André Lemos is Associate Professor, Faculty of Communication, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. PhD in Sociology, Sorbonne (1995), Visiting Scholar University of Alberta and McGill University, Canada (2007-2008). Coordinator of Cybercity Research Group (UFBa/CNPq) and Researcher level 1 at CNPq. Member of Prix Ars Electronica, Wi. Journal of Mobile Media and Canadian Journal of Communication Board. This Carnet is online since March 1st, 2001.
Mais games com mídias locativas (via UrbanTick): "The urban environment has become a playground. Not only recently but together with the availability of mobile technology and location based information there was a steep rise of digitally supported large scale urban games. Since the mid nineties those sort of games have been developed. First by geeks and small communities, together with universities that had a computer science department. Nowadays the games slowly become commercialized...". Abaixo vídeo do jogo fast foot que ganhou prêmio de melhor jogo móvel. O jogo usa GPS e é jogado por 4 ou 5 players em um raio de 1km. Um foge e os outros têm que pegá-lo. Simples assim.
Segue o abstract de um artigo meu que está no prelo para ser publicado no Canadian Journal of Communication sobre o tema, mostrando como as mídias locativas produzem espacialização e, no caso dos games, um reforço do uso do lugar e do espaço público das cidades pelo lúdico:
"Pervasive Computer Games (PCGs) combine digital mobile technologies and location-based systems by creating an interface between electronic and physical spaces for playing. PCG is a general name for mobile games, such as hybrid reality games (HRGs), location-based mobile games (LBMGs) and urban games. Our goal here is to show how these games; along with new digital mobile technologies have the potential to produce ?spatialization?, i.e., to socially produce the space in which they are embedded . Based on the history of PCGs, the goal of this paper is to examine the forms of spatialization created by the use of location-based services and location-based technologies. The emphasis of this paper is theoretical; the data analysis is implemented to illustrate and support the theoretical background. From 2000 to 2008, I analyzed 73 PCGs to identify the forms of spatialization created. We will see that PCGs use informational territories to produce two temporary types of spatialization: 1) the use of physical space for the game (hunt and chase are the majority), and 2) the relationship between physical space and electronic spaces (location-based mobile games are the majority)."
Mais um jogo com celular e GPS. Equipes jogam futebol, com bola e gol virtual, no meio da rua...O jogo foi lançado em 2007. Vejam descrição e vídeo do jogo:
"NavBall will experience its ?World Premiere? at the Come Out and Play Festival. This game will bring together GPS gaming, ball and team sports into an action packed 45-minute game. It features 2 teams of 11 players each that will attempt to score as many goals. The ?ball? and ?goal? are placed on a map of Amsterdam and the players have to get into formation to kick the ?ball? at the right angle and speed to make a goal. The players have to move around the city with their GPS enabled phones in order to achieve this."
Muitos dos jogos pervasivos (que utilizam tecnologias digitais móveis de comunicação e localização como elementos fundamentais do jogo, fundindo espaço físico e eletrônico) paracem mesmo com gincanas (todos sabem: jogos coletivos para realizaçao de tarefas onde a pontuação indica uma equipe vencedora). Aproveitando essa similaridade, o MobileFest, junto com o Waag, de Amsterdã, estão realizando o projeto Holambra, uma gincana com GPS entre São Paulo e a cidade holandesa. O jogo é um "(...) educational project on cultural exchange that explores the impact that multi-ethnic societies of Brasil and The Netherlands have on cultural themes such as music & dance, language, fashion, habits & rituals and design & art. Global Gincana searches for ways to combine the traditional Brasilian Gincana game principles with location-aware (GPS) mobile technology to create a new format of discovering cultural expression in urban environments. A school in Sao Paulo and Amsterdam will exchange their thoughts and experiences on the different cultural themes by playing these new types of urban games."
