City As Theatre

IntegratedProjectonPervasiveGaming
FP6004457
WP12:CityasTheatre
DeliverableD12.6
EvaluationofDayoftheFigurinesII
FinalReportoftheCityasTheatreShowcase
EditedbySteveBenford
Contributors:
MauricioCapra,SteveBenford,MartinFlintham,ChrisGreenhalgh,KeirSmith,Jon
Green,AdamDrozd,AndyCrabtree,NickTandavanitj,MattAdams,JuRowFarr,
Mariaresund
Version 1
Releasedate:15th January2007
Status:public
IPerGDeliverable
Deliverable12.6 version1
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
City as Theatre (CAT) is one of five workpackages called showcases within IPerG
that demonstrate and study new examples of pervasive games. The CAT showcase is
exploringartistledpervasivegames,drawingonthetalentsofartiststocreatenoveland
compellingexperiencesthatoffervisionsof howmore mainstreamgames mightbe in
thefuture.ThishasinvolveddevelopingaprototypepublicperformancecalledDayof
the Figurines, a slow pervasive game in the form of a massivelymultiplayer board
gamethatisplayedusingmobilephonesviathemediumoftextmessaging.
This deliverable presents an evaluation of Day of the Figurines II (the second major
iterationofthegame)asitwasperformedinBerlininOctober2006andSingaporein
December2006,beingexperiencedbyover140playersineach.Theevaluationdraws
on a combination of questionnaire results, system logs and feedback from the games
authorsandoperatorstoconstructabroadpictureofhowthegamewasexperiencedby
itsplayers.
Overall, our evaluation concludes that Day of the Figurines has emerged as being a
stableandlargelyenjoyableexperiencebytheendoftheSingaporeperformance,with
the majority of players (who had paid totake part) saying thatthey would play again
and also having demonstrated considerable engagement with the game (not least by
sendingmorethan11,000messagestoitbetweenthem).
However, our evaluation also notes that the experience was far less well received at
Berlinanddiscussessomeofthereasonswhythismayhavebeensoincludingchanges
tothecontentmadebetweenthetwoperformancesbutalsodifferencesinlanguageand
SMScostsandculture.
Our evaluation also unpacks some different facets of the game. We note that play
tendedtobeepisodicandthat,byandlarge,playerswereabletointerweavethegame
withthepatternsoftheirdailyliveswithoutmajorproblems.Wealsonotetheimpactof
the augmented game board on framing players experiences. An analysis of players
responsestodifferentfeaturesofthegameshowsthatthevalueditsopennessandalso
interactionwithotherplayers,butalsoshowswherefurtherimprovementscanbemade,
especiallyinthedifficultyofmissions.
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Deliverable IdentificationSheet
ISTProjectNo.
FP6 004457
Acronym
IPerG
Fulltitle
IntegratedProjectonPervasiveGaming
ProjectURL
http://IPerG.sics.se/
EUProjectOfficer AlbertGAUTHIER
Deliverable
D12.6EvaluationofDayoftheFigurinesII
Workpackage
WP12CityasTheatre
Dateofdelivery
Contractual
Status
Month27
Version1
Actual
Month27
final
Nature
Prototypep Report Disseminationp
Dissemination
Level
Public Consortiump
Authors(Partner)
MauricioCapra,SteveBenford,MartinFlintham,ChrisGreenhalgh,
KeirSmith,JonGreen,AdamDrozd,AndyCrabtree,Nick
Tandavanitj,MattAdams,JuRowFarr,Maria
Responsible
Author
SteveBenford
Email sdb@cs.nott.ac.uk
Partner NOTT
Phone +441159514203
CityasTheatre(CAT)isoneoffiveworkpackagescalledshowcases
Abstract
(for
within IPerG that demonstrate and study new examples of pervasive
dissemination)games. The CAT showcase is exploring artistled pervasive games,
drawing on the talents of artists to create novel and compelling
experiencesthatoffervisionsofhowmoremainstreamgamesmightbe
in the future. This has involved developing a prototype public
performancecalledDayoftheFigurines,aslowpervasivegameinthe
formofamassivelymultiplayerboardgamethatisplayedusingmobile
phonesviathemediumoftextmessaging.
ThisdeliverablepresentsanevaluationofDayofthe FigurinesII(the
second major iteration of the game) as it was performed in Berlin in
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October2006andSingaporeinDecember2006, beingexperienced by
over 140 players in each. The evaluation draws on a combination of
questionnaireresults,systemlogsandfeedbackfromthegamesauthors
and operators to construct a broad picture of how the game was
experiencedbyitsplayers.
Overall, our evaluation concludes that Day of the Figurines has
emergedasbeingastableandlargelyenjoyableexperiencebytheend
of the Singapore performance, with the majority of players (who had
paid to take part) saying that they would play again and also having
demonstrated considerable engagement with the game (not least by
sendingmorethan11,000messagestoitbetweenthem).
However,ourevaluationalsonotesthattheexperiencewasfarlesswell
receivedatBerlinanddiscussessomeofthereasonswhythismayhave
been so including changes to the content made between the two
performances but also differences in language and SMS costs and
culture.
Ourevaluationalsounpackssomedifferentfacetsofthegame.Wenote
thatplaytendedtobeepisodicandthat,byandlarge,playerswereable
to interweave the game with the patterns of their daily lives without
majorproblems.Wealsonotetheimpactoftheaugmentedgameboard
on framing players experiences. An analysis of players responses to
different features of the game shows that the valued its openness and
also interaction with other players, but also shows where further
improvementscanbemade,especiallyinthedifficultyofmissions.
Keywords
CityasTheatre,DayoftheFigurines,SMS,TestMessaging,Orchestration,
Improvisation
VersionLog
IssueDate RevNo.
Author
Change
2.8.2005
Benford
Firstversion
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TABLEOF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVESUMMARY ................................................................................................II
TABLEOFCONTENTS................................................................................................... V
TABLEOFFIGURES.....................................................................................................VI
TABLELIST .............................................................................................................. VIII
1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................... ERROR! BOOKMARKNOTDEFINED.
2 ABRIEFINTRODUCTIONTO DAYOFTHEFIGURINESIIERROR!
DEFINED.
BOOKMARK
NOT
2.1Thegameboardandfigurines.............................. Error!Bookmarknotdefined.
2.2Gameplay........................................................... Error!Bookmarknotdefined.
2.3KeyextensionsfromDoFI.................................. Error!Bookmarknotdefined.
3 ANEXAMPLEPLAYEREXPERIENCE......................... ERROR! BOOKMARKNOTDEFINED.
4 EVALUATION METHOD ........................................... ERROR! BOOKMARKNOTDEFINED.
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TABLEOF FIGURES
Figure1.IntroductionandInstructions.......................................................................... 7
Figure2ChoosingaFigurine ........................................................................................ 8
Figure3TheBoardandSpectatorInterface.................................................................. 9
Figure4FigurinesontheBoard .................................................................................. 10
Figure5BoardAugmentation ..................................................................................... 11
Figure6MovingaFigurine......................................................................................... 11
Figure7EnjoyedtheGameBerlinResults ............................................................... 20
Figure8EnjoyedtheGameSingaporeResults ......................................................... 21
Figure9PlayAgainBerlinandSingaporeResults ................................................... 21
Figure10WeremessagesinformativetoBerlinPlayers? ............................................ 27
Figure11WeremessagesinformativetoSingaporeplayers?....................................... 27
Figure12WeremessageswellcomposedtoBerlinplayers? ....................................... 28
Figure13WeremessageswellcomposedtoSingaporeplayers? ................................. 28
Figure14WeremessageswellcomposedtoSingaporeplayers? ................................. 28
Figure15WeremessageseasytounderstandtoSingaporeplayers?............................ 29
Figure16Wasthereenoughtodointhegame? .......................................................... 30
Figure17Overallpatternofplay................................................................................ 35
Figure18RealPlacestoPlaytheGame ..................................................................... 36
Figure19TheMessagesDisruptingPlayersActivities............................................... 38
Figure20VolumeofmessagesreceivedbyBerlinplayers ......................................... 42
Figure21VolumeofmessagesreceivedbySingaporeplayers ................................... 42
Figure22SavingMessagesinthePhone.................................................................... 45
Figure23Thepatternofjoining,leavinganddyingfromBerlin ................................. 53
Figure24Thepatternofjoining,leavinganddyingfromSingapore ........................... 53
Figure25Messagestoandfromthegamebyhourofday Berlin.............................. 55
Figure26Messagestoandfromthegamebyhourofday Singapore........................ 55
Figure27Messagessentandreceivedbyday Berlin................................................. 56
Figure28Messagessentandreceivedbyday Singapore........................................... 57
Figure29MessagesbytypeBerlinandSingapore.................................................... 58
Figure31CompletionofmissionsBerlin .................................................................. 59
Figure32CompletionofmissionsSingapore............................................................ 59
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Figure33CompletionofdilemmasinBerlin............................................................... 60
Figure34CompletionofdilemmasinSingapore......................................................... 61
Figure35PatternsofengagementfromBerlin ............................................................ 63
Figure36PatternsofengagementfromSingapore ...................................................... 64
Figure37Frequencydistributionofplayerssendingdifferentnumbersofmessages ... 65
Figure38Frequencydistributionofplayersreceivingdifferentnumbersofmessages . 66
Figure39Plotofsendingversusreceivingmessages................................................... 67
Figure40OverviewoftheAuthoringApplet .............................................................. 70
Figure41Closeupshowingcontentfromjustonenarrativearc.................................. 71
Figure42WebformforeditingthedetailsofaThing .................................................. 72
Figure43OutputfromtheSanitycheckingtool .......................................................... 73
Figure44Theinterfaceforhandcraftingmessagestobesenttoplayerswhohavedied
................................................................................................................................... 78
Figure45Theinterfaceforopeningthegame ............................................................. 79
Figure46Thetodayseventsorchestrationpage ......................................................... 80
Figure47Theplayeroverviewpage........................................................................... 81
Figure48Orchestrationpageshowinganindividualplayersdetails ........................... 82
Figure49Excerptfromanindividualplayershistory................................................. 83
Figure50TheAdvancedGameControlsInterface ...................................................... 84
Figure51TheSMSsimulationinterfaceusedbytheProfessionalPlayer .................... 85
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TABLELIST
Table1Meanresponsestomessagestructure.............................................................. 29
Table2Impactoffeatures........................................................................................... 30
Table3Messagevolume............................................................................................. 52
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1INTRODUCTION
The City as Theatre showcase is exploring artistled pervasive games, drawing on the
talents of artists to create novel and compelling experiences that offer visions of how
moremainstreamgamesmightbeinthefuture.Ourdrivingmotivationsare:
Artisticusesofnewtechnologiesthatdrawuponthecreativityandvisionofartists
canpavethewayformoremainstreamcommercialapplications.
