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Pervasive Games

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Synonyms

Ubiquitous games

Definitions

The first academic definition for a pervasive game (Montola 2012) is provided by Schneider and Kortuem (2001), defining a pervasive game as “a LARP [live action role-playing] game that is augmented with computing and communication technology in a way that combines the physical and digital space together.” In her pervasive discourse, Nieuwdorp (2007, original italics) highlights the ambiguity of the term “pervasive games” by listing the following meanings which she derived through a literature review (the reader is guided to her work for the sources of the review):

  • A game that depends primarily on pervasive technology and nonstandard input devices

  • An existing game that is augmented by computers, resulting in a blend of the real and virtual worlds

  • A game that pervades the real world in an undefined manner, and thus blends with it

  • A specific setting of the game world within the real world

  • A game that blurs the boundaries between itself and the real...

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References

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Correspondence to Kim J. L. Nevelsteen .

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Nevelsteen, K.J.L. (2016). Pervasive Games. In: Lee, N. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_73-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_73-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-08234-9

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