O evento acontecerá durante o CampusParty, na área Campus Futuro, em São Paulo. O projeto tem uma forte conotação cultural e educacional, como podemos ler no site: "The purpose of the Global Gincana project is to create an informal learning environment that engages young people in Brazil and The Netherlands in the question of cultural heritage and identity in a multi-cultural society. Global Gincana explores the possibilities of the city as a learning environment, addressing the search for new learning formats that present subjects in a new light and invite students to participate and share cultural experiences. The project will set an example for international exchange projects. (...) They investigate themes such as music & dance, language, fashion, habits & rituals and design & art and look for interesting examples, expressions and stories in their environment. By sharing experiences through mobile media and a webbased platform, students learn from each other?s culture and look at their own in new ways. The Dutch students will discover the old tradition of the Brazilian Gincana: a community game in which collaboration and competitive spirit are crucial to succeed. The Brazilian students are given access to technologies and learning methods developed with and used by Dutch schools, presuming that a hands-on way of teaching and learning could lead students to better understand their past and present in a critical manner (...)"
Mais uma excelente iniciativa do amigo Paulo Hartmann.
Post do Delapierre Jerome Cart360 apresenta o game "Catch Me if You Can" no velho porto de Montreal, que agora tem uma rede Wi-Max em toda a área do velho porto. Vejam o vídeo do jogo, que utiliza Skype e webcams, a descrição e o mapa da zona Wi-Max abaixo:
Sobre o Game:
(...) In other word, we aim to create an experience that illustrates the quality of spaces covered of virtual reality. (Why this internet coffee where we are writing is different from any other coffee on the street?) As both spaces exist and no one would like to renounce the opportunities of the web and it communication possibilities, the web is going mobile through large wifi installations. This gives space for activities outside while making full use of the virtual environment. Moreover people have to get a feeling for having both realities at one time and to find a way of using them. By making full use of the large free wifi band located at the Montreal Old Port, an opportunity is given to explore an early example of doubling reality in their geography location. To dress the links between the two, this experiment aim to make your physical location having an impact on your virtual universe and vice versa. Using a man hunter game setup, real acting can easily be shared over the virtual space and create the connection between player localization and their actions in virtual spaces. A person only needs a headset and a webcam and others can follow her via the web. Having this addition point of view the people on the Internet can feedback, in a conversation format, to the real space. The person who is informed about several locations at one moment is able to combine this information to it?s real sensing of places.(...)".
(...) The game consists of two teams of participants all connected over one or few video chat software. Each Team designates a player who will act as the person in charge of the communication. These players are not running on the field and install their stations on a spot where they can provide information to the member of their team. They are the only ones who know where are the hunters as well as the escapers and they are the only ones able to communicate (describing) the location of the enemy to their team-mates. Even if the hunters/escapers take care of their own space sensing, the two game monitors (one for each team) provide an extra orientation fundamental to the game organisation and the essential strategy tool to ensure victory.(...)"
A Free WiFi network on 1.2 Km in a park
?Montreal will soon become the first Canadian city to deliver wireless Internet and mobile IP telephony to residents. A new WiMAX based Wi-Fi network is being deployed across the metropolitan area thanks to a joint venture between two Quebec-based businesses: independent Internet service provider Radioactif.com(TM) and Nomade Télécom, wireless network installer and operator. The mission of this joint venture is to create an alternative to large Internet service and IP telephony providers by offering quality services at the best possible prices. 'For less than $30 per month, Montreal residents will soon be able to have wireless Internet access and IP telephone service almost everywhere on the island,' explained Daniel Robichaud, President of Radioactif.com. (...)"
Mais dois jogos de rua baseado em localização usando os novos dispositivos móveis e redes sem fio. O primeiro é o The Journey. O jogo coloca o usuário na rua para resolver mistérios. O Jogo ganhou um prêmio na Áustria e já foi baixado mais de 70.000 vezes.
"The Journey is a new and unique adventure game experience for your mobile phone. You are in the role of an infamous detective and have to solve a mysterious case not only by making it through the story, but also by walking to different locations. Gone are the days where you watch a virtual character moving around on your display. Now you have to move yourself. The game is aware of your movement. Right at the beginning when you as the detective have to leave your bureau and go outside, you have to take your mobile and go through the streets of the city you live in. The game saves the locations and in the course of the story you will have to return to your bureau and walk back to the place where you started playing."
