The Challenge of Locating ‘Culture’ in Location-Based Games
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The document outlines a doctoral research project by Kyle Moore at the University of Sydney, exploring the sociocultural dynamics of Sydney-based players of the location-based game Ingress. It examines how urban mobile gaming practices are influenced by, and in turn influence, local cultures and communities through ethnographic methods. Preliminary conclusions suggest that play is situational and shaped by sociocultural contexts, indicating a complex interplay between gaming culture and local environments.
The Challenge of Locating ‘Culture’ in Location-Based Games
- 1. The University of Sydney Page 1 Playing around with Game Studies Challenge of Locating “Culture” in Location- Based Games Kyle Moore PhD Candidate, Department of Media and Communications Twitter: @kylejmoore Crossroads in Cultural Studies Sydney, Australia 17 December 2016
- 2. The University of Sydney Page 2 Overview of Doctoral Research – Doctoral research, an ethnography of Sydney- based Ingress players – Ingress, also developed by Niantic Labs, while still a subsidiary of Google – Team-based Resistance vs Enlightened – Exploring the sociocultural and material circumstance underscoring urban play
- 3. The University of Sydney Page 3 What is Ingress? Developed by Niantic labs in 2012 prior to split from Google Location-based alternate-reality game Fits within broad category of ‘urban mobile game’ Global player base, beyond just urban city centres Two teams – ENL and RES Capture-the-flag style game play Game with no foreseeable end
- 4. The University of Sydney Page 4 ‘Situated Play’ – The notion that all play is underscored by socio-cultural and material circumstance – Draws from HCI ‘situated actions’ (Suchman, 1987; 2007) – ‘Situated Gaming’ – Yates and Littleton (1999); gaming within ‘cultural niches’ – Apperley (2010); tensions between local and global, embodied player engages within this space
- 5. The University of Sydney Page 5
- 6. The University of Sydney Page 6 Aegis Nova Anomaly Sydney 25th of June
- 7. The University of Sydney Page 7 Mixed Methodology for Mobile Media Draws from virtual ethnographic methods – treating Ingress as a multi- sited game ‘Play’ and organisation of community across multiple platforms – GChat, in- person, in-game Participant observations Chat logs and event history Screen shots of locations and activities Centred around social events – farms, fracks, competitive micro-events and large scale global events
- 8. The University of Sydney Page 8 Resistance Players at Aegis Nova Anomaly Sydney, 25th of June 2016
- 9. The University of Sydney Page 9 Entering the Community Initial interactions with Ingress community based on proximity Solo play easily transforms into co-operative or team-based play Visibility of game system – a log of player interactions – allow for easy means of contact and development of community Social events organised via online groups and platforms e.g. Google+ Online groups recruit via in-game communications
- 10. The University of Sydney Page 10 Challenges Everyday urban mobility – moving between points of interest and social interaction Community involvement – in depth engagement with communities Reflexive research practices – community often willing to alter ‘everyday’ habits to attempt to accommodate me as researcher Shifting social landscape post ‘Pokémon Go’ – re-entering community for follow up interviews
- 11. The University of Sydney Page 11 Preliminary Conclusions Play is situational i.e. it draws from sociocultural and material contexts One of these being ‘gaming culture’ more broadly. Play also able to alter and reframe our understanding of these conditions Draws from a range of localities notions of ‘the local’ become intertwined with play Gaming culture is localised and reframed through specific location-based gaming practices
Editor's Notes
- #2: I want to address the idea of a ‘challenge’ Firstly, to think of our definitions of games and genres as a challenge, and as constantly shifting and changing through technological and theoretical paradigm shifts. Secondly, the challenge of selecting an object of study – from games, to game communities. Lastly, how to locate this object of study (the gaming situation – the intersection of multiple participants [games, players, communities, developers etc]) within a specific mixed methodology.
- #4: Urban mobile gaming – a term drawn from Larissa Hjorth and Adriana de Souza e Silva’s work – it is a blanket term to refer to mobile mediated games that use ‘the urban’ as their primary site of interaction. Shira Chess, 2014 states that Ingress is both regional and global. The urban then, becomes too limiting a location – and in my own research I’ve had to come to terms what firstly, what constitutes the urban, and secondly, how we might move beyond these ideas towards a more inclusive playful practice.
- #7: Situated play as a tool to combat the lack of specificity to localities. Concept draws from HCI – the work of Suchman and her concept of situated actions – the idea that engagement with technology draws from socio cultural and material circumstances. I expand on this idea using Paul Dourish’s idea of ‘practice’ – to focus less on context and more on how users make sense of these context and develop a new shared understanding of technology. As such, I define locative media such as Ingress as a form of situated play – using play as a means to understand and make new meaning of material and socio cultural contexts – specifically within my research, the role Sydney plays. My research thus, is draws from ethnographic methodologies in an attempt to understand how multiple localities – from the regional to the global – and the interplay these localities have wiith communities and software.
- #8: For the development of my methodology, I primarily drew from previous ethnographic studies into MMOs and virtual worlds – the work of TomBoellstorff (2008), TL Taylor (2006), Celica Pearce (2011) – looking at how one may document and understand cultural practices that emerge around gaming technologies and communities. I also focus on the idea of the mobile phone as implicated in a larger culture – that is an everyday object of communication and used for multiple purposes – an often pervasive media object, at that. the next step in my research is to conduct semi structured interviews with key participants to further my understand of the game’s intricacies
- #9: Research deals primarily with Sydney based resistance agents