Proceedings of THATCamp Session proposals, notes, and more from The Humanities and Technology Camp

Session Proposal: Mobile and Locative Gaming

By Jason Farman January 21, 2012

I wanted to offer up a short proposal in the 11th hour on mobile and locative games. Building off of Rob MacDougall’s proposal for place-based games/ARGs, this session would explore some emerging games that use mobile device for location aware gaming. This could include discussions of games such as geocaching, locative social networks with gaming elements like Foursquare, or iPhone/iPad games like TurfWars. I’d also be interested in discussing pervasive games like Big Urban Game and PacManhattan. Similar to Rob’s session idea, I’d love to discuss issues of space and place, immersion, ethics of locative gaming (e.g. interactions with bystanders), and what I’ve come to call the “poverty of the screen” for locative games (i.e., the need for there to be meaningful interaction between the material space and the digital device in order to foster a rich gaming experience).

 

Also, if anyone would be interested, I would love to place some THATCamp Games geocaches around campus. Perhaps we can find time during the Game Jam on Sunday.

 Categories: Session Proposals

About

Jason Farman is an Assistant Professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park and is a Distinguished Faculty Fellow with the Digital Cultures & Creativity undergraduate honors program. He also works closely with the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH). He received his Ph.D. in Performance Studies and Digital Media from UCLA in 2006. Farman’s research includes mobile technologies, social media, videogames, digital storytelling, digital performance art, surveillance, and embodiment. He has published in the journals New Media & Society, Communication Quarterly, and Contemporary Theatre Review. His most recent project is a book manuscript titled Mobile Interface Theory (Routledge, 2011), which investigates the changing conceptions of embodiment and space in pervasive computing culture. This work focuses on the uses of mobile technologies for the creation of performance art, site-specific narrative, and gaming.

Skip to toolbar