eMapps Teachers Toolkit
How the games work
eMapps games operate in a similar way to other computer games. The game takes place in a territory pre-determined by the game designers, probably teachers. This could be in a local town, park or other geographical location. The game can be played in 'real' territory where the players actually go out into the local environment or virtually, where all actions take place within a computer simulation. In either case, it is played using the eMapps.com platform, provided to each participating school.
Note: The word 'avatar' is used by the Virtual Reality and computer gaming community to mean a "representation of the user", a character selected to stand in for and represent a user-player in a computer game. It originated from Hindu philosophy where the word avatar commonly refers to the bodily manifestation of a higher being or God onto planet Earth: in other words, a representation of a God. Handheld Devices are (1) a GPS receiver; and (2) a PDA/SmartPhone capable of accessing the WWW via GPRS or 3-G technology, and which could have GPS capability itself.
The game is played by teams of children. Each team has a ‘team manager’ working at a PC at ‘control base’, with players out in the field using handheld devices. There are several teams in any one game. Each team has their own ‘desktop’ - their view of the game platform - which is available on the team manager’s PC.
The teacher adopts the role of ‘game controller’, remaining at the home-base along with team managers. The game controller has access to each team’s desktop on the control monitor.
The game controller, the team managers, and the players in the field can all add objects to the desktop. The game controller is most likely to add clues and information (for use by the teams), the team manager may add solutions to clues (as evidence to the controller), and the players in the field will upload evidence of having achieved something.
Team managers use their team players in the field as ‘avatars’, guiding them according to information obtained or clues received. Information of this kind can be obtained by the team manager either directly to the desktop from the game controller, through the process of solving the clues or from an Internet search etc. Sometimes that information is passed by the game controller to the team manager in response to the avatars having achieved something in the field and having provided evidence of that achievement by uploading something (a video or audio clip, a photograph) to the team desktop from their hand-held device.
Global Positioning Systems are used by team managers passing coordinates to the avatars and also by the avatars to provide location information for their uploaded video/audio/photo content so that the site can be located with a ‘pin’ on the vector map on the desktop.
Sometimes information or clues are given to the teams by ‘characters’ they meet in the field. The ‘characters’ the avatars ‘meet’ could be a pre-recorded video (or audio or text or photo) of the character, made available to the team manager on the desktop and transmitted by the manager to the avatars. The ‘characters’ are not necessarily real people and a physical meeting may not take place: this means that the message or clue given by that ‘character’ is consistent for all teams.
A video, audio, photo or other clue provided by the game controller to the desktop of each team might vary depending on the 'solution' or option chosen by that team. In this way the game may develop branches - i.e. alternative routes - the branch taken being determined by the option chosen or answer provided by each different team. Thus not all teams follow an identical path through the game. One path may be better than another: some paths may lead to a dead-end. Equally it may be that no path is better than another: they may all lead to the goal or result in a different way. It could also be that each path chosen leads to a different goal or result, all being equally valid.
Alternate Reality Games (ARG)
An Alternate Reality Game (ARG) is a cross media game that deliberately blurs the line between the in-game and out-of-game experiences. While games may primarily be centred around online resources, often events that happen inside the game reality will ‘reach out’ into the player’s lives in order to bring them together. Elements of the plotline may be provided to the players in almost any form, for example through:
- websites, both those which are obviously connected with the game and those which are less so.
- phone calls or SMS to a player’s home, cell or work phone
- land mail
- newspaper articles or classifieds
- chat/Instant messaging and etc
- IRC channels, downloadable files, executables
- real world artefacts related to the game in play, such as documents provided live in the ‘field’
- real ‘events’ utilising actors who interact with the players
ARG always have a specific goal not only to involve the player with the story and/or fictional characters but to connect them to each other. Many game puzzles can be solved only by the collective and collaborative efforts of multiple players.
ARG games are usually distinguished by an extensive game-reality in the form of multiple websites, all of which present themselves as real. Sometimes it may be difficult to tell if a website is fictional or not. These websites form the foundation of the game universe, and are usually the primary storytelling vehicle, although the various media listed above are also used, creating an environment in which the games ‘alternate reality’ and the real world collide.
In ARG, the idea that ‘this is not a game’ is important. To be most effective, these games don’t advertise themselves as such, and never really admit to being a game at all. The mystery of what’s going on and who is behind it all is a major factor, as is the general thrill of discovery for the players (one website leads to another, and another etc.). This concept can be promoted to the players while they are playing the game.
ARG and eMapps.com
All games tell a story. The complexity and depth of that story depends on the game. At one extreme the game itself can be the whole story, whilst at the other extreme the player constructs the story by the act of playing. Narrative means that part of a story told by the game author to the player, and is the non-interactive part of the story. The interactive part is the way the player plays the game, what is seen, heard and enacted within the game. Playing games is an active process and listening to a narrative is a passive one.
The eMapps.com games integrate narrative into an interactive game. The narrative combines different approaches: some of the concepts implemented derive from games that are played on platforms such as Play Station, Nintendo, PC and PSP; others have a strong ARG component, blurring the virtual and the real and what is true from what is invented.
In addition, emapps.com games need to relate to the school curriculum and to support learning. This involves employing a diverse array of the functions of the emapps.com platform including: maps, pre-set scenarios, video, audio, photos, texts, the user interface and how this interface works with the content.
Equipment
eMapps.com recommends participating schools to acquire the following equipment:
For preparing the game
- Laptop computer: this and/or a PC is also required as the ‘base camp’ PC during the game;
- Still Photo camera;
- Video camera;
- Software for editing video, audio, photos and text;
- QuickTime Professional, Macromedia Flash converter, or other product for converting video files to Flash.
For playing the game (one of each for each team, i.e. several per school)
- GPS receivers for getting and using UTM coordinates;
- Handheld Computers/PDAs or Smartphones.
- capable of accessing the WWW via GPRS or 3-G technology (UMTS, Edge, HSDPA);
- possibly with inbuilt GPS capability;
- with camera, minimum 2 megapixels, capable of creating video during the game for direct uploading to the desktop:-
- short videos (60 seconds)
- photographs
- audio recordings
- text
- operating system Symbian (preferably with an Opera browser), or Windows Mobile (v.5 or later).
In the eMapps.com project the device used most was a Nokia N70, but other makes and models are suitable as long as they meet the above requirements.