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A massively multi-authored mobile surrealist book

Published: 14 June 2006 Publication History

Abstract

In this paper we describe an innovative mobile game in the form a multi-authored book. Based upon the 1920s surrealist technique of "Exquisite Corpse", the book builds from a series of standard text message length contributions with each author being given only the previous message on which to base their own contribution. Previous contributors are encouraged to spread the awareness of the book, and hence the number of participants, by forwarding a text message to produce a mobile viral distribution mechanism. The book has been designed as a mobile multi-player game as it has, in common with the surrealist technique, its origins in the Victorian parlor game of 'Consequences', and as user feedback shows, it does demonstrate many game attributes. The book offers an interesting perspective into how massively multiplayer mobile games may be used, how they can be made appealing to the very broad mobile user demographic, and how the elusive phenomena of mobile viral distribution occurs in practice.

References

[1]
Nokia. Multiplayer Mobile Games: Business Challenges and Opportunities. Version 1.0: 16th April 2004 available at www.forumnokia.com.
[2]
Nokia. Multiplayer Game Performance over Cellular Networks. Version 1.0: 20th January 2004 available at www.forumnokia.com.
[3]
Coulton, P., Rashid, O., Edwards, R., and Thompson, R., Creating Entertainment Applications for Cellular Phones, ACM Computers in Entertainment, Vol 3, Issue 3, July, 2005.
[4]
Mobile Games Interoperability Forum, Mobile and Wireless Gaming White Paper, Version 1.0, 21st October 2002.
[5]
Laramee, D. F. Secrets of the Game Business. Charles River Media Inc, Massachusetts, USA, 2005. ISBN 1584503998.
[6]
International Hobo. Demographic Game Design, International Hobo ltd, Manchester UK, 2004.
[7]
Kashi, N. Targeting the Casual Gamer in the Wireless World. IGDA Online Games Quarterly, The Demographic, Volume 1 Issue 2, Spring 2005.
[8]
Davis, J. Finding the Hardcore Mobile Gamer. Mobile Focus Column, Game Daily Biz, 24th February 2006.
[9]
Ofcom - Office of Communications, The Communications Market 2005, July 2005 available at www.ofcom.org.uk

Cited By

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  • (2007)Combining web, mobile phones and public displays in large-scaleProceedings of the 5th international conference on Pervasive computing10.5555/1758156.1758160(37-54)Online publication date: 13-May-2007
  • (2007)Mobile Games: Challenges and OpportunitiesArchitectural Issues10.1016/S0065-2458(06)69004-9(191-242)Online publication date: 2007

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  1. A massively multi-authored mobile surrealist book

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    ACE '06: Proceedings of the 2006 ACM SIGCHI international conference on Advances in computer entertainment technology
    June 2006
    572 pages
    ISBN:1595933808
    DOI:10.1145/1178823
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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    Publication History

    Published: 14 June 2006

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    Author Tags

    1. games
    2. mobile
    3. multi-player
    4. viral distribution

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    • (2007)Combining web, mobile phones and public displays in large-scaleProceedings of the 5th international conference on Pervasive computing10.5555/1758156.1758160(37-54)Online publication date: 13-May-2007
    • (2007)Mobile Games: Challenges and OpportunitiesArchitectural Issues10.1016/S0065-2458(06)69004-9(191-242)Online publication date: 2007

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