This Might Be a Game: Ubiquitous Play and Performance at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century by Jane Evelyn McGonigal B.A. (Fordham University) 1999 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Performance Studies and the Designated Emphasis in Film Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor William B. Worthen, Co-chair Professor Gregory Niemeyer, Co-chair Professor Ken Goldberg Professor Peter Glazer Fall 2006 This Might Be a Game: Ubiquitous Play and Performance at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century © 2006 by Jane Evelyn McGonigal Abstract This Might Be a Game: Ubiquitous Play and Performance at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century by Jane Evelyn McGonigal Doctor of Philosophy in Performance Studies University of California, Berkeley Professor William B. Worthen, Co-Chair Professor Gregory Niemeyer, Co-Chair This Might Be a Game examines the historical intersection of ubiquitous computing and experimental game design, circa 2001 AD. Ubiquitous computing, or ubicomp, is the emerging field of computer science that seeks to augment everyday objects and physical environments with invisible and networked computing functionality. Experimental game design is the field of interactive arts that seeks to discover new platforms and contexts for digital play. The convergence of these two fields has produced a significant body of games that challenge and expand our notions of where, when, and with whom we can play. This dissertation explores how and to what ends these playful projects reconfigure the technical, formal and social limits of games in relation to everyday life. To mark the heterogeneity of this experimental design space at the turn of the twenty- first century, I propose three distinct categories of ubiquitous play and performance. They are: ubicomp games, research prototypes that advance the scientific agenda of ubiquitous computing through game design; pervasive games, performance-based interventions that use game imagery to disrupt the normative conventions of public spaces and private 1 technologies; and ubiquitous games, commercial entertainment projects that replicate the interactive affordances of video and computer games in the real world. I examine seminal games from each of these three categories, including Can You See Me Now? (Blast Theory/Mixed Reality Lab, 2001); the Big Urban Game (The Design Institute, 2003); and The Beast (Microsoft, 2001) respectively. My discussion draws on original gameplay media, design statements, and first-person player accounts. My critical framework is based on close readings of the play and performance values expressed in the founding ubicomp manifestos of Rich Gold and Mark Weiser. I conclude by outlining a course for the future study of these categories that is based in the pre-digital games theory of Johann Huizinga, Roger Caillois, and Brian Sutton-Smith. I argue that as the perceived opportunities for digitally networked play become increasingly ubiquitous, game designers and researchers must attend more carefully to the insights of philosophers, anthropologists and psychologists who historically have explored play as an embodied, social and highly consequential ritual, always already grounded in the practices of everyday life. 2 I dedicate this dissertation to the ubiquitous gamers. Through their collective and playful performances, they have embodied and embraced a more intimate relationship between gameplay and everyday life. i TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication …………………………………………………………………………….. i List of Figures ………………………………………………………………………... v Acknowledgments ……………………………………………………………………. ix 1 Introduction: A Ubiquitous Computing Approach to Play and Performance … 1 1.1 “This is Not” a(s) Design Philosophy ………………………………………. 1 1.2 The Technological Performance and Dark Play of Ubiquitous Computing … 8 1.3 Relationships and Rhizomes in the Ubicomp Network ................................. 16 1.4 The Social Structures of Ubiquitous Computing ………………………........ 19 1.5 A Theory of Transitional Play and Ubicomp Objects ……………………… 29 1.6 Ubicomp Research Culture: The Player and Performer in Residence ……... 35 1.7 The Defining Characteristics of Ubiquitous Gaming ……………………..... 42 2 Three Kinds of Everywhere: The Multiple Genres of Ubiquitous Play and Performance ……………………………………………………………….......... 46 2.1 Contentious Terms and Consequential Language ………………………....... 46 2.2 Colonization through Gameplay …………………………………………….. 55 2.3 Disruption through Gameplay ………………………………………………. 60 2.4 Activation through Gameplay ………………………………………………. 67 2.5 A Map to Three Kinds of Everywhere ……………………………………… 85 3 Colonizing Play: Citations Everywhere, or, The Ubicomp Games …………….. 