Environmental Visualization and Exploration in Mobile Augmented Reality Games: Redefining the Spatial Affordances

Abstract

While spatiality in desktop and console interface video games has been widely studied, not many approaches have been made in the context of mobile augmented reality (MAR), an environment from which popular games such as Pokemon Go have emerged. On the one hand, this paper retakes the notion of spatial affordance that Janet Murray introduced for digital environments and proposes a reinterpretation of the concept throughout the integration of the MAR features. On the other, it seeks to approach the impact that these characteristics have on the gameplay experience. For this purpose, 46 mobile augmented reality video games of different genres were analyzed. The study reveals that augmented reality is still a superfluous element rather than a central aspect of the gameplay in most MAR video games, although trends involving new hybrid game experiences have been observed. Finally, we propose a tool for classifying MAR video games according to two axes that assess up to what extent physical space is integrated into the gameplay: gameworld spaces (representational layer) and gameplay spaces (interactive layer, interaction with the game rules and mechanics).