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A method to assess pervasive qualities in mobile games

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Abstract

Software designers are facing huge challenges imposed by a new generation of applications that mix real and digital worlds, such as pervasive games. This type of game has recently become a worldwide phenomenon, with thousands of people walking in the streets with smartphones to interact with the physical environment. In this paper, we propose a new method to assess pervasive qualities in pervasive mobile games, which can be customized and extended to other ubiquitous applications. This method generates a quality report, which consists of a quality spreadsheet (containing metric values and comments) and a quality vector (representing the game quality profile in the form of a bar chart). In addition, we can compare quality vectors using similarity criteria. In this paper, we apply the proposed method to commercial and academic prototype games to shed more light on their pervasive characteristics and identify ways to improve the overall quality that sets these games apart from traditional digital games—that is, pervasiveness.

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Notes

  1. The reader should note that we annotated the BPMN (i.e., the traced line and the indication of hierarchy) to better explain the levels in the assessment process. We chose to avoid using a swimlane in this picture (i.e., the actor), as there is only one actor in this case (the user of the process).

  2. The companion website (http://www.ic.uff.br/~medialab/papers/2017/pauc) contains a report with all checklists and additional comments. This website also provides the quality spreadsheet for public use.

  3. Available at http://www.ic.uff.br/~medialab/papers/2017/pauc

  4. These assessments are available at http://www.ic.uff.br/~medialab/papers/2017/pauc

  5. Here, we assume that if players generally consider a given pervasive game as “good” (i.e., satisfying, enjoyable), then this game should have a “good” pervasive experience. However, we are aware of how difficult it is to explain why players would consider a game “good.”

  6. For the complete analysis, please refer to http://www.ic.uff.br/~medialab/papers/2017/pauc

  7. See https://www.oodaloop.com/osint/homelandsecurity/2014/04/03/google-ingress-game-players-subject-of-law-enforcement-fusion-center-alert/ concerning homeland security, and http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/online-gamer-died-on-poolbeg-pier-capture-mission-inquest-hears-1.2645636 reporting a fatal case.

  8. Please refer to http://www.ic.uff.br/~medialab/papers/2017/pauc

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the following Brazilian government agencies: CAPES (Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education, linked to the Ministry of Education); CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) and FINEP (Brazilian Innovation Agency), which belong to the MTCIC (Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication); and FAPERJ (Research Support Foundation for the State of Rio de Janeiro). The authors are also thankful to NVIDIA Corporation for the financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Computing, UFF, Av. Gal. Milton Tavares de Souza, s/n, São Domingos, Niterói, 24210-346, RJ, Brazil

    Luis Valente & Esteban Clua

  2. VisionLab/Department of Informatics, PUC-Rio, Rua Marquês de São Vicente 225, Gávea, Rio de Janeiro, 22451-900, RJ, Brazil

    Bruno Feijó

  3. Department of Informatics, PUC-Rio, Rua Marquês de São Vicente 225, Gávea, Rio de Janeiro, 22451-900, RJ, Brazil

    Julio Cesar Sampaio do Prado Leite

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  1. Luis Valente
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Correspondence to Luis Valente.

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Valente, L., Feijó, B., Leite, J. et al. A method to assess pervasive qualities in mobile games. Pers Ubiquit Comput 22, 647–670 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-017-1107-0

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