Jirka Pánek // GeoGames and playful geography methodology for field trips

Why playful geography? Recent renewal of the fieldwork tradition best seen as relational, situated cultural practices. Field 'work' needs to be historicized and placed in wider contexts. Local configurations and practice have an impact on disciplinary identity and the place. Recent collaborative, multi-disciplinary multi- national field encounters on the island of Gozo Explores potential of mapping and play

Aims of course To introduce the contested worlds of island studies To explore the impacts of isolation, peripherality, boundedness and size To appreciate the ambiguous and hybrid nature and practice of ‘islandness’ To investigate the potential of playful ways of approaching particular aspects of island geography To carry out field investigation to reinforce the above aims

Why Gozo?

GeoGames we used Nicklas et al. (2001) presents taxonomy of location-based games so they can be divided into 3 main categories: Mobile games: games that exploit the proximity information of two or more users; Location aware games: games that exploit information about the user’s localization and his / her distance from some Points Of Interest (POI); Spatially aware games: location aware games with a massive use of graphics. In this kind of game, developers create a virtual representation of the real world with reproductions of buildings, monuments, and landscapes.

Whereigo Wherigo is a platform for creating and playing GPS-enabled adventures in the real world, using GPS technology to guide users to physical locations and interact with virtual objects and characters. Urwigo builder (CZ), an alternative to official Wherigo Builder, which is created using.NET technology and written in C#. Lua programming language

Zones, Characters, Tasks, …

Programming vs. builder

iOS vs. Android

Other possible GeoGames Turf Wars, massively multiplayer online game where players can claim places on the world map and defend them; Geo Wars, similar to Turf Wars is based on building geolocated towers and defending them. The game integrates the real time local weather which plays an important part in the combats; Ingress is an augmented reality MMORPG created by Players can join one of the two teams Enlightened or Resistance and try to conquer as many territories as possible in their surroundings. The game consists of finding check points (such as portals or resonators) on the world map and conquer territories by interacting with the check points;

Other possible GeoGames Smart Rabbit is a location-based exergame for Android, designed to give a more interesting side to exercising. It aims at encouraging people to become more physically active and exercise more by enjoying the game; Map Attack is a game of territory capture for groups up to 20 people. Two teams compete to capture the most points on the game board. The game board, in this case, is the city streets of the neighbourhood the players are in; Shutterspot is a game in which some players take photographs and other players are challenged to find the exact spot where the photographer stood when the camera shutter clicked.

Conclusion Alternative learning spaces – island as a game board Co-production of space and reality Alternative constructions of knowledge Digital maps are useful but can also be playful

Thank you Jirka Pánek