Stagingartisticworksatnewmediafestivalsprovidesaccesstopublicaudiencesas
experimental subjects for IPerG research and also raises the public profile of the
research.
Artisticperformanceisaculturallyimportantapplicationareainitsownright,and
onethatcansuccessfullydrawonemerginggametechnologies.
While several previous pervasive performances outside of iPerG have beensuccessful
from an artistic perspective, they have also been limited in scale, delivering an
experiencetorelativelysmallnumbersofparticipants.InIPerGwearelookingtomove
beyond these previous works by developing new experiences that are more scalable
while remaining artistically rich. In order to reach this goal, we have taken the key
decision to deliver our experiences to participants own mobile phones, rather than
having to loan them specialised equipment as we have done before. We have also
decidedtofocusoncreatinglongtermandwideareaexperiencesthatunfoldovermany
weeks, which can be played on an ongoing basis from many locations and whichare
interwoven with players everyday activities. In this, we are particularly focus on the
temporal expansion of games as discussed in a previous IPerG deliverable (Montola
2006).
OverthepasttwoyearstheCity asTheatreshowcase has iterativelydevelopedan
artistic pervasive game called Day of the Figurines. A series of previous deliverables
havedescribed howthisconceptemerged fromaseriesof initialworkshops, its initial
design(Benford2005),a first implementation(Flintham2005) andanevaluationof a
largescalepublictestofthisfirstversioninvolving85playersforamonthandhostedat
the Laban Centre in London (Capra 2006). This informed a substantial redesign and
extension of Day of the Figurines as reported in (Benford 2006) which was then
implementedasD12.6.Thisdeliverablereportsonthestagingofthesecondversionof
Day of the Figurines (henceforth called Day of the Figurines II, shortened to DoF II)
and its subsequent evaluation. In fact, this deliverable describes two distinct
performances of DoF II, in Berlin in October 2006 where it was experienced by 141
playersandinSingaporeinDecember2006whereitwasexperiencedby146players.In
fact,basedontheexperienceofBerlinthegamecontentwasrefinedandextendedprior
toSingaporeandsowearethereforedescribingtwodifferentiterationsofDoFIIwe
willclarifythesedifferenceswhereappropriate.
The aim of the deliverable is to reflect on the success or otherwise of different
aspects of the design and implementation of DoF II, drawing out general lessons for
IPerG and for external researchers. The deliverable also suggests some further minor
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refinements to the experience before it begins it main touring life which is currently
scheduledtostartwithaUKtourinthefirsthalfof2007.
Theremainderofthisdeliverableisstructuredasfollows:
Chapter 2 provides a brief introduction to the design of Day of the Figurines II,
includingaverybriefhistoryofitsemergencefromDayoftheFigurinesversion1.
Chapter 3 provides a walk through a Day of the Figurines from a players
perspectiveinordertoillustrateitskeydesignfeatures.
Chapter4discussesourevaluationmethod,inparticularhowwedrawontheIPerG
commonevaluationguidelines(Montola2006)andtheIPerGPollingTool(Appelt
2006) to design, deploy and evaluate a questionnaire to help us understand the
playerexperienceandhowwebackthisupwithanalysisofsystemlogs.
Chapter 5 evaluates the player experience of Day of the Figurines II by analysing
questionnaireresultsfrombothBerlinandSingapore.
Chapter6drawsonsystem logstoanalysepatternsof messageexchange between
players and the game in order to further understand how players played the game
andalsotheunderlyingsoftwareimplementationperformed.
Chapter 7 evaluates the authoring and orchestration tools that were developed to
supportDayoftheFigurines,describingeachtoolandsummarisingfeedbackfrom
the game authors and operators about its usefulness and potential further
development.
Chapter 8 reflects on the general natureof Day of the Figurines drawing out both
strengthsandweaknesses.
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2A BRIEF INTRODUCTIONTO DAYOFTHE FIGURINES II

Forcompleteness,webeginwithabriefoverviewof thedesignof DayoftheFigurines
II,summarisingmaterialfromthepreviousdeliverable(Benford2006).
Thegamecanperhapsbestbeenvisagedasamassivelymultiplayerboardgamethatis
playedusingtextmessagingonmobilephones.Thegamefollowstwentyfourhoursin
thelifeofasmallvirtualtown.Eachplayerchoosesandsubsequentlycontrols(viatheir
phone)asmallplasticfigurinethatrepresentstheircharacter,thatjourneysthroughthe
town(andacrossthegameboardthatrepresentsthetown),thatmeetsandtalkstoother
figurines,visitsdestinations,findsandusesobjects,resolvesdilemmasandundertakes
missions.
Thetwenty fourhoursof virtualgametimeare mappedontotwenty fourdaysof
real time. Unlike many simulation games in which game time is usually accelerated
relative to realtime, in DoF II it is slowed down so as to deliberately create a slow
gamethatunfoldsinthebackgroundofplayersongoinglives,perhapsonlyinvolving
theexchangeofafewtextmessageseachday.
Day of the Figurines II is unlike conventional games in other ways too. The
objective is deliberately ambiguous players are released into the town and told that
their goal is to help other players, the rules that govern the virtual city have to be
discovered, and there is a strong emphasis on emergent game play in which players
constructelementsofthegamethroughtheexchangeofSMSmessages.Thebackstory
tothe game is that the players are refugees who have arrived in a British Town. The
playershavetolearnhowtosurvive,gettoexperiencevariouseventswithinthetown
andultimatelyhavetodecidewhetherornottosidewithanarmyofsoldierswhoenter
thetowntowardstheendofthegame.Playerscanbecomemoreorlesshealthyandcan
even die, but beyond this there is no explicit winning or losing. Rather the game is
concerned with exploring and constructing a shared interactive narrative through role
play,hopefullyresultinginanengagingandevenprovocativeexperience.Inthissense,
theexperienceisablendofartisticperformanceandcomputergame.
2.1Thegameboardandfigurines
Another performative aspect of DoF II can be found in the game board which is
housedinapublicsettingsuchasamuseum,galleryortheatre.Theboardisalargeand
distinctive physical structure which shows the destinations within the town and the
positionsofthefigurinesthatareplayingatany momentintime.Playershavetovisit
the boardto register for DoF II and it is therefore their first pointof contact with the
game.Theboardiscontinuallytendedbyateamofhumanoperatorsthroughouttheten
hoursofeveryday whenthegame isactive.Theseoperatorsregisterplayersandalso
manually move the figurines across the board, following instructions from the game
engine that are projected onto the table as a series of visible augmentations. The
operatorsarethereforepubliclyperformingtheoperationofthegame,revealingsome
aspects of its inner working for new players and passing spectators, serving to attract
attention,generateinterest,andframetheoverallexperiencefornewplayers.
