Transmutation by Kars Alfrink, 2010

Transmutation from mprove on Vimeo.

The talk’s title refers to alchemists’ quest to turn lead into gold, which sometimes feels similar to what we’re trying to do with pervasive games in public urban places.1 To summarize: I start by talking about the fact that games are essentially useless, and that this means applied game design should look for useful results in second order effects. I argue that the contribution of urban games lies primarily in the increased diversity of use of our streets, which is a good thing in itself. I talk about the care designers need to take with the games they deploy, since not everyone is looking to play and we should respect that. Playing games is a voluntary thing by definition. Towards the end I go into different strategies for using games to increase systemic awareness using several games as examples. I wrap up with a look at reward systems we commonly find in games like Foursquare, which now serves as templates for a lot of work in this area. I feel that this leads people away from what game design is about in the first place: creating interesting activities. [via Kars' Blog]

Kars is an Independent interaction and game designer. Interests include cities, physical & social interactions and play. He is also a teacher and an organizer of events. He lives and works in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Slides, audio, and some recommended sources that served as input for this talk:

• Slides and 44:26 audio on podcampus
• Callois Completeness
• Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities
• iMomus, Pervasive urban gaming: count me out, and in
• Ian Bogost, Persuasive Games: Check-Ins Check Out
• tweenbots
• Piano Stairs
• Koppelkiek

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