Pervasive Computer Games and Processes of Spatialization: Informational Territories and Mobile Technologies

Abstract

Pervasive computer games (PCGs) combine digital mobile technologies and location-based systems by creating an interface between electronic and physical spaces for playing. PCG is a general name for mobile games such as hybrid reality games (HRGs), location-based mobile games (LBMGs), and urban games. Our goal here is to show how these games, along with new digital mobile technologies, have the potential to produce “spatialization,” i.e., to socially produce the space in which they are embedded. I suggest that spatialization is achieved through the use of technology such as sensors and digital mobile networks (smartphones, PDAs, global positioning systems [GPSs], and augmented reality [AR] devices; radio frequency identification [RFID] tags and global system for mobile communications/general packet radio service [GSM/GPRS]; Wi-Fi and Bluetooth). The goal of this article is to examine the forms of spatialization created by the use of location-based services and location-based technologies.