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Onceaplayerhasregisteredforthegame,whichincludeschoosingkeyattributes
oftheirfigurinesuchasitsnameanddescriptionandalsoenteringtheirphonenumber
into the system, they are free to leave the venue. From now on, they control their
figurine by sending SMS text messages to the game server and by receiving further
messagesinreturnthattellthemwhattheirfigurinesees,hearsandexperiences.
2.2Gameplay
Players control their figurines through a small set of predefined commands and
eachSMSmessagethattheysendtothegamehastobeginwitharecognisedcommand
name.Thecommandsare:
GO<destination> movesthisplayertothenameddestination
SAY<message> sendsthismessagetoothernearbyplayers
FIND <player> checks whether the named player is at the current
destinationandiftheyaremovesthisplayertobewithintalkingdistanceof
them
PICK<object> picksupthenamedobject
DROP dropsthecurrentlyheldobject
USEusesthecurrentlyheldobject,triggeringitsparticulareffect
UPDATE tells the player which other players and objects they can
currentlyseenearbyandremindsthemoftheircurrenthealthstatus
HELP returnsamessagedirectingplayerswheretofindonlinehelpand
alsologsahelprequestinthesystemforoperatorstodealwithlateron
LEAVETOWNquitsthegameforthisplayer
Players can visit fifty distinct destinations in the game. Each time they arrive at a
destination they receive its description. Depending on the current game time,
destinations may be open in which case players receive its inside the destination
descriptionorclosedinwhichcasetheyreceiveitsoutsidethedestinationdescription.
Eachdestinationalsohasafixedcapacitywhichconstrainsthenumberofplayerswho
areallowedinsideatanygiventime.
Internally,destinationsarestructuredintomultipleinvisiblesiloswhichautomatically
groupplayersintoconversationalsubgroupssuchthattheSAYmessagesthataplayer
sends are only distributed to those other players who are in their current silo. Each
destination has itsownsilosizeenabling somedestinationstofeel morecrowdedand
busy(e.g.,theLocarnonightclubwhichhasasilosizeof10)whileothersfeelquietand
solitary(e.g.,theCemeterywhichhasasilosizeof1sothatyouarealwaysalone).
Each player has a health score that reflects their overall status in the game. Players
change their health orthe health of others by finding and using objects. For example,
using food and drink objects will often increase their health whereas the pool cue is
essentially a weapon. Many objects have dual uses, directly or indirectly increasing
health when used at some destinations and times and decreasing health at others. For
exampletheplankofwoodoftenactsasaweapon,butisactuallyneededforbreaking
intotheboardedupshopaspartofa mission. A players health candeterioratetothe
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pointwheretheybecomeincapacitated,meaningthattheycannotmove,dropallobjects
andcanonlytalktoothernearbyplayers.Theseplayersmayhelpthembyusingcarious
objects, most notably the defibrillator which restores incapacitated players (but
backfiresandhurtsitswielderorbystandersifnoincapacitatedplayersatepresentwhen
it is used). If a players health diminished further then they will die and their game is
over.Itispossibletokillotherplayersbyrepeatedlyusingaweaponobjectonthem.
As well as chatting toone another, players interact with various kinds of prescripted
content. Events are authored SMS messages that are associated with a set of
destinations and that are sent to players at predetermined times and that provide the
gamewithabasicunderlyingnarrativeofactionthatunfoldsovertime.Dilemmasare
events that demand a multiple choice response that in turn triggers a subsequent
response message and also a change to the players health level. Finally, missions
combine multiple events, dilemmas, destinations and objects into more complex and
longerrunning narrative structures. For example, players at the Internet Caf will be
allocated a mission in which they have to free some dogs from the Rat Research
Institute. Completing this mission involves finding a stepladder object (which can be
foundattheLock)takingthistotheInstituteandthenusingittoscalethewallstoget
inside.Onceinsidetheyhavetocorrectlyansweradilemmaaboutwheretoruntonext.
Selectingthecorrectresponsetellsthemtopickupasickdogobjectatwhichpointthe
mission is completed successfully, in which case their health increases. On the other
hand,themissionfailsiftheplayergivesthewrongresponsetothedilemmaorfailsto
complete all of the steps within the prescribed time limit, in which case the players
healthdecreases.
Special help player missions will be automated generated for some incapacitated
players,invitingotherplayersinthegametofindthemandrestorethembacktobetter
health.
2.3KeyextensionsfromDoFI
Weendthis shortintroductiontoDoFIIby briefly highlighting howDoFIIextended
the firstversionoftheexperience basedonthe findingsoftheevaluationofthe2005
publictrialattheLabanCentreinLondon.
Unlike in the first version where messages to the game were freeform and the game
operators manually classified these and often manually edited or sometimes even
wholly generated responses, the game play in DoF II was fully automated. The game
engineparsed incoming messages, implementedalloftheactionsavailabletoplayers,
and automatically generated responses. The only exception was the final message
received by a player who had died, which was still handcrafted by the operators to
ensureanappropriatefinalexitfromthegame.Thisautomatedsystemmadethegame
farmorescalable.
Inadditiontobeingautomated,gameplaywasalsoextendedwithnewkindsofcontent
thatwasintendedtogiveplayersgreaterstructureandsenseofpurpose,respondingtoa
majorcriticismfromLaban.Objects,healthandmissionswereallintroducedinDoFII.
Weimplementedwebbasedtoolsforauthoringthegamecontentandfororchestrating
the experience. We provided online interfaces for new players to register their details
andalsonewinterfacesforoperatorstobeabletotrackthenumbersofplayersjoining,
leaving and dying and also key events such as errors and becoming incapacitated.
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Operators could drill down into individuals histories and could compose special
orchestrationmessagestosendthemorchangeattributessuchashealth.
OurevaluationofLabansuggestedthatitwasimportanttocarefullymanagetheflowof
messagestoand fromplayers bothforreasonsofcostandsoasnottoannoythem.It
was important not to flood players with messages and yet at the same time was
necessary to respond to their messages quickly and also to send them at least one
message a day so as to maintain their contact with the game. We implemented these
guidelinesinasetofpacingrules.
The silo mechanism described above was a further way in which we tried to prevent
playersfrombeingfloodedwithtoomanymessages(inthiscasechatmessages).
Wealsointroducedamessageaggregationmechanismtoensurethatweusedasmuch
ofthepreciousbandwidthofeachSMSmessagesenttoplayersaspossible(especially
asweweretryingtlimitthenumberofmessages).Thismechanismtakesanoutgoing
message to a player generated by a game event and appends additional information
about nearby players and objects and also their current status until the 160 character
SMSlimitisusedup.
FeedbackfromLabanrevealedthatplayersoftenfoundthegametobeunresponsivein
thatthey would send a message but then notreceive a response for a long time. This
wasespeciallytruewhentheymovedtonewdestinationsasthiswouldoftensetthem
onalongjourneyacrosstheboardwhichmightunfoldonesquareatatimeovermany
hours. Our evaluation also showed us that most players played in an episodic way,
quicklydipping intoandthenoutofthegameagain.Inordertosupportepisodicplay
with appropriate quick responses, we changed the movement model. Players would
movedirectlyfromadestinationtoacentralhubwheretheywouldbeallocatedeithera
gameevent,dilemmaorencounterwithanotherplayeralsoatthehub.Theywouldthen
be moved straighttotheir newdestination.Consequently,alldestinationswere in fact
equidistant and players would be quickly allocated a new piece of content as soon as
theymoved.
Finally, our evaluation showed that moving the physical figurines on the board was a
labour intensive task for the game operators and a major bottleneck to scalability.
However, we wanted to retain the performativity involved in this activity while
increasingitsefficiency.Wethereforeintroducedtheprojectedtableaugmentationsinto
DoF II, both to ease the task of the human operators and also to further enhance its
visualspectacle.
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3ANEXAMPLEPLAYEREXPERIENCE
InordertofurtherclarifythenatureofDoFIIwenowpresentabriefwalkthroughofa
typicalplayerexperiencewhichservestoillustratethemainfeaturesofthegame.
Theexperiencebeginswiththeplayersfirstintroductiontotheaugmentedgameboard
atthehostingvenuewheretheychooseafigurineandregistertheirdetails.Theplayer
arrivesatthevenueweretheyreadanintroductionandsetofinstructions.
Figure1.IntroductionandInstructions
Theythenchosetheirfigurinefromatableofwaitingfigurines.
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Figure2ChoosingaFigurine
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Their figurine isplacedontothe maingame board,waitingat the edgeoftown(see

the line of figurines at the near edge of the table). The player can inspect the board,
seeing its destinations and other figurines and also viewing currenttext messages that
are being sent on the screen that is attached to the table (the blue screen with the
woodensurroundinthennearforeground).
Figure3TheBoardandSpectatorInterface
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Figure4FigurinesontheBoard
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Periodically, a projector shines visible augmentations onto the table so as to help the
gameoperatorsupdatethepositionsofthefigurines.
