~~~~~~~ BRITISH HCI GROUP NEWS SERVICE ~~~~~~~~~~~
~~ http://www.bcs-hci.org.uk/ ~~
~~ All news to: [log in to unmask] ~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~ NOTE: Please reply to article's originator, ~~
~~ not the News Service ~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CALL FOR PAPERS: PERSONAL AND UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING JOURNAL SPECIAL ISSUE
****************************************************************************
Player Experiences in Location Aware Games - Methodological Issues
****************************************************************************
Co-edited by Barbara Grüter, Rod McCall, Lynne Baillie and Anne-Kathrin
Braun
Location awareness is a feature of an increasing part of digital games,
which introduce them to everyday life. Such games often come under
various names including but not limited to: mobile, pervasive,
ubiquitous or augmented reality. However what makes all of them location
aware is that the player physically navigates within a game world which
blends the real world and virtual elements. This combination
significantly changes what players, designers and developers have until
now understood about digital games. Furthermore as GPS-enabled phones
have become more widely available the number of start-ups developing
games within this area has also increased. This has all given rise to
the need for researchers to not only focus on prototypes and demonstrate
the technology but also to aim for a comprehensive understanding of
player experiences in location aware games.
This special issue of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing will focus on
the methodological issues in studying player experiences of location
aware games. All instances of the iterative research cycle are included
from modeling to studying, to understanding the underlying assumptions
and remodeling and studying again.
Key questions are: what is the particular nature of the player
experiences in a location aware game compared to online games, board
games or traditional outdoor-games? How do player experiences unfold as
they physically navigate within space? What improves or detracts from
the mental and physical presence of a player within a particular
location of a mixed game world? If we take into account the permeability
of the magic circle when influenced by aspects of everyday life, what
impact does this have on player experiences? How can we study location
aware player experiences? What indicates experiences for the observer?
How do we get access to the phenomena? What methods have to be deployed,
adapted, or combined? Is it possible to maintain the standards of
scientific work outside the lab in an uncontrollable world? As a result
the key objective of this special issue is to advance knowledge and the
competencies for modeling and studying player experiences of location
aware games.
TOPICS
Topics include, although are not limited to
o Models: what is the nature of location aware players' experiences,
what are the various aspects? How do we model them? What are the
methodological implications?
o Methods for studying player experiences: how to study the
experience taking into account, the situated, dynamic and distributed
nature of location aware games.
o Context of evaluation: what is the purpose of the study? Why do we
evaluate the game? Do we want to inspire idea creation for design in the
early phases of the development? Do we want to falsify our hypotheses on
cause-effect relations of particular game mechanics, and to optimize
existing game concepts? Do we study game play in everyday life to gain a
deeper understanding of the game within a specific culture or to inform
marketing decisions?
o Evaluation criteria: playability, functionality and usability are
different, but mutual dependent aspects of the quality of a game. How do
we achieve and evaluate that? How do we approach the idea of controlling
the unpredicatability and complexity of location-aware games when
conducting studies in the wild?
o Technologies and tools for evaluation: What technologies and tools
support data collection and data analysis of mobile games? What
experiences have people applying such methods? What kind of technologies
and tools are required?
The special issue has been inspired by the interest in the first
workshop on this topic, which was organized in conjunction with HCI2008
"Evaluating Player Experiences in Location Aware Games" (see:
http://www.ipcity.eu/?page_id=213). We would like to see a deepening of
the discussion and a more thorough analysis of the field. We hope to
improve the debate between researchers and practitioners from a variety
of scientific, engineering, and design disciplines (e.g. ubiquitous
computing, game studies, cultural studies, and HCI) in order to shed
light on the current methodological approaches to location aware player
experiences, to share experiences and to draw attention to the key
issues, challenges, possibilities, limitations and possible solutions.
In order to reach our goals we propose to encourage submissions within
the following areas:
o Extended empirical reports from the field describing and analyzing
models of player experiences, game concepts, settings, methodological
issues foreseen or those which emerged during the evaluation process;
o Theoretical studies of methodological issues, especially the
physicality, dynamics and complexity of player activities based on sound
empirical analyzes;
o Experience and best practice reports from organizers and producers
of location aware games and the methodological quality issues related to
evaluation methods, often referred to as quick'n dirty methods.
****************************************************************************
MORE INFORMATION
For more information see: http://www.pelag09.hs-bremen.de/
****************************************************************************
SUBMISSION DETAILS
Submissions should be no more than 6000 words in length.
All Submissions to: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=pelag09
The review process consists of submission of an abstract and outline of
paper, which, if accepted, will be followed by a full paper. A mentoring
process is also available to ensure that full assistance can be provided
to authors from submission of the abstract through to the completion of
the final version based on reviewer's comments.
Authors should accord with the Personal and Ubiquitous Computing
authors' instructions available from:
http://www.springer.com/computer/user+interfaces/journal/779.
Information about the format and style required for papers can be found
at http://www.springer.com/computer/user+interfaces/journal/779, and
templates can be downloaded from ftp://ftp.springer.de/pub/Word/journals.
More information about the Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing
can be found at http://www.springerlink.com/content/106503/.
All submissions will be anonymously reviewed by at least three reviewers
and the selection for publication will be made on the basis of these
reviews.
****************************************************************************
IMPORTANT DATES
Abstract and outline: 2nd December 2008
Notification and feedback to authors: 19th December 2008
Submission deadline of full papers: 20th March 2009
Notification and reviews to authors: 24th April 2009
Camera ready submission deadline: 29th May 2009
Publication: Autumn 2009
****************************************************************************
SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORS
Please direct all inquiries to the special issue editors:
[log in to unmask]
Barbara Grüter, Hochschule Bremen, Unversity of Applied Sciences, Germany
Rod McCall, Fraunhofer FIT, Germany
Lynne Baillie, Glasgow Caledonian University (UK) and FTW, Austria
Anne-Kathrin Braun, Fraunhofer FIT, Germany
****************************************************************************
REVIEW COMITTEE
Annika Waern, SICS, Interaction Lab, Sweden
Jörg Niesenhaus, University of Duisberg-Essen, Germany
Jussi Holopainen, Nokia Research Center, Finland
Markus Montola, Nokia Research Center, Finland
Matthew Chalmers, University of Glasgow, UK
Steffen P. Walz, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland
Zachary O. Toups, Interface Ecology Lab | Texas A&M University, United
States
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~ To receive HCI news, send the message: ~~
~~ "JOIN BCS-HCI your_firstname your_lastname" ~~
~~ to [log in to unmask] ~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~ Newsarchives: ~~
~~ http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/bcs-hci.html ~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~ To join the British HCI Group, contact ~~
~~ [log in to unmask] ~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Napier University is the best modern university in Scotland* and number one in Scotland for graduate employability**
(*Guardian University Guide 2009)
(**HESA 2008)
This message is intended for the addressee(s) only and should not be read, copied or disclosed to anyone else outwith the University without the permission of the sender.
It is your responsibility to ensure that this message and any attachments are scanned for viruses or other defects. Napier University does not accept liability for any loss or damage which may result from this email or any attachment, or for errors or omissions arising after it was sent. Email is not a secure medium. Email entering the University's system is subject to routine monitoring and filtering by the University.
Napier University is a registered Scottish charity. Registration number SC018373
|
