Location-based games (LBGs) are becoming increasingly more popular, especially those that focus on social interaction in public space. They have been successful to various extents at bringing players together to interact in public space; yet there is lack of knowledge and consensus on how to design these games from a technical perspective. This paper proposes a software architecture that stems from a cross-game analysis of representative games of this genre, in which 6 core architectural components are identified: Augmentation, Navigation, Interaction, State Progression, Participation, and Administration. These components support the game experience of players by enabling orientation and navigation of the players’ own physical environment, their interaction with the game and other people, the traditional game-like experience, management of the entire game ecosystem, and the ability to allow players to fuel game play. An LBG prototype, Secrets of the South, is presented as proof of concept for this software architecture and its key components. This prototype shows that the identified components are pivotal to the gameplay of LBGs for natural interactions in public space and shows how practitioners can be guided in their preparation whilst maintaining their freedom to technically implement this architecture according to the given structure.@en

Social interaction is part of the fabric of society and is essential to challenge many types of social barriers. Location-based games (LBGs) provide a means to foster such interaction in local communities. The design of such games is currently based primarily on designer experience and on the literature on game design in general, and not on an understanding of user requirements. This article explores the preferences and desires of adolescents in neighborhoods of Rotterdam South to socially interact with others and engage with their own neighborhood via LBGs. Adolescents are informants in the exploration of gaming activities for social interaction, which, when subjected to expert review with the mechanics-dynamics-aesthetics framework, produce gameplay requirements for the desired purpose: social interaction in public space. Such requirements provide researchers and game designers insights on the game dynamics best suited to foster location-based social interaction.

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Digital serious games have shown to be effective in promoting citizen engagement and social interaction. The reasons for their success are, however, unknown. This paper proposes design recommendations to support designers of serious games for meaningful social interaction, based on player preferences, needs and desires, based on literature study and a case study for which a location-based game framework was designed, developed and evaluated. The case study with and for children/teenagers in Rotterdam focussed on the design of challenges by the children/teenagers for meaningful interaction with their environment, and the strengthening of their engagement with their own neighbourhood. The paper focuses specifically on: 1) if and when meaningful social interaction occurred during game play, how it occurred, and with which impact, and 2) the design choices/features that contributed to (the experience of) meaningful social interaction. On the basis of these results and the literature this paper proposes design recommendations to support designers of serious games for meaningful social interaction, taking not only the current players’ needs and desires into account but also those of future players.

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This thesis broadens current understanding of how location-based games can promote meaningful social interaction in citizens' own neighbourhoods. It investigates social cohesion and the role of social interaction to its promotion, delves into which requirements users have for playing in their neighbourhood and with its citizens, and takes a technical perspective into how this type of games should be designed to be successful at triggering interaction in public space. From this understanding, which stems from adolescents and adults from Rotterdam and The Hague, NL, a specific design and prototype of a location-based game is proposed and tested. This thesis addresses several gaps found in the current body of knowledge. On the one hand, meaningful interactions are person-dependent, can occur in various forms, and their impact on societies is not well understood. On the other hand, it is not well understood how to build location-based games for such aim: it is not known which requirements should be considered, attempts to build location-based games are often a product of in-house development not centred early on around users, no known guidelines exist for meaningful social interaction, and no consensus exists on what to consider when building location-based games from a technical perspective. This thesis offers learnings on how to best design location-based games to promote interaction that matters to local communities. It firstly offers an overview of social cohesion and how multiple factors and actors have the power to influence local communities. It then argues that meaningful social interaction bears the power to break down stereotypes and prejudice, empowers people's agencies to act, has a positive impact on cohesion, emerges at people's own pace, and addresses conflict. From this, it dives into the preferences, needs and desires of adolescents and adults to better understand what sorts of interactions are meaningful to them. This thesis explores throughout several case studies the requirements that these target groups have, and advances gameplay dynamics and game activity types that location-based games should implement to be successful at inviting meaningful social interaction in public space. These case studies also research different sorts of interaction that each game activity type invites players to have, and elicit specific game ideas that are particularly tailored around perceived-to-be socially challenging neighbourhoods in The Netherlands. These case studies culminate in the recommendation of several guidelines to be used at different stages of the game design: gameplay requirements, guidelines for meaningful social interaction to occur in the studied groups, and the sorts of game activities that designers should include to invite specific forms of social interaction. This thesis also proposes a systems architecture with key architectural components, to drive consensus and inform on what to consider when building location-based games for this purpose from a technical perspective. The lessons learned that are advanced in this thesis help practitioners design location-based games that are more tailored to what future players want to play, and help researchers understand what it means to design for meaningful social interaction in any public space around the world. Players have distinct preferences with regard to the ways they are exposed to their own neighbourhood, and the forms of interaction they would rather experience. Understanding this, and incorporating such preferences in game design, lead to gameplay experiences that can have a positive effect on societies, as they have the power to promote interaction and positive relationships in local communities. These gameplay experiences invite individuals to come together and have meaningful interactions in a playful way, (re)engage with their own neighbourhood, and be part of their local community.@en

Location-based games (LBGs) successfully promote playful experiences engaging millions of players throughout the world. The potential of embedding such location-based experiences in educational practice has been recognised but not yet fully embraced. LBGs and educational location-based applications have been used to enhance critical thinking, but not for the acquisition and development of 21^st century skills: key competences required to understand, live and thrive in the local communities of today. This paper introduces the LBG 'Secrets of the South', designed to orchestrate social interaction in public space, and foster communication, collaboration, IT literacy, and social/cultural skills through 1) interaction-based social encounters with both friends and unknown members of the community, and 2) in-situ learning about the history and social context of the neighbourhood. A 4-step general procedure is proposed for the creation of LBGs designed to foster 21^st century skills.

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Location-based activities can challenge citizens to explore their neighbourhood in new playful ways. This paper presents a classification of such playful activities based on the literature and experience gained (1) in co-creation sessions and (2) gameplay for neighbourhood exploration with citizens in the Hague. The location-based game designed for this purpose encouraged neighbourhood exploration and social interaction that went beyond the everyday normal. Results showed that citizens are specifically interested in activities that allow them to discover new information about, and places in, their neighbourhood when these are related to their own life. The results of this paper provide new knowledge on game design to inform designers on which type of interactions and activities foster neighbourhood exploration and social interaction.@en

This paper describes different types of activities/challenges designed for social interaction, while discussing the performance of such challenges using the mobile digital game “Secrets of the South” (http://secretsofthesouth.tbm.tudelft.nl/, Secrets of the South). The game was played as part of a scientific meeting, with participants from 25 to 62 years of age and a varying degree of cultural differences. The presentation and discussion of the results of the gameplay provide insights on the appropriateness of the different challenges for social interaction in a playful city. Directions for future work for such challenge designs are presented.

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This paper provides a general overview on different perspectives and studies on social cohesion, offers a definition of social cohesion that is deeply rooted in current literature, and provides a framework that can be used to characterize social cohesion and help support resilient cities. The framework highlights the factors that play a substantial role in enabling social cohesion, and shows from which perspectives it can be fostered.@en

Challenging neighbourhoods in large cities most often lack social coherence. Meaningful social interaction between citizens in such neighbourhoods is needed to increase coherence, and games may be a means to this end. This paper reflects on the structure of a dedicated game design workshop with teenagers from 12 to 16 years of age designed to this purpose. The relevance of both the identified requirements and the emergent game ideas are presented and discussed together with directions for future work for design of games for social interaction through participation. @en