Figure5BoardAugmentation
Figure6MovingaFigurine
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Fromthispointonwardsthegame isplayed by sendingandreceivingSMS messages.

Thefollowingarefragmentsofkeymomentsofgameplaytakenfromthehistoryofthe
figurine FLOSS from the Singapore game. We begin with Flosss introduction to the
game and her movement to a first destination, Kaths Caf, via the hub where she is
allocatedadilemma.
Received
03:02 06:00am,welcometoDayOfTheFigurines.FLOSShasbeendroppedbya
GMTWed truckattheedgeoftown.YouarefeelingOK.Wheredoyouwanttogo?
06Dec
Sent09:49
GMTWed Gokaths
06Dec
Received
09:54 06:41am,acloudpassesachillrunsthroughyouinthedistance
GMTWed shouting.DoyouA:ContinueontoastreetcornerB:Restamoment?
06Dec
Received
06:45am,youcarryonagroupofmen,preoccupiedwithafigureonthe
10:29
ground,areshouting.Theynoticeyou.Theshoutingchanges.Youkeep
GMTWed
moving.
06Dec
Received
10:38 06:46am,you'vearrivedatKath'sCafe,brickiesdemolishwhitefood.
GMTWed TherearemanysteaminghotmugsofTEAhere.YouarefeelingOK.
06Dec
SometimelaterFlossistalkingtotheplayerXIAOCONDOMattheInternetCafwhen
sheisallocatedthemissionoffreeingthedogsfromtheRatResearchInstitute.Please
notetheplayer,objectanddestinationnamesarealwayscapitalisedinmessages.
Received
09:45am,newtask:whileonlineyourpcjuddersthescreengoesblack
09:52
luminousgreentextappears:getthoseDOGSoutoftheRatResearch
GMTSat
Institutenow.
09Dec
Sent
10:00 Sayscrambledeggs'n'redbullsoundsgoodtome.Heyijustgotamesg
GMTSat onmyscreenaboutfreeingsomedogs.Didugetthat?
09Dec
Received
09:46am,XIAOCONDOMsaid:"tofloss"yeahman!Ampreparingascript
10:05
whileidreamaboutmyredbull.Gotthatmessagetoothinkwehavetogo
GMTSat
totheratresearchtogetthedo"
09Dec
Sent
SayyeahletsheadfortheRRItofreethosedogs!
10:19
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GMTSat
09Dec
Sent
10:30
Gorat
GMTSat
09Dec
Inthefollowing,werejoinFlossashortwhilelaterasshenearstheendofthismission.
ShehasbeentotheRatResearchInstituteandrealisedthatshewouldneedastepladder
togetin.ShehassincefoundastepladderattheLock,pickeditupandreturnedtothe
Institute. The following sequence shows how missions combine other game
mechanisms such as the use of objects (in this case a stepladder) and dilemmas into
morecomplexandsustainedsequencesofaction.Flosschoosesthewrongoptioninthe
finaldilemmaandfailshermission.
Received
10:36am,thefenceishigh.Apassingworkmangazesupatthathigh
09:01
fence:Gorblimey,guvnor,youain'tgettingoverthatwithoutastep
GMTSun
ladder,soyouisn't.
10Dec
Sent09:05
Sayheyeveryone,ifoundaloadofstepladdersatthelock.Let'sseeif
GMTSun
theygetmein.
10Dec
Sent09:06
GMTSun Usestepladder
10Dec
Received
09:08
10:36am,YouarefeelingOK.
GMTSun
10Dec
Received
09:11 10:37am,younipupthestepsandjumpdowninsidetheyard.Fantastic
GMTSun work,liberator!Waitforasecondtocatchyourbreath.
10Dec
Received
10:39am,nowdoyouA:Runacrossthecarparkinacrouchtoreception
09:36
B:CreeparoundtheperimetertoafireexitC:Smashaslotwindowat
GMTSun
basementlevel?
10Dec
Sent10:01
GMTSun A
10Dec
Received
10:42am,youstumbleonapatchofgreasysubstance,alertingaguardin
10:06
reception.Taskfailed.YouheadfortheexitandcomeacrossaSICKDOG.
GMTSun
Pickitup.
10Dec
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Our next fragment shows the use of objects to change a players health. In this case,
FlossdownsapintofVale(beer)whichimprovedherhealthleveltowell.
Received
12:06 09:57pm,you'vearrivedattheTrafalgarSq,Italianfootballisonthetelly.
GMTThu21 BERNARD,EVEandSUCHDAarehere.TherearemanyPINTShere.
Dec
Sent12:09
GMTThu21 Usepint
Dec
Received
12:13 09:57pm,youdownthepintofValeleavingamodestfoammoustacheon
GMTThu21 yourtoplip.Youarefeelingwell.
Dec
The first message in this sequence shows the DoF message aggregation technique in
action. The first part of the message (09:57pm, you've arrived at the Trafalgar Sq,
Italianfootballisonthetelly.)isapreauthoreddestinationdescriptionmessagethatis
senttoplayerswhenevertheyarriveatthepubTheBattleofTrafalgarSquare.The
textBERNARD,EVEandSUCHDAarehere.TherearemanyPINTShere.hasbeen
dynamicallyappendedtothisinordertogivetheplayerinformationabouttheircurrent
surroundings,tryingtomaximisetheuseofSMSbandwidth.
Players can also explicitly request information about their current state, surroundings
and mission if they have been assigned one via the UPDATE command. In this
example,Flossisonamissiontofindawristband.
Sent05:01
GMTMon11 Update
Dec
Received
05:05 11:12am,You'reattheVideoZone.Youarefeelingill.You'relooking
GMTMon11 foraWRISTBAND.
Dec
The following message shows that objects can also damage health as the player
ADOLPHhitsFlosswithacrowbar,reducingherhealthtoOK.
Received
12:27 09:57am,ADOLFtossesaCROWBARintheair.Flashingwhitepainasit
GMTSat09 catchesyouinthebackoftheneckasitfalls.YouarefeelingOK.
Dec
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It is also possible to use objects such as the defibrillator to restore other players to
health. In the following sequence as Floss arrives at the boarded up shop, the player
GRANNY FLY has become so unwell that she is incapacitated, i.e., can no longer
move,orcarryanduseobjectsforherself.LuckilyBERNARDapplieshisdefibrillator
torestorehertohealth,althoughitdoestaketwoattempts.
Sent05:43
GMTMon Goboarded
11Dec
Received
05:48 11:16am,youarenearthehonkingcorpseofamaggotyrat,onyourway
GMTMon totheBoardedUpShop.
11Dec
Received
06:34 11:21am,you'vearrivedattheBoardedUpShop,coveredinpeeling
GMTMon posters.GRANNYFLYandDESHAWN,wearingaFLEECEarehere.
11Dec
Received
11:41am,BERNARDleansoverGRANNYFLY&pressesthepadsofa
10:02
DEFIBRILLATORtohischesthesitsuprightlookingmuchbetter.
GMTMon
GRANNYFLYishere.
11Dec
Received
10:13
11:42am,BERNARDsaid:"Granny,areufeelingbetternow?"
GMTMon
11Dec
Received
10:16 11:43am,GRANNYFLYsaid:"BERNARDthanksijustcollapsedagaini'm
GMTMon goingtodie!"
11Dec
Received
10:17 11:43am,BERNARDleansoverGRANNYFLY&pressesthepadsofa
GMTMon DEFIBRILLATORtohischesthesitsuprightlookingmuchbetter.
11Dec
Received
10:21 11:43am,GRANNYFLYsaid:"bernard,uaresuchadear,helpinganold
GMTMon lady,godblessyourkindsoul!"
11Dec
Playersreceiveatleastonedailyintroductionmessageatthestartofeachdaytokeep
themintouchwiththegame,asinthefollowingexample:
Received
03:00 07:00am,astringymistweavesthroughthestreets.Youcanfeel
GMTThu07 barrgainsintheair,You'reatKath'sCafe.YouarefeelingOK.
Dec
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Although there is only a small set of commands to deal with, players can still make
mistakesorcircumstancescanrenderacommandimpossibletocarryout,inwhichcase
thesystem mustreturnanerrormessageaswesee inthe followingexample inwhich
Flosstriestopickupanobjectthatisntthere.However,thegamedoesprovidealiases
forcommands,destinationsandobjectsinordertobeasflexibleaspossible.Inthiscase
defibisavalidaliasforaDEFIBRILLATOR.
Sent09:42
GMTWed27 Pickdefib
Dec
Received
09:44 03:41am,youcan'tseeanobjectofthatnametopickup.Perhaps
GMTWed27 someoneelsehastakenit?
