Prime Example Ingress Reframing the Pervasive Game Design Framework (PGDF)

Abstract

The growing availability of mobile communication infrastructure over the last decade has contributed significantly to the maturity of Pervasive Gaming. The massive success of games such as Ingress and Pokémon Go made pervasive gaming a viable option for transforming learning. By its adaptability to location and context, pervasive technology is a valuable support for the design of engaging learning experiences. Despite profound examples of pervasive gaming as learning tool, there is still a lack of reliable methodologies to construct purposeful pervasive learning experiences. The Pervasive Game Design Framework (PGDF) is intended to fill this gap. In this article, we present the PGDF using the example of Ingress. Ingress is a prominent pervasive game, as it has received huge attention since its appearance in 2012. A large community of players and third-party-tool suppliers has created a rich set of experiences since then. In this research, we examine Ingress according to PGDF’s categories based on a survey among long-term Ingress players (N=133). Founded on this analysis we identify three main benefits for Ingress players. Furthermore, we discuss the consequences of these findings on the PGDF. Summarizing, this work strengthens the applicability of the PGDF, in order to enable the construction of enriched pervasive learning experiences.

Using pervasive games as learning tools in educational contexts: a systematic review

“…The objective group is the same used previously to compare the performance for each technique. Thus, we want to know how can pervasive games really impact and enhance the education and learning process, considering the pervasive context presented by Söbke et al (2017).…”

StarBorn: Towards making in‐situ land cover data generation fun with a location‐based game

“…Users then affiliated themselves with one of the two teams, purposefully implemented as a competitive element (opposing teams) as well as a collaborative element (common goals within teams) to increase user motivation (cf. Söbke, Hauge, & Andreea Stefan, ). This further stimulated interest and introduced users to the competitive elements of the game.…”

Iterative Prototyping of Urban CoBuilder: Tracking Methods and User Interface of an Outdoor Mobile Augmented Reality Tool for Co-Designing

“…Sensor-based outdoor tracking relies on the combination of GPS or Wi-Fi with smart devices' inertial sensors [22,43], such as gyroscopes, accelerometers, and compasses. In these applications, only a smartphone is usually required, and typical applications are outdoor AR games [44], such as Pokemon Go [45]. Although such sensor-based tracking could work for general public participation, the general lack of accuracy of GPS coupled with an eventual drift of the inertial sensors [21,23,24] is a problem for outdoor AR functions that require stable tracking [25].…”