Place, space and geography plays a central role in determining the rules and interactions of many games. Recent developments and widespread access to mobile information, communication, and geospatial technologies have spurred a flurry of developments, including many variations of gaming activities that are situated in, or otherwise connected to the real world. There are many suggested terms for these games: pervasive games, ubiquitous games, augmented-, alternate-, and mixed-reality games, mobile games, and adaptronic games.
For the purpose of this book we will use the collective term Geogames and GeoPlay for all of the above and any playful activities in which the use, analysis and the creation of geodata constitute a core element of the game mechanics. The technological approaches adopted by Geogames are as diverse as the possible usage scenarios. Geogames have been realized as console games, browser games or mobile location-based games and make use of Geographic Information technologies such as GPS, virtual environments or simulations. Application scenarios span from environmental education to cultural tourism and Geodesign.
The purpose of this book is to bring together contributions from researchers, GIS professionals and game designers to provide a first overview of this highly interdisciplinary field. The scope will range from fundamentals about games and play, geographic information technologies, game design and culture, to current examples and forward looking analysis.
The book would be of interest to anyone interested in creating and using Geogames. It will serve as a channel for sharing early experiences, discussing technological challenges and solutions, and to outline a future research agenda.
Suitable topics may include, but are not limited to:
– Experience reports about the design and development of Geogames
– GI technologies in video games and location-based games
– Simulation and AR games
– Data collection games, VGI games, human computation games
– Playful approaches to Geodesign
– Educational Geogames
– Geogames as simulations
Suggested chapters should be proposed in the form of an extended abstract, 500 word maximum. The abstracts will be evaluated by a committee of experts before author(s) are being invited to submit full book chapters. Chapters must not have been published elsewhere. Unpublished conference presentations and extended conference works are acceptable.
Important dates:
October 17, 2014: Chapter proposal (abstract) submission deadline
January 26, 2015: Final chapter submission deadline
Fall 2015: Expected publication of book
The edited book is scheduled to be published by Springer in the fall of 2015
Please direct any inquiries and submissions to:
Ola Ahlqvist, Associate Professor, Department of Geography, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43085, USA, e-mail: ahlqvist.1@osu.edu
Or
Prof. Dr. Christoph Schlieder, Chair of Computing in the Cultural Sciences, University of Bamberg, An der Weberei 5, 96045 Bamberg, Germany, e-mail: christoph.schlieder@uni-bamberg.de
See full call for chapters at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vu1vk9-gjd2F0iQ_UBa7_A7OZ9minvGf8M1_y_E8Zls