Dec
Finally,the followingextendedsequence showstheendofthegame forFloss.She is

oneoftheluckyplayerswhomadeittotheRecreationGroundbytheendofthegame
andwereairliftedtosafety(everyoneelsedied),thoughnotwithoutfirstexperiencing
sometrepidation.
Received
06:20 05:21am,DELIGHTsaid:"I'millbutdon'tthinkishouldleavethisplaceif
GMTFri29 ehelicopterisarrivinghereright?"
Dec
Received
06:38
05:23am,MIDNITEsaid:"delightwhynot?"
GMTFri29
Dec
Received
06:51 05:24am,DELIGHTsaid:"THERE'SAHELICOPTERCOMINGTHAT'S
GMTFri29 SUPPOSEDTOSAVEUS"
Dec
Received
07:14
05:27am,CHERYLsaid:"itsnottimeyet."
GMTFri29
Dec
Received
07:16
05:27am,DELIGHTsaid:"isn'tegameendingtoday?"
GMTFri29
Dec
Received
07:29 05:28am,CHERYLsaid:"yeah.Thatswhatithoughttoo.Ithinkitdoesat
GMTFri29 9inthenight."
Dec
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Received
07:42 05:30am,asyouallwait,asoldiermovesdowntheline.Hestopsand
GMTFri29 shovesyou.DoyouA:cowerB:starehimintheeyeC:shovehimback?
Dec
Received
08:21 05:34am,youcansmellsweatmingledwithaftershaveasheleansclose.
GMTFri29 Heflicksyouonthenose,gigglesandmoveson.Youarefeelingabitwell.
Dec
Received
05:45am,soldiersshoveyouontoametalrampandintothebackofthe
10:09
helicopter.It'sacrush:HALO,MIMIMOMO,SAMANTHAandPUPPETare
GMTFri29
here.
Dec
Sent10:14
GMTFri29 SayLookslikethisisthesurvivorsparty.Atleastihopeso
Dec
Received
10:18 05:45am,SAMANTHAsaid:"ihopethisisnotaonewaytickettothe
GMTFri29 concentrationcamp..."
Dec
Received
05:52am,themetaldoorofthehelicopterslamsshut,plungingyouinto
11:18
darknessapartfromatinyporthole.Throughthescratchedperspexyou
GMTFri29
canseegrass.
Dec
Received
05:57am,witharoarthechopperswaysandtakesoff.Belowinthetown
12:07
youseescatteredrefugeesstrandedasyoubankawayintothegreydawn
GMTFri29
light.
Dec
Received
06:04am,dawnrisesoverthetownasrefugeesfloodthestreets.75
13:17
peoplehavediedbutsomehavesurvived.Thedayisover.Thankyoufor
GMTFri29
playingDayoftheFigurines.
Dec
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4EVALUATION METHOD
DayoftheFigurinesIIhasemergedfromaprocessofiterativedesign,developmentand
public testing. Following the evaluation of the Laban trial of DoF I, the game was
extensively redesigned and also the underlying game engine and supporting software
platformwascompletelyrewritten.Thefirstiterationofpublictestingtookplaceatthe
Sonar festival in Barcelona in June 2006 where an intensive three day version of the
game was experienced by 135 players. The second iteration was a month long public
performanceofDayoftheFigurinesatBerlininSeptemberandOctober2006aspartof
the Trampoline festival which was experienced by 146 players. Following further
development of the content the third iteration took place at the National Museum of
SingaporeinDecember2006whichwasexperiencedby141players.
OurevaluationofDayoftheFigurinesIIcoversboththeBerlinandSingaporeoutings
and focuseson howplayersexperiencedthegame,gatheringtheirsubjectiveopinions
throughaquestionnaire.ThisdrewonIPerGscommonevaluationguidelines(Montola
2006), including gathering key demographic information about players, and was
deployed via the IPerG polling tool (Appelt 2006). The questionnaire consisted of
thirtyquestionswhichwereamixtureofclosedandopenquestionsandthatprobed:
playersgeneralattitudestothegamehowmuchdidtheyenjoyitoverall
andwouldtheyplayagain
their attitude towards different aspects of the game such as chatting with
otherplayers,thecontentofmessagesandtheaugmentedboard
howtheyexperiencedthe flowoftext messages fromthegamewhich had
beenamajorissuefromtheDoFI
The questionnaire was made available to public players, but not to the games
developersandoperatorsandothercloseinsidersinordertoensurethemostunbiased
opinion possible. Participants were paid 10 euros after completing the questionnaire.
English and German versions of the questionnaire were made available for the Berlin
playersbutonlyanEnglishversionwasrequiredfortheSingaporeplayers.
It should be notedthatour players had to pay to take part in Day of the Figurines II.
Thisincludedpurchasinganinitialtickettoregisterwiththegameatacostof5euros
andthensubsequently havingtopay foranytext messagesthatthey senttothegame
which,asweshallseebelow,couldinsomecasesinvolveasubstantialcost.
In addition to the questionnaire, our evaluation has drawn on system logs, digital
records of both performances that provide a timestamped history of every message
exchanged between players and the game. Analysis of these logs has shed light on
generalpatternsofplayandhashelpedusunderstandhowthesystemmanagedtheflow
andtimingofinteractionswithplayers.
Wehavealsogatheredtheopinionsofthegamesauthorsandoperatorsconcerningthe
authoringandorchestrationtoolsthatweredevelopedforDofIIthroughashortemail
questionnaire.
Asafinalnote,thisevaluationconstitutesaninitialassessmentoftheoverallexperience
andoperationofDayoftheFigurines. Astheworkcontinuestotour,includingtothe
UK in 2007, so there will be further opportunities for more detailed evaluation and
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study of particular issues, to be reported in further reports and scientific papers. This
will include an external evaluation and critiquing of the work from a performance
studies point of view that is being currently being undertaken by the presence Project
whichisfundedbytheUKsArtsandHumanitiesResearchCouncil(AHRC)andthat
willleadtojointlyauthoredpaperswithmembersoftheIPerGteam.
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5FEEDBACKFROMPLAYERS
We now begin our evaluation of Day of the Figurines II by considering players own
opinions of the experience as gathered through our questionnaire. In total, 47 players
answeredthequestionnaire,23fromtheBerlinperformanceand24fromtheSingapore
performance.Twothirds(31)oftheanswerscomefromwomenandonethird(16)from
men.Theaverageageofourrespondentswas27yearsold.
5.1Playersoverallopinion
We begin by considering players overall opinions of the experience. The following
graphs summarises players responses to the question: Overall, how much did you
enjoyDayoftheFigurines?1beingnotatalland10beingyoureallylikedit.
Figure7summarisestheresponsestothisquestionfromourBerlinplayers.Theshaded
barsshowthepercentageofrespondentswhochoseeachparticularresponse(labelled
on theverticalaxis).Thisissuperimposedwithabluelinethatshowstheactualnumber
ofrespondentsineachcase.
The mean response was 4.8, slightly tending towards not enjoying the game, with a
standarddeviationof2.04.5playersansweredthatdidnotenjoythegame(scoresof1
or2)whereasonly2playerssaidthatreallyenjoyedthegame(scoresof9or10).
EnjoyedtheGamePla yersinGermany
PercentageofPlayers
35
31.82
30
25
20
18.18
13.64
15
9.09
10
4.55
5
9.09
4.55
4.55
4.55
Really
enjoyed
DoF
0.00
0
Dind'tenjoy
DoFatall
Figure7Enjoyed theGameBerlinResults
Figure 8 summarises the responses from our Singapore players. In this case the mean
was6.5,tendingtowardsenjoyingthegame,withastandarddeviationis2.12.2players
saidthattheyreallydidnotenjoythegamewhile3saidtheyreallyenjoyedit.
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EnjoyedtheGamePlayersinSingapore
PercentageofPlayers
35
29.17
30
25
20
16.67
16.67
12.50
15
8.33
10
5
4.17
4.17
4.17
4.17
0.00
0
Dind'tenjoy
DoFatall
Really
enjoyed
DoF
Figure8EnjoyedtheGameSingaporeResults
Wealsoaskedourplayers:WouldyouliketotakepartinfuturegamesofDayof
the Figurines? Figure 9 summarises their responses. 50% of our Berlin players said
they would like to take part in future games, which rose to 71% for our Singapore
players.
PlayAgainPlayersinBe rlinandSinga pore
17
20
15
11
11
7
10
5
0
Yes
No
Germany
Singapore
Figure9PlayAgain BerlinandSingaporeResults
Overall, it appears that our Singapore players expressed a considerably more positive
opinion of DoF II than did our Berlin players. Indeed, whereas Berlin players tended
towards a slightly negative opinion in general, Singapore players tended towards a
generally positive opinion. Some of the factors behind these opinions can be seen in
playersstatementsabouttheirspecificdislikesandlikeswithregardtothegame.
