Interweaving Mobile Games With Everyday Life

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Interweaving Mobile Games With Everyday Life

• Marek Bell, Matthew Chalmers, Louise Barkhuus,
• Barry Brown, Malcolm Hall,
• Scott Sherwood, Paul Tennent
• University of Glasgow, UK
• Duncan Rowland
• University of Lincoln, UK
• Steve Benford, Alistair Hampshire, Mauricio
  Capra
• University of Nottingham, UK

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Focus

• Weaving ubicomp into the fabric of everyday
  life
• Seamful design

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Weaving ubicomp intothe fabric of everyday life

• Use over a long time and a large area
• Fitting into patterns of work, leisure and home
  life

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Seams and seamful design

• Treasure game at Ubicomp 2005
• Seams
• Gaps and losses in translation in digital media
• Seamful design
• Taking advantage of limits and variations in
  technology

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WiFi has seams

• WiFi varies in position, range and access
  controls
• Gaps, overlaps, passwords, fees, legal
  constraints... seams
• Design to reveal and exploit this variation
  seamful design

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A game exploiting seamful design

• Implemented on PDAs
• Carried everywhere, always available, any time
• Easy to pick up and play
• Based on wireless communications
• Natural fit for seamful design

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Feeding Yoshi

• A Yoshi is a critter that eats fruit
• Players feed Yoshis for points

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Plantations
Players can sew seeds at empty plantations Fruits
grow in plantations Players can pick fruit
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Yoshis world
Yoshis and plantations are scattered across the
city Players carry fruit from plantations to
Yoshis
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Back in the real world

• Yoshis and plantations are 802.11 access points
• Yoshis are secure APs
• Plantations are open APs
• Players physically move between access points to
  play the game

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Lots of WiFi
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How to play

• Players get more points for feeding Yoshis
  multiple fruits
• Players can swap fruits with other players
• Game play can take weeks or months

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Technicalities

• Implemented on HP iPAQs with 802.11
• Points submitted to game web site via codes
• Game web site showed a leader board
• Game uses p2p ad hoc networks

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Feeding Yoshis research goals

• Understand a seamful environment
• Yoshi is a seamful game
• Playable over a long time, weeks or months
• Playable at any location

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Studying Yoshi

• Study
• Four teams of four people for seven days based in
  three cities
• Derby, Nottingham and two in Glasgow
• Evaluations
• Diaries, interviews, system logs...

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Overall, an enjoyable game

• Fun to play, engaging, worth taking time out for
• The game is highly addictive when a good spot is
  found!
• I think we might have got into trouble at
  work...

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Results

• Patterns of play
• Commuting and travelling
• Impact of location
• Friendship and collaboration
• Spontaneous user interaction
• Learning about coverage

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Patterns of play
Team scores and cumulative times

• Derby 58060
• Glasgow1 45190
• Glasgow2 11250
• Nottingham 8190

1
6
0
1
2
0
Derby
Minutes
8
0
Glasgow1
Glasgow2
4
0
Nottingham
0
Friday
Tuesday
Sunday
Monday
Thursday
Saturday
Wednesday
The maximum time a player of each team spent
playing in one session, per day
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Patterns of play (2)

• Fitting with patterns of everyday life
• Many short sessions to fit game into daily
  routines

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8
Derby
Game sessions
Glasgow1
Glasgow2
4
Nottingham
0
Friday
Sunday
Monday
Saturday
Thursday
Wednesday
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50 of sessions were less than 20 minutes
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Commuting and travelling

• Journeys were often good for play
• Building understanding of Yoshis and plantations
  on routes
• Carrying seeds to plant in good places, or to
  trade with others
• Varying routes Id take slightly different
  street routes than Id normally take initially
  to see what was there. Once I realised there was
  good stuff there then I would adjust my route.
• Drive-by Yoshi
• Work as resource/constraint
• Using works WiFi
• Ability to take breaks, be late, slip out...
• Time at work was not a good predictor of points

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The impact of location

• Practical understanding of the distribution of
  game objects
• Interpretation of urban character Yoshi-rich
  areas
• I saw that there were offices in the area, The
  house had a BMW outside
• Conversation and collaboration with other players
• Play easiest in areas mixing Yoshis and
  plantations
• But exploring new areas could be fun and
  productive

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The impact of location (2)

• Crowded streets
• I kept walking into folk!
• Distinctive patterns of movement
• Shuttling back and forth between Yoshis and
  Plantations
• Standing outside or drifting by suburban homes
• Discomfort in industrial and business districts
• The industrial area over the road from my
  house... Lots of Yoshis and plantations but too
  many cameras and security guards
• Some areas too dangerous to play in
• Why do you think we have this little red button
  under the dashboard in our van?

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Friendship and collaboration

• Social setting affects coordination and
  collaboration
• With other players, and with colleagues,
  partners, relatives...
• Something to talk about
• Potentially a barrier
• The more time spent together, the more points
• Trading fruit and information... and sharing the
  experience
• Play as pairs was common within three teams
• Play that bridged teams...

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Interaction between strangers

• I was playing away and then this box popped up
  saying Norman would like to trade and I thought
  I dont have a Norman on my team!. Then I saw
  this guy with a PDA and he was looking around,
  and then we caught up with each other and we
  thought hmmm not the same team. But he walked
  over and he said that he was from Team C and
  could he trade? And well, I was in my prime
  playing spot so I had all the fruit I needed, so
  I just thought, okay I would trade with him.

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Learning about coverage

• It got to the stage here where wed played it
  that much that we knew exactly who lived where.
  Kelly lives by the door of the block. Weve got
  Laurence down the bottom. Theres Lamar, whos
  out here somewhere pointing. Hes always a
  nightmare to pick up. Hell always want a load of
  fruit, so you go get a load of fruit thinking
  big score. Its all part of the game really.
  He was the one you could never find when you
  wanted him.

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Game design reflections

• Should players be forced to move out of rich
  areas?
• Encourage mobility
• Were some locations too good?
• Game is inherently not fair
• Should we support play at speed?
• Increase ubiquity

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Future work

• Seams in software
• Castles at Pervasive 2006
• eHealth project
• Phones and sensors to monitor and share health
  info

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Conclusion

• First study of a long term mobile game
• Quality of play was flexible with everyday life
• Augmenting existing routines and establishing new
  ones
• Play in a local area, but benefits of wider
  exploration
• Opportunistic play as well as strategic planning
• Adding to experience of seamful design
• The unit of design should be social people, in
  their environment, plus your device Mark Weiser

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Thanks

• Malcolm Hall mh_at_dcs.gla.ac.uk
• My site www.malcolmhall.com
• Public Yoshi www.yoshigame.com
• Equator www.equator.ac.uk