87 3.1 Is Ubiquitous Computing There Yet? ………………………………………. 87 3.2 Ubicomp Games as Research and Rhetoric – Academic Projects ………….. 93 Smart Playing Cards …………………………………………………….. 93 CatchBob! ……………………………………………………………….. 97 Seamful Games ………………………………………………………….. 101 3.3 Ubicomp Games as Research and Rhetoric – Industry Projects ……………. 103 Pirates! …………………………………………………………………...104 The Drop ………………………………………………………………… 106 3.4 The Conspicuous Absence of Gameplay …………………………………… 112 3.5 Ubicomp Hypotheses and the Experimental Game ………………………… 114 3.6 Making Invisible Computing Visible ………………………………………. 120 3.7 The Play Values of Ubicomp Games ………………………………………. 127 The Invisible Train ……………………………………………………… 129 Can You See Me Now? .............................................................................. 139 3.8 The Critical Function of Ubicomp Games …………………………………. 147 The SpyGame …………………………………………………………… 147 You’re In (Urine) Control ………………………………………………. 157 ii 4 Disruptive Play: Spectacle Everywhere, or, The Pervasive Games …………… 165 4.1 Urban Computing and Situationist Play ……………………………………. 165 4.2 ‘A Surreal Spectacle’: The Big Urban Game ………………………………. 174 4.3 ‘What the ****?’: The Mp3 Experiment 2.0 ……………………………….. 208 4.4 ‘Can I Play Too?’: PacManhattan …………………………………………. 224 4.5 ‘This is Not a Sinister Game’: The Super Mario Blocks …………………… 238 5 Activating Play: Affordances Everywhere, or, The Ubiquitous Games – Part I ………………………………………………………………….. 247 5.1 The Structure of a Computer Science Revolution ………………………..... 247 5.2 A Virtual Paradigm Shift …………………………………………………... 254 5.3 The Originary Pattern of Ubiquitous Play in The Beast …………………… 264 5.4 Real Ruins and the Ludic Impulse ………………………………………..... 270 5.5 Affordance Hunting as Core Mechanic ……………………………………. 283 5.6 The New Realism: Phenomenological Identity ……………………………. 295 5.7 Desired Affordances and the Affordance of Desire: I Love Bees ………….. 299 6 Dangerous Mimesis: Simulation and Dissimulation in Alternate Reality Games …………………………………………………………………………… 313 6.1 The Persistence of Gameplay Vision ………………………………………. 313 6.2 A Brief History of the Credulous Spectator ………………………………... 322 6.3 “You Never Really Know When You’re Playing” …………………………. 323 6.4 The Problem of Accidental Players ………………………………………… 326 6.5 Suturing the Illusion ………………………………………………………… 331 6.6 Player Speculation about “This is Not a Game” (TINAG) …………………. 341 6.7 The Design Philosophy and Historical Origins of TINAG …………………. 351 6.8 Make-Believe Play and Realistic Performance ……………………………... 358 6.9 Open Source Play: Turning Real Life into a Real Little Game …………….. 363 7 Power and Superpowers: The Ubiquitous Games – Part II ……………………. 372 7.1 A Comparative Introduction to Reality-Based Superhero Games …………. 372 7.2 The Secret Ludic Life of Everyday Environments: The Go Game ………… 377 7.3 Promiscuous Activation as Design Principle and Core Mechanic …………. 382 7.4 Reality Testing and Reverse Transitional Play ……………………………... 399 7.5 Hard-Coded Interaction: SFZero …………………………………………… 404 7.6 Forbidden Play in Reality-Based Superhero Games ……………………….. 414 7.7 The Puppet Master Problem ………………………………………………… 419 8 The Collective Play Values of Ubiquitous Games ……………………………….. 434 8.1 The Community Dialectic …………………………………………………... 434 8.2 The Rhetoric and Design of Massively Collaborative Play ………………… 443 8.3 The Socio-Technological Metaphors of Ubiquitous Games ………………... 453 8.4 The Virtual Problematic of Ubiquitous Games ……….................................. 468 9 Conclusions: Specifying Play ……………………………………………………... 475 9.1 The Construction of a Ubiquitous Game Studies …………………………... 475 iii 9.2 On the Limits of Play and Seriousness: Homo Ludens ……………………... 485 9.3 On the Limits of Safe and Dangerous Play: Man, Play and Games ………... 494 9.4 On the Limits of Play and Real-Life Behaviors: The Structural Elements of Games …………………………………………………………………. 501 9.5 The Future Limits of Ubiquitous Play and Performance …………………… 507 Bibliography ..………………………………………………………………………… 516 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Reproduction of The Treachery of Images. Rich Gold, 1993. 2 Figure 1.2 “Introduction: Rhizome.” Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, 17 1987. Figure 1.3 “Phenomenological Post-Modernism Explained and Related to 18 Computer Science, in Cartoons.” Mark Weiser, 1996. Figure 2.1 Screenshot from Tass Times in Tonetown. Activision, 1986. 77 Figure 2.2 Screenshot from Grim Fandango. Lucas Arts, 1998. 78 Figure 3.1 Smart Playing Cards. Distributed Systems Group, 2005. 94 Figure 3.2 Screenshot from CatchBob! CRAFT - Swiss Federal Institute of 99 Technology, 2006. Figure 3.3 Screenshot from Treasure. Seamful Games, 2005. 102 Figure 3.4 Live Treasure Playtest. Seamful Games, 2005. 102 Figure 3.5 Screenshot from Pirates! Nokia Research