BothsetsofplayerswereaskedWhatdidntyoulikeaboutthegame?Itappears
thatsomeBerlinplayersstruggledwiththeparticularuseofEnglish.Thegameusesa
largeamountofinformalEnglishthatcouldbecomedifficulttounderstandforplayers
whowerenotnativeEnglishspeakers:
Berlinplayer:Theincomprehensiblelanguagetheobjectivewasn'tclear.
Berlinplayer:ItwasalsohardforGermanswiththeEnglishslang.
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IPerGFP6004457
This was presumably much less of a problem in Singapore players where English is
spokenasafirstlanguage.
ThecostoftextmessagingwasamajorproblemformanyBerlinplayers,forexample:
Berlin player: There was no support when I have been lost the limitation/
disadvantagesoftextmessages:ittakeslongtotalktoeachotherittakeslongtowalk
aroundandmostnotably:itisexpensive!
Berlinplayer:Tosendmessagesgetsexpensive.
Berlinplayer:IwishIcouldplayitalsoviamycomputerbecauseitisquiteexpensive
onthephone.
Berlin player: It cost me money each time to send a message and in Germany it is
veryexpensive.
Indeed, there were reports from some Berlin players of having spent tens of Eurosto
playthegame.Incontrast,textingisfarcheaperinSingaporeandsocostwasmuchless
ofaissuefortheseplayers(weshallseelateronthatSingaporeplayerssentmanymore
messages than did Berlin players). This difference between Berlin and Singapore
emphasis the keyrole that networkoperators and aggregators, especially their pricing
strategies,mayplayinthesuccessorotherwiseofpervasivegames,directlysupporting
anobservationmadeinIPerGspreviousworkonbusinessmodelsforpervasivegames
(Svahn 2006).
BothlanguageandcostalsoinfluencedBerlinplayersreasonsfornotwantingtoplay
againasinthefollowingcase:
Berlinplayer:NotifitisthesamebutifitwouldbeinGermanorandunderstandable
English...andcheapertextmessagesareprettyexpensiveIwouldplayitagain.
Languageand costissuesaside,thecontentand structureofthegamewereofcourse,

alsomajorfactors.Someplayersfeltthattherewasnotenoughtodointhegame,thatit
wasdifficulttoknowwhattodo,andthatmessagescouldbecomerepetitive:
Berlin player: Loneliness and repetition. Being told to go somewhere but not finding
anythingmuchthere.
Berlinplayer:Ifeltitwasdifficulttogetalargerviewofwhatwashappeningoreven
gettounderstandmysituation.
Berlinplayer:Afewcluesalongthewaywouldhaveworkedwonders.Buttherenever
wereANYcluesortipstohelpoutpeoplewhodidn'tknowwhattodo.
Berlin player: I became frustrated when I didn't understand the rules I wish there
couldhavebeenrealresponsestoquestionsviatextsomehow.
Berlin player: I wanted more missions and it to be clear what was available to be
pickedup.
Berlin player: The ending... damn stupid. It wasn't appropriable to the drama of the
assignmentandthescenario.
Berlin player: I thought the general messages were unrelated to the game and
depressing.Inevergotanypositivefeedbackanddidnotknowwhattodo.
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IPerGFP6004457
Singapore player: I couldn't grasp the purpose of the game truly when I couldn't do
anythingbutwaittodiewhenIwasmortallywoundedandwhenplacesIgodonothave
itemsIwant.
Singaporeplayer:Didnotunderstandhowtoimprovemyhealthconditions.
The feedback from Berlin led us to make several key changes to the content and
framingofthegameinadvanceofSingapore.Playersweregivenaclearerintroduction
aswellasaphysicalcardwithwritteninstructions.Newmissionswerecreated,existing
missions were simplified and mission allocation was changed to ensure that players
wereassignedagreaternumberofmissions.Playersweregivenmoreexplicitcluesas
towheretogointhegame.Thehealthsystemwassimplifiedandtheeffectsofobjects
onhealthweremademoreconsistent.Finally,anewendingwasintroduced.Ingeneral,
thelevelofdissatisfactionwiththecontentwasconsiderablelessfromSingaporethanit
wasfromBerlin,suggestingthatthesemeasureswerefairlysuccessful.
Thesesamecontentissuescanalsobeseeninplayersresponsestothequestion:what
dotheythinkthatwouldhavemadetheirgamingexperienceevenbetter?
Singaporeplayer:Betterinstructions?Morehelp?
Singapore player: I think more instruction on how to play the game better should be
given.AsinitiallyIamtotallylostandIamnottheonlyone.
Singapore player: Maybe if I had more info before I started. The people who
introduced the game seemed very bored and uninterested didnt make a good
impressiononme.
This last comment highlights the importance of the local operators in framing the
experience for players and suggests that we need to think more carefully about their
training and possibly even selection in the future. Other responses to this question
included:
Berlin player: Less loneliness more missions more variety of messages between
locations more variety of action within the game different types of messages between
locations.
Berlin player: Having to achieve something having a buddy player or a team...
somethingthatwouldbuildsomepersonalinterestatmoreofaresolutionormoreofa
dramaticending.
Singaporeplayer:Moretasksabilitiestointeractwithmorepeople.
Berlinplayer:Morerewardforsuccessfullydoneassignmentsmoreinformationabout
these rewards more generic information (of logical nature: e.g. something about the
current events in the internetcafe) or about the dangers/advantages of certain
objects/placesatleastthroughanexplicitupdaterequest.
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Berlinplayer:Ifyouwouldhavebeenabletofindoutmoreaboutyourstateandhow
youcanhelpyourselfandwheretofindthisaboutthesingleplacesetc.
Berlinplayer:Morecommunicationmoreassignmentsbetterending.
Berlin player: I think it needed more clues and some more directed individual
"mission".Justasameanstogiveyousomefocus.
Berlin player: More clues for players that responded when you asked questions
happier messages some sense that thingswere progressing. The messages were too
obtuseandtherewasneveradevelopingstory.Whatdiditallmean???Itshouldhave
morehappened/decisionstobemade.
Singaporeplayer:Iftherewerealternatetasksandevents.
Singapore player: Being able to save that "unconscious metal girl" at Locarno
understanding hat I was supposed to do at the Rat Research Institute finding the
unexisting fleece at the barn and the mysterious sleeping bags that did not exist for
example.
Singaporeplayer:Moreinventoryandmorequests.
ManyofthesecommentsfromSingaporeplayerssuggestthatwhilemissionsmayhave
workedbetterinSingaporethantheydidinBerlin,thereisstillsubstantialroomtoadd
moremissionsandalsotomakethemeasiertocomplete.
Berlinplayersalsoreturnedonce moretothecostof messaging inraisingsuggestions
forfurtherdevelopments:
Berlinplayer:Ifitwouldbeessentiallyreenvisioned exceptIhad7000freeSMSsto
blowout.
Berlinplayer:Thelimitationsofthetextmessages(shortconcerningthecontenttothin
EXPENSIVE) handicapped the experience too much it was a fairly frustrating
experienceattheend.
Berlin player: If the messages would have been free. If you had been able to write
longermessages respectively amorecomfortable solutionfor thecommunication with
theotherplayers.
In terms of new innovations, the most striking suggestion from many players was the
possibilityofenhancedonlinesupporttokeepthemengagedwiththegamesuchas:
Berlinplayer: Linked to the real city more realistic story more direct feedback insight
intothecityviainternetmoreoverview.
Berlinplayer:Picturesofboardandplayers.
Berlinplayer:Onlinevisualisationofthevirtualworld?Soyoucanlookaroundandsee
whereotherpeopleareatIdidn'thavetimetovisittheinstallationtodothat.
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Singapore player: More online activities access to a list of the other players, forum,
etc.
Singapore player: If the game board was available online for us to view rather than
havingtovisitonlocation.
Singaporeplayer:Visualsmaybereceivingpicturesofmyfigurineatplaces.
Singapore player: A localised version for Singapore online maps that updated
information(whoiswhere).
Singaporeplayer:Aliveoverviewofthefigurinesontheboard.
Singaporeplayer:Interactiveboardontheweb.
Singaporeplayer:Havetheboardonline.
OtherinterestingsuggestionsincludedanextensiontotheFINDcommand:
Singaporeplayer:Needafunction""FIND""forobjectstoo.
AndalsotheabilitytobeabletoincludemorethanonecommandinasingleSMS(we
sawseveralexamplesofplayerstryingtodothis):
Singaporeplayer:Theabilitytodomorein1SMS.
We also asked players: What was it you liked about the game? Many enjoyed
socialinteractionwithotherplayers:
Berlinplayer:IwassurprisedhowmuchIlikedhearingfromstrangersonmyhandy.I
liked the concept quite a lot. I liked imaging the physical board and that I had a real
character. I liked thinking about other people connected from far away and all of us
tryingtofigureoutthegame.
