Abstract

This paper investigates how location-based mobile games, known as pervasive games, merge virtual and physical spaces, changing our perception of urban environments. Games like Botfighers, Supafly, and Geocaching are descendants from multiuser environments, which formerly took place online. Cell phones equipped with SMS and GPS are responsible for bringing these online communities out to physical space. How urban circulation spaces transform into virtual places? What are the effects of role-playing games in physical spaces?

• Adriana de Souza e Silva is a Senior Researcher at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies (GSE&IS / CRESST) at UCLA. She holds a Ph.D on Communications and Culture at the School of Communications in the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Adriana’s research focuses on how communication interfaces change our relationship to space and create new social environments.

Full text (PDF) p. 99-102