Digital Cityscapes

The convergence of smartphones, GPS, the Internet, and social networks has given rise to a playful, educational, and social media known as location-based and hybrid reality games. The essays in this book investigate this new phenomenon and provide a broad overview of the emerging field of location-aware mobile games, highlighting critical, social scientific, and design approaches to these types of games, and drawing attention to the social and cultural implications of mobile technologies in contemporary society. With a comprehensive approach that includes theory, design, and education, this edited volume is one of the first scholarly works to engage the emerging area of multi-user location-based mobile games and hybrid reality games. It is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate courses covering mobile phone or gaming culture, media history and educational technology, as well as researchers and the general public.

«‘Digital Cityscapes’ offers a significant contribution to understanding the theory, design, and application of pervasive gaming. Recommended for critics, creators, and players alike.» (Ian Bogost, Associate Professor at Georgia Tech, and videogame researcher, critic, and designer) «This admirably diverse and timely volume brings together leading theorists and practitioners with a wide range of disciplinary and geographical perspectives. Not only does it provide an invaluable introduction to the field of pervasive urban gaming, but it also shows why this work has consequences for many other areas of contemporary research and daily experience.» (Paul Dourish, Professor of Informatics, University of California, Irvine) «Drawing the link between mobile devices and location-based gaming is long overdue. In this volume the editors bring together a powerful group of researchers to take on this task. The authors examine the theory, design, and the educational application as well as the social consequences and long term effects of this development. This is an excellent point of departure for those of us who are interested in this development.» (Rich Ling, Sociologist at the Telenor Research Institute, Norway, and Visiting Professor, IT University of Copenhagen), «‘Digital Cityscapes’ offers a significant contribution to understanding the theory, design, and application of pervasive gaming. Recommended for critics, creators, and players alike.» (Ian Bogost, Associate Professor at Georgia Tech, and videogame researcher, critic, and designer) «This admirably diverse and timely volume brings together leading theorists and practitioners with a wide range of disciplinary and geographical perspectives. Not only does it provide an invaluable introduction to the field of pervasive urban gaming, but it also shows why this work has consequences for many other areas of contemporary research and daily experience.» (Paul Dourish, Professor of Informatics, University of California, Irvine) «Drawing the link between mobile devices and location-based gaming is long overdue. In this volume the editors bring together a powerful group of researchers to take on this task. The authors examine the theory, design, and the educational application as well as the social consequences and long term effects of this development. This is an excellent point of departure for those of us who are interested in this development.» (Rich Ling, Sociologist at the Telenor Research Institute, Norway, and Visiting Professor, IT University of Copenhagen)

The Editors: Adriana de Souza e Silva is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at North Carolina State University (NCSU), and Director of the Mobile Gaming Research Lab. She is also a faculty member of the Science, Technology, and Society Program at NCSU. In 2004/2005, she was Senior Researcher at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at CRESST (Center for the Study of Evaluation). Dr. de Souza e Silva holds a Ph.D. in communication and culture from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. From 2001-2004 she was a Visiting Scholar at the UCLA Department of Design / Media Arts. Her research focuses on how locative mobile interfaces change our relationship to space and create new social environments via media art and hybrid reality games. Daniel M. Sutko is a doctoral student in the Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media Program at North Carolina State University, where he earned his M.S. in Communication. His research interests include cultural studies, technology and social practices, and the rhetoric of technology. He teaches media history and theory in the Department of Communication and is a research assistant in the NCSU Mobile Gaming Research Lab. His current projects examine how social space is shaped and governed through locative media and disaster management communication technologies.