Berlinplayer:WhentherewaslotsofinteractionbyothersandIhadthetimetoplayat
thesametimeIlikedthepossibilitiesitcouldcreatetointeractwithotherplayersandto
helpeachotherandbuildakindofvirtualcommunity.
Theopen,mysteriousandunpredictablenatureoftheexperiencewasalsoappealingto
some:
Singaporeplayer:ThrillthefactthatIcoulddieanytime.
Singaporeplayer:Themysteryandturnofeventsinthetown.Notknowingwhatwill
happenwitheverystepItake.
Singaporeplayer:Theunusualthingsthathappenedtomyfigurine.
Berlinplayer:Theconceptnewexperienceintriguingnotknowingwhattoexpectnext.
Someenjoyedthespacethatthegameprovidedforusingtheirimaginations:
Singaporeplayer:Tobeabletogetoutofthegame'spredefined(andstrange)ways
tobuildmyownadventures.
Singaporeplayer:Howitforcesonetousetheirimaginationandhowplayersareable
toshapetheircharacters.
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In summary, it appears that Singapore was a considerably more successful experience

than Berlin for a combination of three primary reasons: that many more players were
nativeEnglishspeakers,thattextingwasfarcheaper,andthatthecontentofthegame
hadbeenimproved.However,thereisstillroomforimprovingthenumberandnature
of missions and also providing a richer online experience, possibly including some
visualisationofthegameboard.
Having first considered players general opinions of Day of the Figurines II, the
followingnowexploresomespecificissuesingreaterdepth:theexperienceofthegame
contentinterweavingthegamewitheverydaylifetheuseofSMStextmessagingand
theroleoftheaugmentedgameboardinterface.
5.2Theexperienceofthegamecontent
Wefirstconsiderhowplayersexperiencedthecontentofthegame,including:
Were messages from the game well structured, informative and easy to
understand?
Wasthereenoughtodointhegame?
What was the impact of different features of the game design on their
overallexperience?
Whatwerethemostandleastexcitingaspectsofthegame?
Howdidplayersexperiencethehealthsysteminthegame?
5.2.1Weremessagesinformative,wellcomposedandeasytounderstand?
We invested considerable effort into developing an automated system for aggregating
informationdescribingmultipleeventsintosingletextmessagestosupportDayofthe
Figurines.Thissectionexploreshowplayersexperiencedthesemessages.
We asked players: Please rate the following characteristics of the messages that
youreceivedfromDayoftheFigurinesonascaleof1to5.1beingmessagesdid
nothavethischaracteristicatalland5 beingthatithaditverymuch:
Informative
Wellcomposed
Easytounderstand
Figure 10 summarises how Berlin players rated the messages they received as being
informativeandfigure11summarisesthesameforSingaporeplayers.
26
IPerGFP6004457
MessagesCharacteristics:Informa tivePlayersinBerlin
PercentageofPlayers
35
31.82
30
31.82
27.27
25
20
15
10
5
4.55
4.55
high
0
low
Figure10WeremessagesinformativetoBerlinPlayers?
MessagesCharacteristics:InformativePlayersinSingapore
37.50
40
37.50
PercentageofPlayers
35
30
25
20.83
20
15
10
5
4.17
0.00
0
low
high
Figure11WeremessagesinformativetoSingaporeplayers?
Figure12showsBerlinratingsastowhethermessageswerewellcomposedandfigure
13showsthesamefromSingapore.
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MessagesCharacte ristics:WellCompsedPlayersinBe rlin

30
PercentageofPlayers
26.09
25
26.09
21.74
20
17.39
15
8.70
10
5
0
low
high
Figure12Weremessageswellcomposed toBerlinplayers?
MessagesCharacteristics:WellComposedPlayersinSingapore
41.67
PercentageofPlayers
45
40
35
30
25
20.83
16.67
20
12.50
15
10
8.33
5
0
low
high
Figure13Weremessageswellcomposed toSingaporeplayers?
Finally,figure14summarisestheextenttowhichBerlinplayersfoundmessagesfrom
thegametobeeasytounderstand.Figure15showsthesameforSingaporeplayers.
MessagesCharacteristics:EasytoUndersta ndPlayersinBerlin
PercentageofPlayers
35
30
31.82
27.27
25
18.18
20
13.64
15
9.09
10
5
0
low
Figure14Weremessageswellcomposed toSingaporeplayers?
28
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IPerGFP6004457
MessagesCharacteristics:EasytoUnderstandPlayersinSingapore
37.50
40
PercentageofPlayers
35
30
25.00
25
20.83
20
15
10
8.33
8.33
low
5
0
3
high
Figure15Weremessageseasytounderstand toSingaporeplayers?
The following table compares the mean averages of these various responses. In both
BerlinandSingaporethestructureofmessageswasjudgedtohaveslightlybetterthan
the ease of understanding them, which in turn was felt to have been better than their
informationcontent.Furthermore,allthreefactorsscoredmorehighlyinSingaporethan
theydid in Berlin,possiblyduetocombination ofdifferences in native language,but
alsoimprovementsthatwemadetothegamecontent.
Table1Meanresponsestomessagestructure
Question
Berlinmeanresponse
Singaporemeanresponse
Weremessagesinformative?
2.2
2.7
Weremessageswell
structured?
2.7
3.7
Weremessageseasyto
understand?
2.6
3.5
5.2.2Wasthereenoughtodointhegame
Figure 16 summarises Berlin and Singapore players responses tothe question: Was
thereenoughtodointhegame? Berlinplayerswerealmostequallysplit between
the options yes, no and sometimes yes, sometimes no whereas the majority of
Singaporeplayersrespondedsometimesyes,sometimesno.
.
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WasthereEnoughtodointheGamePlayersinBerlinandSingapore
18
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Yes
Sometimesyessometimesno
Germany
No
Singapore
Figure16Wasthereenoughtodointhegame?
5.2.3Theimpactofdifferentfeaturesofthegame
Wethenaskedplayerstoratetheimpactofdifferentfeaturesofthegameonascaleof1
to 10, 1 being not important and 10 being extremely important. The following table
summarisestheresults(shownindecreasingorderofmeanscoreforallplayers).
Table2Impactof features
Featureofthegamedesign
Meanscore Meanscore Meanscore

forAll
forBerlin forSingapore
Players
Players
Players
Tobeabletoinfluencetheevolving
storyline
8.5
8.7
8.3
Tobeabletofollowtheevolving
storyline
7.9
7.7
8.1
Tocommunicatewithotherplayers
7.8
8.0
7.5
Tocooperatewithotherplayers
7.8
8.3
7.4
Tounderstandandusethegamerules
7.8
8.0
7.5
Tobeabletodevelopthecharacterof
myfigurine
7.6
7.0
8.2
Tochoosemyownfigurine
7.5
7.1
7.9
TofeelIwaspartofavirtual
community
5.9
5.1
6.5
Tobeabletobeanonymous
5.8
5.7
5.9
Tobeabletoreturntothegameboard
4.9
4.4
5.4
Both Berlin and Singapore players agreed that being able to influence the evolving
storylinewasthemostimportantfeatureandthatbeingabletoreturntothegameboard
was the less important feature. There was also strong agreement on the next lowest
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rankedfeatures,beinganonymousandbeingpartofavirtualcommunity.Berlinplayers
favoured interaction with others somewhat more than Singapore players, whereas the
reversewastruechoosinganddevelopingthecharacterofthefigurine.
5.2.4Themostandleastexcitingpartsofthegame
Tocomplementtheseratingsoffeatures,wealsoaskedplayers:Whatwasthemost
exciting part of the game? Their responses highlighted interaction with others,
especiallyforBerlinplayers:
Berlinplayer:Someconversationswithotherplayers.
Berlin player: Chatting with other players and going on expeditions or missions with
them.
Singaporeplayer:Hearingfromotherplayers.
Berlin player: Not knowing what was happening and being able to converse and
interactwithotherplayers.
Berlinplayer:Speakingwithotherreal/fictitiouspeople,thecoolstories.
Berlinplayer:Theconversationwithothers.
Berlinplayer:Whenotherplayersanswered.
Berlinplayer:ThefirstpersonalcontacttoanotherplayerviaSMS.
Berlinplayer:Meetingothersobservinghowtheywouldact.
Beinghelpedbyotherplayerswasasignificantmomentinthegame:
Berlinplayer:Gettinghelp
Singaporeplayer:Followingquestsandhelpingpeople.
Singaporeplayer:Tobeabletoactuallymakeadifferencebysavingsomeone'slife.
Butitonlyhappenedonce...
Singaporeplayer:Tryingtolookforhelp.
Nearlydyingwasamajormomentforsome:
Singaporeplayer:Almostdying.
Singapore player: When I was mortally ill unable to move and was taken away
somewherebyhelicopterwith2otherplayers.
