Urban Policy and Participatory Planning Location-Based Games

Abstract

This chapter examines the funding model of publicly funded, rather than commercial, location-based games. I situate the funding of location-based gaming within the broader relationship between the digital games industry and the local economies of the cities and towns in which game developers are based. I then turn to the niche but growing role that location-based games play in urban economic and cultural policy. This occurs through festivals and city-funded games aimed at improving their cultural life, as well as participatory planning games used for public engagement. I undertake an analysis of two participatory planning location-based games: Participatory Chinatown (2010) and Community PlanIt (2012), both designed by the Engagement Lab in Boston. Drawing on discussions of these games and an interview with the Engagement Lab’s director, I consider how their partnership with the city both enables and constrains these games’ goals and their players’ experiences.