(...) This game will work on phones based on Symbian Platform.Below are the download links for Symbian S60 1st/2nd edition,& S60 3rd edition phones .
O outro é o Mobile Dead, onde a tarefa é caçar zumbis em Manhattan:
"(...) What about? a zombie-themed location-based game? Grab your Blackberry, hit the streets of Manhattan, and slash some random strangers. You might even become friends afterwards. That?s basically the idea behind Mobile Dead. It uses GPS (or other location data) to find your position and the position of your enemies. You?ll recognize them by their color. Humans are blue, zombies green.
Of course it?s a bit more sophisticated than that, as you can also pick up items along the way. Such as health packages and weapons. Use the latter in fights, which consists of taking turns in slashing. You hit, wait for the nasty reply, and hit again.(...)".
Os jogos baseados em localização, ou também chamados de "pervasive computational games", usam a rua como espaço de jogo criando um processo de espacialização próprio das mídias locativas. Tecnologias militares de localização e monitoramento de movimentos são usados aqui para ocupar o espaço urbano sob o espírito lúdico.
Página do Mixed Reality Lab, Singapore dá detalhes sobre o "pervasive computing game" Human Pacman (merci Pierre). Tenho escrito nesse Carnet sobre esses jogos e estou com um artigo no prelo sobre o tema que será publicao em um livro organizado pela Adriana de Souza e Silva e Daniel M. Sutko da NCSU (Departamento de Comunicação da North Carolina State University). O game é de 2003 mas vale a pena ver os detalhes e os vídeos da jogo (aqui um deles):
Background:
"Human Pacman has its roots in serious research about human's interaction with their physical world. Human, as social creatures find physical interaction, touch, and humanto- human presence essential for the enjoyment of life [3] . In pre-computer age, games were designed and played out in the physical world with the use of real world properties, such as physical objects, our sense of space, and spatial relations. Nowadays computer games focus the user's attention mainly on the computer screen or 2D/3D virtual environment, therefore constraining physical interactions. However, there seems to be a growing interest in physical gaming and entertainment"
O jornal cultural, e gratuiro, Montreal Mirror publicou essa semana uma matéria sobre o jogo pervasivo Geocaching. Geocaching é jogado em todo o mundo onde os jogadores devem encontrar coisas - caches - a partir de dados de localização com GPS e outras dicas misteriosas. O mapa abaixo mostra os inúmeros caches aqui em Montreal.
Esses jogos, com o uso de mídias locativas, criam formas de espacialização, possibilitam novas cartografias mentais e produção de heterotopias (função dos lugares) e sociabilidade. Escrevi na introdução de um recente artigo (ainda no prelo):
"Pervasive Computer Games (PCGs) combine digital mobile technologies and location-based systems by creating an interface between electronic and physical spaces for playing. Our goal here is to show how the new digital mobile technologies produce spacialization, i.e., a social production of space, particularly with the PCG. Spatialization is achieved through the use of technology, sensors and digital mobile networks (smart phones, palms, GPS and AR devices, RFID chips and GSM / GPRS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Radio), creating informational territories. Play is, at the same time, the way to use the space and to result in social appropriation of mobile technologies and networks. (...) The goal is to examine, based on the history of the PCG, the forms of spatialization created by the use of location-based services and location-based technologies. At the end of this chapter, I will analyze 73 PCGs (from 2000 to 2008) to identify the forms of spatialization. We will see that the PCG uses informational territories to produce two temporary heterotopias: 1) the use of physical space for the game (hunt and chase are the majority), and 2) the relationship between physical space and space electronics (LB games are hegemonic)."
Vejamos, por exemplo, como, segundo jogadores entrevistados na matéria do Mirror, esse jogo produz espacialização:
"I've discovered parks I never knew existed in my own neighbourhood because of geocaching," says Jason Nadeau, aka DigitalMind. "I've met new friends through geocaching and even found neighbours who do it.?
