User:Grrrreat/research/notes-24-01-12

Pervasive games are games played in and with real world environments, often without the extensive use of props or material to cover the fact that the game's world is an imaginary one existing in the player's head besides the real one. They actually live on the fact that they act on the thin line beyond the evident 'real' world and the institutionalised fantasy of the game. They are smultaneously played in both realms and this is what makes them so interesting. Players are the key part in this process, they hold the knowledge, the rules of the game and the will and ability to play it in their minds, so therefore the interface for a pervasive game has to seen as existing, at least partly, in their imaginations and thoughts thus acquiring a more cultural and symbolic meaning.

Traditionally the interface is seen as a fixed entity and is increasingly thought of as potentiol obstacle to the immersive qualities of gaming. In pervasive games the interface as a concept gains a much wider range and leaves the definition of on-screen elements and HID-objects.

Games, especially videogames can be perceived as distinct semiotic domains. This is also true for pervasive games, even though they take place in the real world. So thus a second, distinct semiotic layer is added to the one that is already present in the 'real' world of everyday life. It can be entered by adapting to a distinctive set of conventions and meanings intrinsic to the certain semiotic domain.

The borders between these domains may seem thin but are kept up by a few mechanism. In essence the Player must submit to the game's rules and imagine its semiotic system to make sense of the game. But at the same time he must be aware of the real world to be able to analyse it according to the game's world/ruleset and to be aware that the second the domain he is in is still a game and precisely not reality. So therefore he must be conscious of these two layers of real and imagined reality at the same time. Pervasive games are therefore a good example of how interfaces are not just limited to the screen or input devices.