Stenros, Jaakko
Montola, Markus

Chapter 2 in Montola, M et al ~ Pervasive Games

31ff
Established PG genres (31):

• Treasure Hunts (32)
• Assassination Games (34)
• Pervasive Larps (35)
• Alternate Reality Games (37)

Emergins PG genres (40):

• Smart Street Sports (40)
• Playful Public Performances (41)
• Urban Adventure Games (42)
• Reality Games (44)

35f
“Pervasive larp is a style of pervasive gaming that utilizes live-action role-playing techniques. The central requirement is physical acting with character-based make-believe and pretend play: Role-playing requires the players to pretend and perform being someone else. […] Live-action role playing (larp, sometimes also called theater style) involves physically acting out as a character in an environment that has been propped to look like the diegetic setting.”

37f
Definition ARG:
“Alternate Reality Games take the substance of everyday life and weave it into narratives that layer additional meaning, depth, and interaction upon the real world. The contents of these narratives constantly intersect with actuality, but play fast and loose with fact, sometimes departing entirely from the actual or grossly warping it – yet remain inescapably interwoven. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, everyone in the country can access these narratives through every available medium – at home, in the office, on the phones; in words, in images, in sound. Modern society contains many managed narratives relating to everything from celebrity marriages to brands to political parties, which are constantly disseminated through all media for our perusal, but ARGs turn these into interactive games. Generally, the enabling condition to is technology, with the internet and modern cheap communication making such interactivity affordable for the game developers. It’s the kind of thing that societies have been doing for thousands of years, but more so. Much more so.” Martin, A et al ~ Introduction to ARG

39
There are 3 business models for ARGs:

• Game as advertisement
• Player-created community efforts
• Cash prizes

44
Are reality games best-suited to combine with film? Or is trying to make it be real the wrong approach?

45
Is “Pervasive Paidia” perhaps what I’m really interested in?
Ludus = formal play
Paidia = informal play
“Paidia, informal play, has always explored strange playgrounds, surprising times, and unbounded social relations. Pervasive paidia is not a genre of pervasive games – as these activities are not games – but they exist in a close relationship with pervasive games.”