"When visiting geocaching.com, players receive the coordinates and usually a clue as to where to look. GPS devices are precise, but even the correct destination covers a few square metres. "Once you get around 20 metres to the cache, you need to look with your eyes, not your GPS," says André Vandal, aka AV Design, who previously was a director of Geocaching Quebec and designed the organization's geocoin memento. "In the forest, it's easier because no one is ever going to find it accidentally, but in the city, it can't be much bigger than a 35mm film container. You have to look in places where the cache can be hidden all year round."
"Mobile Dead is a location-based mobile zombie game. It uses GPS or other location data to find your position and the position of other players. Players choose to be on either the blue team, which is the human team, or the green team, which is the zombie team. Users can message each other with twitter-like short messages. Each player has a health and experience level, and a short profile. The game is played by picking up virtual items, which can then be used as part of the game. Those items, can also be traded with other items (such as trading a soda can for a crow bar). Players pick up weapons (such as chain saws) to fight against the opposing team, with weapons having varying levels of strength and damage. The game play is like other turn-based MMORPG?s where players take turns to hit each other until one wins. When you win fights you gain experience points.
The game seems interesting, but it will require a critical mass of players to be viable (unless you want to walk around and just pick up items). The game is going to be in beta in the New York City area in July, and you can signup today if you are interested in trying it out." (via moraaz.org )
Estou finalizando um artigo sobre pervasive games, ou melhor, "pervasive computacional games" (PCG). Fiz uma pesquisa exaustiva e encontrei 73 games desde 2000 até 2008. Fiz uma análise dos PCG por ano, país, dispositivos utilizados, tipo de PCG, Tipo de Jogo e redes sem fio utilizadas para o jogo. Abaixo um resumo do artigo que deverá ser publicado em um livro nos EUA (deve sofrer modificações ainda). Segue também a listagem dos PCG.
Os Pervasive Computacional Games (PCG) aliam tecnologias digitais móveis e sistemas de localização permitindo uma interface entre os espaços eletrônico e físico para fins de jogo. O lúdico é aqui a forma de espacialização criada com os PCG. Nos interessa mostrar como as novas tecnologias digitais móveis produzem espacialização, particularmente com os PCG. A espacialização se dá pelo uso de tecnologias, sensores e redes digitais móveis (celulares, palms, GPS, AR devices, RFID chips e redes GSM/GPRS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Radio) e do espaço físico por meio de territórios informacionais. Para mostrar esse processo de espacialização, discutiremos os sistemas baseados em localização, as funções ?pós-massivas? e a criação de territórios informacionais. O objetivo é analisar, tendo como base a história dos PCG, as formas de espacialização criadas pelos "location based services" e "location-based technologies". Para tanto iremos rapidamente discutir categorias como jogo, espaço, lugar e território, propor o coneito de ?territorios informacionais? e de ?funções pós-massivas? e no final analisamos 73 PCG (de 2000 a 2008) buscando identificar as formas de espacialização. Veremos que os PCG produsem territórios informacionais com fins de jogo, criando, temporariamente, heterotopias: 1. o uso do espaço físico para o jogo (hunt e chase são maioria); e 2. a relação entre o espaço físico e o espaço eletrônico, sendo hegemônicos os PCG de tipo LB.
Listagem dos Pervasive Games por ano
2000
1.Pirates! by Nokia R.C / PLAY R.Studio 2.BotFighters by It's Alive 3.ARQuake by University of South Australia
2001
4.Cutlass - Treasure Hunt by DCAProductions 5.Geocaching, by Groundspeak Inc. 6.Mad Countdown by Playbe 7.The Go Game by Wink Back, Inc.
