Pervasive Games: Theory and Design (Morgan Kaufmann Game Design Books) [Paperback]

The first time I saw this book, it was in manuscript form on the laptop of one of the editors, next to whom I was sitting as a bus brought us to the airport from the a conference on live action roleplaying. I was immediately taken with the project: an attempt to catalog the variety of instances in which game-play has spilled out beyond the special "magic circle" of the gaming table, playground, or sports field and into "real life": live-action Pac-Man on the streets of Manhattan, Killer on college campuses, even races on reality television.

The finished product comprises 13 case studies describing a different sort of "pervasive game." Each case study is accompanied by a longer analytic essay, moving from the descriptive (what are pervasive games and where do they come from?) through the technical (how are pervasive games designed, run, and played?) to the philosophical (what are the ethical implications and aesthetic ramifications of pervasive games?). In order to make sense of the sprawling breadth of material that they have collected, the editors have divided the chapters into three parts, labeled "Theory," "Design," and "Society." More importantly, they provide an analytic framework based on the idea that pervasive games are best understood as extending play spatially, temporally, or socially. In other words, pervasive games are those in which the game somehow intersects with or infringes upon ordinary life. "Pervasive games," say the editors, "can take the pleasure of the game to ordinary life," and the "immediacy and tangibility of ordinary life to the game."

In spatial extension, the playing field is overlaid upon regular spaces: the whole world is the playground. Among the examples they present are the cases of the Manhattan apartment refurbished as an elaborate Myst-like puzzle palace (Mystery on Fifth Avenue), and a cellphone-enabled cat-and-mouse game in which players pretend to be heavily armed robot warriors roaming the streets of their home city (BotFighters).

In temporal extension, playtime spills out in everyday life. For example, one game in development allows players to "collect" Bluetooth identification signals emanating from devices around them as they commute, go shopping, and go through their daily routines. These signals can then be "identified" as different types of evanescent insects; the goal of the game is to amass the largest and most varied collection (Insectopia). In another example, participants in a live-action role-playing game (larp) played themselves in their daily lives as if possessed by the spirit of a dead revolutionary involved in a technomantic conspiracy (Momentum).

In social extension, outsiders or non-players are enrolled in the game in various ways. The editors discuss an enigmatic scavenger hunt in which players cannot be sure who around them is part of the game (Uncle Roy All Around You), and an art project at a Swedish university intended a poltergeist mystery for public consumption that wound up mainly being a mess for the janitors to clean up (Vem Gråter).

This book is an excellent starting point as an introduction to the "ludification of culture" that is attracting interest from scholars and observers of modern society; it belies easy pronouncements and prognostications about what games mean and what they portend. Its main value is in the taxonomy it provides for understanding the variety of forms and methods of pervasive gaming, but it also raises useful and interesting questions about the place of games, gaming, and gamers in Western culture. For example, the editors observe how many pervasive games are mediated by new communications technologies, and it is interesting to note the different ways in which such technologies are used: to enable coordination among players, to control the flow of events, and to "overlay" the game-space on top of the real world, for instance. It would be a good text for courses on game design, game studies, or the sociology of play, and it is a useful reference for game designers and scholars of gaming.

I've let this book simmer for a while. I'm not a big reader anymore; that is, I read a lot, but in the fragmented and impatient way I've been taught by the internet. Reading through several hundred pages in one go isn't for me, these days, if it ever was.

So I've attacked the book from several angles. Jumping into one chapter, checking out a reference to another, occasionally googling interesting games or reading up on the book's official blog. And, luckily for me, the book lends itself well to this form of reading. The text is full of interesting tidbits, fun and strange ideas that provide inspiration and matter for reflection. Jumping back and forth through the chapters also highlights a specific feature of the book: There are many voices, many situated authors, many discernibly different agendas*. These multiple frames of reference make for a multifaceted view of the pervasive games phenomenon.

While creators of pervasive games are often good at hyping their own games, making it sound like they've changed the lives of everyone involved and are on the verge of creating a social revolution, the editors let the projects speak for themselves; they describe the games objectively, cite research and questionnaire responses, and let the reader make up his/her own mind as to the quality and effects of the game. This is refreshing and relaxing after reading so many hyped-up articles about different pervasive projects. It also makes reading chapters like "Art and Politics of Pervasive Games" more rewarding; having facts** contrasted with vision and opinion make both parts stand out more clearly.

All in all, this is a brilliant book both for laymen, designers and researchers. I recommend it heartily, and remain a fan-boy.

* The weakest part, in my opinion, is the case study on "Mystery on Fifth Avenue", written by Eric Clough; Clough is the founder of 212box, the creators of the aforementioned mystery. While the project is interesting, the author is clearly in love with his own project, and describes it in such sickeningly-sweet syrupy language that the whole thing sounds like a Disney X-mas special.

** I'm not using the term "dry facts", because the book is too interesting.

I had the pleasure of pre-reading this book in draft before it came out. Seeing its final version, I was nevertheless amazed. The primary authors, along with the 15 other contributors, have created by far the best published work on pervasive games. It draws the material from around the world, ranging from global ARGs to reality TV and small Nordic larps, as well as studies conducted on those and more. Furthermore, it creates a seamless merger of it all, being able to confidently discuss pervasive games as a phenomenon, not a bunch of events organized by isolated cliques. It is holistic, yet attentive to minute detail.

The topics range from history to the ethics of involving unaware people in play. Nearly half of the book is nevertheless dedicated to design concerns, making it an invaluable tool to anyone developing or researching pervasive games (or ARGs, or larps, for that matter). As this is done in the context of examples - some of them successes, others clear failures - it is easy to pick useful ideas from those presented. I would have liked a few more case examples on some topics, such as the problem of people entering and leaving such games mid-way, but I presume this was simply not feasible due to a page limit. And I can but applaud the authors' decision not to do everything by themselves, meaning that some case examples and sections on things like marketing and art-games are written by experts in those particular subjects.

This book is something one may agree or disagree with, but never ignore, if one works in the field of pervasive games in any fashion. Both the designer and the game studies professional in me find it immensely valuable. It is also a damn enjoyable read.