Article
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Is the boundary of fun redefined in a mixed-reality serious game?
Version 1
: Received: 16 January 2019 / Approved: 18 January 2019 / Online: 18 January 2019 (12:15:17 CET)
How to cite: Taly, A. Is the boundary of fun redefined in a mixed-reality serious game?. Preprints 2019, 2019010187. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201901.0187.v1 Taly, A. Is the boundary of fun redefined in a mixed-reality serious game?. Preprints 2019, 2019010187. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201901.0187.v1
Abstract
Considering Games with the broad definition proposed by Juul (Juul, 2010), consequences outside of the magic circle can be negotiated. This definition opens up the possibility to define serious games, games developed with an utilitarian goal in mind, in addition to fun. The entertaining and utilitarian objectives may however be contradictory, leading serious games to be, more often than not, less than optimal in at least one of the two dimensions. Another way to play with the boundaries of games is to consider pervasive games, which include alternate reality games, and crossmedia games (Montola, 2005). We question here the limit between game, play and toy in the context of a mixed reality serious game. ‘Pangu’ is a game designed for bachelor students, with biochemistry as the utilitarian objective, and the origin of life as a game theme. The students are asked to play the game on their smartphone, which in turn ask them to build molecules with a tangible balls-and-sticks model typically used in chemistry classes. Pictures taken from the models allow users to ‘scan’ these models and progress in the game. The use of the game was observed in four opportunities. An unanticipated observation is that, in addition to expected behaviors, some students used briefly the models like a toy rather than in the context of the game. It is therefore tempting to speculate that the pervasive nature of the game is blurring the game/non game boundary and, in the context of this serious game, opens a door for fun.
Supplementary and Associated Material
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blueprint.pangu&hl=en_US: game used in the research
Keywords
Serious game; free play; hybrid game
Subject
Social Sciences, Tourism, Leisure, Sport and Hospitality
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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