical and social boundaries. They argue that the game offers a fruitful, if always contingent and contextual, framework for analyzing digitally mediated urban play. Key words: affect; assemblage; coding; decoding; encoding; interface; location-based gaming; urban play; Way finder Live.
Lammes, Sybille; Leorke, Dale (Ed.)
Games, Play and Urban Environments
American Journal of Play, vol. 12, 2020, ISSN: 1938-0399.
Special issue Open access
Abstract | Links | Tags: Location-based game, Minecraft, Pervasive games, Pokémon Go, Reviews, Urban play, Urban studies, Video games, Wayfinder Live
@collection{Lammes2020,
title = {Games, Play and Urban Environments},
editor = {Sybille Lammes and Dale Leorke},
url = {https://www.museumofplay.org/journalofplay/issues/volume-12-number-3/},
issn = {1938-0399},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-01-06},
urldate = {2020-01-06},
booktitle = {American Journal of Play},
volume = {12},
issue = {3},
abstract = {Welcome to The American Journal of Play’s special issue on games, play, and urban environments, another in our series of theme issues. This special issue appears as play itself, both outdoors and indoors, has been abruptly curtailed to fit the shifting regulations and safety concerns surrounding the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. To spotlight new scholarship and offer fresh perspectives on the relationship between play and space, guest editors Sybille Lammes and Dale Leorke have gathered a series of articles exploring this spatial relationship in video game play and design. Following their guest editors’ foreword, they begin with a roundtable discussion among the authors of Pervasive Games: Theory and Design—Markus Montola, Jaakko Stenros, and Annika Waern—about the evolution of pervasive games and the research it has inspired. Next, Troy Innocent and Dale Leorke take a new look at the concept of urban play, drawing on a case study of a location-based, augmented-reality game codesigned by Innocent. Hugh Davies offers an alternative cultural genealogy of Pokémon GO focused on the connections between Japan’s seasonal play and the popular augmented reality mobile game. Mia Consalvo and Andrew Phelps review the potential for game design to reveal the complex relationships between urban space, social class, and mental health through purposeful player navigation and narrative architecture. Hamza Bashandy closes the issue with an examination Minecraft’s contemporary use in community mapping and architectural design.
},
keywords = {Location-based game, Minecraft, Pervasive games, Pokémon Go, Reviews, Urban play, Urban studies, Video games, Wayfinder Live},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {collection}
}
Welcome to The American Journal of Play’s special issue on games, play, and urban environments, another in our series of theme issues. This special issue appears as play itself, both outdoors and indoors, has been abruptly curtailed to fit the shifting regulations and safety concerns surrounding the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. To spotlight new scholarship and offer fresh perspectives on the relationship between play and space, guest editors Sybille Lammes and Dale Leorke have gathered a series of articles exploring this spatial relationship in video game play and design. Following their guest editors’ foreword, they begin with a roundtable discussion among the authors of Pervasive Games: Theory and Design—Markus Montola, Jaakko Stenros, and Annika Waern—about the evolution of pervasive games and the research it has inspired. Next, Troy Innocent and Dale Leorke take a new look at the concept of urban play, drawing on a case study of a location-based, augmented-reality game codesigned by Innocent. Hugh Davies offers an alternative cultural genealogy of Pokémon GO focused on the connections between Japan’s seasonal play and the popular augmented reality mobile game. Mia Consalvo and Andrew Phelps review the potential for game design to reveal the complex relationships between urban space, social class, and mental health through purposeful player navigation and narrative architecture. Hamza Bashandy closes the issue with an examination Minecraft’s contemporary use in community mapping and architectural design.
2019
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.