IPerG, Helsinki, 13.12.06

I would've liked to have been there, but it was not possible. (So, instead, I am going to try to make the PerGames conference in Salzburg this summer.) Below is an outline of presentations given, from the Powerpoint slides on the IPerG website.

1. What is Pervasive Gaming? (Annika Waern)

• Physical presence, virtual Experience
• Position-based games
• Augmented Reality
• Games hidden in reality
• Traditional games are played at certain places at certain times by certain players (within a magic circle)
• Pervasive games blur and break the boundaries
  of gaming space
  of gaming time
  of playership
• ...up to the point where game action and non-game action can’t be differentiated
• Fun of game to ordinary life
• Thrill of non-gameness to game
• Emergent gameplay is intriguing
• Potentially powerful form for art, political expression, societal involvement

There's also IperG's goals:
IPerG develops infrastructure, tools and methods for pervasive games

• Rapid and cost-effective creation and staging of pervasive games
• Understand good game design
• Understand the audience
• Understand the societal impact of pervasive games

2. Limits of Technology within Pervasive Gaming (Bjork Staffan)

• Typically makes use of new technology
• New technology makes new experiences possible
• But new technology often is:
  
Not stable
Not of high enough granularity
Having non-intuitive limits
• IPerG Perspective:
Not technology-driven
Gameplay-driven
Develop technology to support gameplay
Not always use technology the way it was intended

3. Mobile Phones as Pervasive Devices (Jussi Holopainen)

• Spatial
Usable anywhere
Positioning (and other non-trivial real-virtual connections)
• Social
Trusted devices for social interaction
Existing social networks
Synchronous and asynchronous
• Temporal
Personal devices
Online all the time

4. Crossmedia Gaming - where game content of a single game instance is made available across different gaming interfaces (Irma Lindt)

• Different gaming interfaces based on different computing devices
• Different forms of participation depending on the individual functionality gaming interfaces offer
• Different content types depending on the capabilities of the different gaming devices
• Different user experiences supported by a single game

Research questions:

1. Device-specific roles. Do device-specific roles emerge? Do players like that?
2. Collaboration across gaming interfaces. How good can players collaborate when they are using different gaming interfaces? Do different gaming interfaces foster collaboration?
3. Coherent game experience. How can it be achieved that a Crossmedia game is perceived as a coherent whole despite the different gaming interfaces and media?

(The game is called Epidemic Menace, and as well as using interactive film, the game utilises mobile phones, mobile augmented reality kit, and stationary gaming interfaces. This is all very much in keeping with mixed reality, and creating a good narrative around which a game is played - that of trying to prevent the spread of a virus. Indeed, in the conclusion it states:

The most popular element of our work was the integration of mixed reality into a pervasive game on the one hand and the integration of movie elements on the other.

Also, the game relies heavily on co-operation, and in the feedback, this was considered an important and enjoyable part of the game.)

5. Business and Organisation

Pervasive Gaming builds upon existing gaming infrastructures and opens new approaches and business concepts within a growing market.

The pervasive media environment is erupting from the convergence of many factors, such as:

• Demand: increased overall consumption of media and entertainment
• Power: a greater number of megabytes of content will be carried by smaller, ever-shrinking physical formats and devices
• Liquidity: the easy portability, interoperability and “shareability” of digital media
• Unpredictability: relentless innovation in media technology, software and player devices
• Ubiquity: multiplying channels, bigger broadband “pipes” and spreading connectivity in globalizing markets.
  

Relevant Market Segments:

• Video Games
• Mobile Games
• AdverGaming
• Filmed Entertainment
  

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Overall, this is all very interesting and exciting, and it's clear a lot of people are a lot further on than we are, but that's to be expected. They are also working in larger groups, and have access to a dedicated research facility with far more equipment and expertise.