Live Role-Playing Games: Implications for Pervasive Gaming

Abstract

Live role-playing (LRP) games stand as powerful metaphorical models for the various digital and ubiquitous forms of entertainment that gather under the term pervasive games. Offering what can be regarded as the holy grail of interactive entertainment-the fully immersive experience-LRP games provide a tangible and distributed interface to a gaming activity that is emergent, improvised, collaboratively and socially created, and have the immediacy of personal experience. Supported by studies of LRP games, specifically aspects of costume, set design and props, we outline the interface culture specific to LRP and in which ways this culture may inform the design of pervasive games.

Quitter le donjon. Quand le jeu de rôles devient « grandeur nature »

“…Comparativement au jeu de rôles sur table qui, dès les années 1980, avait attiré l'attention des sciences sociales (Fine, 1980(Fine, , 1981(Fine, , 1983, le jeu de rôles grandeur nature (GN ou LARP : live action role-playing games) n'a guère été abordé par celles-ci (Bartholeyns, 2009 ;Falk et Davenport, 2004 ;Kapp, 2013 ;Tychsen et al, 2006). Ce dernier est pourtant né à la même époque que le premier, et lui donner une dimension performative « live » est apparu comme une évolution aussi naturelle que rapide.…”

Live Action Role-Playing Games

“…In recent years, however, an active interest in LARPS has arisen in the Scandinavian games research community. Efforts are currently focusing on studying LARPs in relation to mobile gaming, and the development of technological aids for pervasive gaming (Falk & Davenport, 2004;Schneider & Kortuem, 2001). Furthermore, LARPs form a possible source of information of relevance for interactive storytelling (e.g., Logas, 2004;Louchart & Aylett, 2003).…”

“…The authors also address the use of ubiquitous computing in assisting development of player-generated, location-based content and implementations of the content without disturbing the game flow, the use of information technologies to aid the GMs in gathering and spreading information, and so on. Falk and Davenport (2004) examined the potential that LARPs could have for pervasive gaming. They postulated that LARPs offer a fully immersive experience by providing a tangible and distributed interface to a gaming activity that is "emergent, improvised, collaboratively and socially created, and [has] the immediacy of personal experience" (p. 1), making LARPs appear the ideal of interactive entertainment.…”

The pervasive discourse

“…Examples of the current use of the term illustrate the jungle of definitions. Researchers link pervasive gaming to other, similar forms of gaming, such as ubiquitous games [Bjork et al 2002;McGonigal 2004;Walther 2005a;; augmented/mixed reality games [Benford et al 2005;Bjork et al 2005;Harris et al 2004;Montola 2005;Walther 2005a;; mobile games [Bjork et al 2002a;Bjork et al 2005;Davidsson et al 2004;De Souza 2004;Montola 2005;Sotamaa 2002;Walther 2005a;; alternate reality games [Bjork et al 2005;McGonigal 2003a 3 ; Montola 2005]; (enhanced) live action role play (E/LARP) [Bjork et al 2005;Ericsson 2003;Falk and Davenport 2004;Montola 2005;Schneider and Kortuem 2001;Soderberg et al 2004]; affective gaming ; virtual reality games [Walther 2005a;; smart toys ]; location-based or location-aware games Walther 2005a;; adaptronic games [Walther 2005a;; crossmedia games [Bjork et al 2005]; and augmented tabletop games . Exactly how pervasive gaming should be seen in relation to these types of games seems, to a large extent, open to the interpretation of the researcher.…”