2002
8.Urban Challenge by Verizon Wireless 9.Environmental Detectives by MIT 10.NodeRunner by Y. Gitman, C. Llarena 11.Can you see me now? by Blast Theory
2003
12.Undercover 1 e 2 by YDreams 13.Savannah by NESTA Futurelab 14.Uncle Roy All Around You by BlastTheory 15.Mogi by NewtGames 16.Mystery at the museum by MIT 17.SupaFly by It's Alive 18.Senhor da Guerra by nTime 19.GunSlingers by Mikoishi Studios
2004
20.Operation Urban Terrain by Opensorcery 21.The Journey I&II J. Andreas Reinhard 22.GeoPoker, by GPS Games 23.Songs of North by The U of Tampere 24.Digital Street Game, Fiasco by Intel/NYU 25.Final Fantasy VII by Square Enix 26.Treasure Hunt by Treasure Hunt Mob. 27.Conqwest by area/code and SS+K 28.Decay Watch by WaveMarket 29.Spacerace by Comneon Electronic 30.Pac-Manhattan NYU 31.I Like Frank in Adelaide by BlastTheory 32.CatchBob! by N. Nova, F. Girardin 33.Navigate the Streets by Level 28 Brands 34.Swordfishby Blisterent 35.Vienen Por Ellas by Telefonica 36.HumanPacman by Mixed Reality Lab 37.Demor-Audiogame by Utrecht School of the Arts 38.NetAttack by Fraunhofer FIT 39.CitiTag by HP Labs
2005
40.GeoTicTacToe 41.Prosopopeia Bardo 1 "Där vi föll by iperg 42.Monopoly Live by Hasbro 43.Hitchers by iperg 44.Kejsartemplet by iPerg 45.Agaju: The Sacred Path 46.Backseat Playground by J. P. Bichard 47.CityPoker 48.Hot Potato by iPerg 49.Frequency 1550 by Waag Society 50.The Drop by Intel 51.Feeding Yoshi, University of Glasgow, UK 52.Seamful Game, University of Glasgow 53.Tron by Tom Winkler 54.Raygun by Glofun 55.Torpedo Bay by Blister Entertainment
2006
56.The Shroud by Your World Games. 57.Day of the Figurines, by Blast Theory 58.Prosopopeia Bardo 2 , Momentum, by iPerg 59.Coup by iPerg 60.Geoquiz, by iPerg 61.Insectopia by iPerg 62.Epidemic Menace IperG project 63.TimeWarp, ipCity Project 64.Colors by Indie Studio 65.Alien Revolt bt M1ND Coorporation
2007
66.Rider Spoke Blasttheory, iperg 67.Mythical: The Mobile Awakening by iPerg 68.Interference by iPerg 69.Snap2Play by Mosaic 70.Mobile Chase by Bauhaus Univ. 71.Mobile Hunters by HIPnTASTY
2008
72.City Slikkers by PoroCuty Media, AL, e Virtual Logic System, IN 73.GPS Mission by Orbster GmbH
Estou concentrado revisando a bibliografia e escrevendo uma artigo sobre "pervasive games" (coloco os resultados aqui até fim de junho), e por isso esse Carnet está um pouco parado...Os "pervasive games" são jogos na rua com tecnologias móveis e redes sem fio. Há inúmeros exemplos e experiências de fusão do espaço eletrônico com o espaço físico, criando um "território informacional" próprio do "ludico". E o lúdico sempre foi uma maneira de socialização, de criação da cultura (ver Huizinga e Callois) e de apropriação das tecnologias e do espaço urbano.
Bom, no domingo fui ao parque Mont-Royal, a praia aqui, e pude ver um "role play game" medieval onde equipes travavam batalhas de campo (costumes, discussão de estratégias e táticas...). Vemos aqui tudo de um street game: sociabilização, suspenção do espaço (público) e do tempo (objetivo, racional e eficiente), na criação do "mundo do jogo", apropriação e resignificação do espaço público. O espaço do jogo atraía pessoas que ocupavam esse espaço para ver, participar ou apenas "estar alí" estabelecendo um sentido "temporário" do lugar. Os "pervasive games" evocam a mesma ambiência, saindo das telas dos computadores e indo para as ruas. Nada muito novo, mas uma nova forma de apropriação das tecnologias móveis, de resignificação dos lugares e de formação de redes sociais, abrindo inclusive um leque de aplicações comerciais e artísticas no futuro próximo.
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