Singaporeplayer:WhenIwasrunningawayfrombeingmurdered
Singaporeplayer:FeelinghelplesswhenIwasattacked.
Singaporeplayer:Whenpeopledie.
Singaporeplayer:Escapingandcomingupwiththeoriesaboutthewar.
Therewereseveralmentionsofmissions,dilemmasandparticulargameeventssuchas
theeclipse:
Berlinplayer:Whentheskydarkened,everythingwasjust'wrongalarm'.
Singaporeplayer:Onthelastday
toaconclusion.
when therewere manytasks obviously leading
Singaporeplayer:Themostexcitingpartisthetaskwherebythefigurinehasacertain
tasktocompletewithinagiventimeperiod.
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Singaporeplayer:Visitingthedifferentplacesandreadingthecommentaries.
Singaporeplayer:Readingthedailynews.
Singaporeplayer:Gettingtasksthatcouldbecompletedandcompletingthem.
Singaporeplayer:Whentasksweregiven.
Singapore player: When you get to select an option from a multiple choice set of
answers.
We also asked players: What was the least exciting part of the game? Berlin,
playersmentionedalackofinformationaboutwhattodo:
Berlinplayer:BeingstuckwheretherewerenotasksandnotknowingwhatIcoulddo:
Radiostation,forexample.
Berlin player: The wandering around caused by too little information and the
Searching.Thepartywasnotsoexitingeither.
Berlinplayer:Didn'treallyfindawayintothegameOften,thepointofitwasnotclear.
Berlinplayer:Wanderingaroundinthearea. Where I could get help. Where other
playersarewhereIcouldfindwhatIwaslookingfor.
Berlinplayer:Toknownothing.Theonewhichdoesnotgetyougamepoints.
Berlinplayer:Tryingtoworkoutwheretheexcitementwas.
Berlinplayer:Lackofoverviewofwhatwashappeningintherestofthevirtualworld.
Berlinplayer:Lonelinessandrepetitionofmessagesbetweenlocations.Thefeelingof
beingleftoutormissingsomething.Arrivingsomewhereandtherebeingnothingtodo.
WeaddedmoremissionsforSingaporeandsothismayhavebeenlessofanissuefor
theseplayers.However,missionscouldstillbedifficulttounderstandandcomplete:
Singaporeplayer:HavingmissionsIdon'tunderstand.
Singaporeplayer:Impossibletocompletethetasksgiventome.Impossibletochange
situations(example:putdownafirereviveanunconsciouspersonetc.)
Notbeingabletounderstandsomeofthemessages.
Singaporeplayer:Thereisnoclearinstructiononwhattodotoremainhealthyandnot
muchhelpwasgivenwhenIfeellostinplaying.
Singaporeplayer:Weirdtaskslikegettingawristbandtofeelbetter.
Playersdidnotalwaysenjoychattingwith others:
Singapore player: When other characters are discussing something unrelated to you
andyetyoureceivetheirmessages.
Singaporeplayer:Receivingunrelatedmessagesfromplayersaroundme.
Singaporeplayer:Tryingtocommunicatewithpeople.Itwastough
oneunderstoodeachothersometimes.
Berlinplayer:Pointlesschitchat.
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5.2.5Thehealthsystem
ThehealthsystemwasamajoradditioninDoFIIandsoweaskedplayersabouttheir
experienceofthis:Howdidyourhealthchangeduringthegameadwhatdidyou
do about this? The following comments show that many players did experience
changing health and that they broadly understood how it worked within the game,
includinghowtoimproveitbyeatinganddrinking:
Singapore player: I was mortally ill and so numb I couldn't move. I drank coffee and
atecurrytoupmyhealthbutitbarelyhelped.SomeonehelpedrevivemewhenIwas
numb.
Singaporeplayer:Wentfromhealthytoabouttopassouttowardstheend.Hadacup
ofcoffeesomewhereinthegame.
Singaporeplayer:IstartedbleedingwhensomebodythrewaradioatmesoIwentto
the24HOandlaboriouslymasticatedthesandwichesthere.
Singaporeplayer:Itremainedrelativelyhighuntiltheaccidentonthe2ndlastday.
Singaporeplayer:MostlyfeelingwellIusuallygotoeatingspots.
Singaporeplayer:Igotillquitequicklyandprettymuchstayedthatway.Thecoffeeat
theinternetcafewasabouttheonlythingthathelped.
Singapore player: Became ill as the game progressed and had to find a way to
improveit.
Singaporeplayer:Fromwelltoextremelyill.Ididmanagetorecoverandbewellagain
butafterthatmyhealthstartedtodeteriorateagain.Iaskedotherplayersforadviceand
Ididrecoverinitially.
Singaporeplayer:Feltwellverywellthenunwellduetoinjuryandgotwellagainafter
another character helped with defibrillator. Other times my character went to look for
foodanddrinktogetwell.
Singaporeplayer:IwasbleedingprofuselyandItriedtolookforhelp.
Singaporeplayer:Ibecameillandhungry
so I tried to cure myself and get
somethingtoeat.
Singaporeplayer:Iwashitfornoreasonbutrecovered.Iwasattackedandshotand
thiswasnotexplainedatall.Illogical.
Singaporeplayer:ItwentupanddownandIateanddranktokeepitgoing.
Singaporeplayer:Upanddownandupagainatefoodsandwiches.
Singaporeplayer:Turningbad.Lookingforaplacefortreatment.
Berlin player: At one point I got poorer and another player saved me with a
defibrillator.Drinkingteahelpedaswell.
Berlin player: The bad state of health has only improved temporarily and minimally.
Theonlythingweresandwiches
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Berlin player: My Figure started off with poorly and finished with maximum ill. In
betweenithadtwobreakdowns,???tofindoutwhatgetstoworsenthehealthofmy
figureandtochangethat(theguesswasforexamplebeinghungry)Thirst.
Berlinplayer:Upanddown.Butnotbeingabletoend.Iwasbeinghelped.
Berlin player: Started bad got worse. Was once defibrillated which helped but
defibrillatedmyselfwhichdidn't.
Berlinplayer:Myhealthsteadilyimproved.Iatealotofsaveloys.
Berlinplayer:Itgotrapidlyworseinthebeginning(whenIwasoutofthecountryand
didnotreallyplay).AfterbeingrevivedItriedtofigureoutwhattodobyaskingothers.
ThenIatesomethingandranaroundwithadefibrillatortoreviveothers.
Berlin player: I got more and more ill and kept accidentally defibrillating myself and
otherpeople.
Howeversomeplayersclearlystruggledtounderstandhowhealthworkedinthegame.
Berlinplayer:Ihadnoclueaboutmyhealthandabouthowtochangeit.
Singapore player: I got sick immediately and did not understand why. Could not
improvemysituationdespitenumerousattempts.
Singaporeplayer:Igotthirstydrankteanothinghappenedtohelpmegetbetter.Igot
cold
didn'tmakeittogetasleepingbagIlaiddownfeelingnumb."
Singapore player: Became ill. Went to eat some things but didnt help improve the
situation
Singaporeplayer:Mycharacter'shealthgotbadbutmanytimesIdidn'tknowhowto
makemyselfbetter.
Singaporeplayer:Healthdeteriorated.Couldn'tgettoplaceswhichofferedhelpsuch
asfoodorhospital.
Berlinplayer:Notatall.Italwayssaid'rundown'.
Berlinplayer:IdidnotunderstandtherulessoIdidnotdoitright.Ikepttryingtoget
foodorteabut didn'tunderstandIhadtotypeUSE.Iknowitseemssoobvious now.
ButDRINKorEATwouldhavemademoresense.
Berlin player: I was 'feeling run down' in every message I received. I never really
understoodwhatitmeant.ItiredtoeatandsleepbutIhadsomeproblems.Itwould
havebeengoodifIcouldhaveaskedsomequalifyingquestionstothecontrolroom.
5.3Interweavingthegamewitheverydaylife
DayoftheFigurinesisalongterm,slowpacedgamethatismeanttobeplayedinthe
backgroundofpeopleseverydaylives.Wewerethereforekeentoevaluatehowplayers
hadmanagedtointerweavetheexperiencewiththeirdailylivesandtounderstandtheir
patternsofplay,whereandwhentheylikedtoplay,howtheyexperiencedinterruptions
fromthegame,howtheyprioritiseditsmessages,andhowtheysharedthesemessages
withotherpeopleintheirlocalenvironment.
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We asked players to How would you describe your pattern of play (frequently,
occasionally, seldomly). The results from both Berlin and Singapore are shown in
figure17.Thissuggeststhatthemajorityofpeopleplayoccasionallyandthatfarfewer
player frequentlyorseldomly.Theresponses are alsoveryconsistent from Berlin and
Singapore.
PatternofPla yPlayersinBerlinandSingapore
14
13
14
12
10
8
6
5
4
4
2
0
Frequently
Occasionally
Germany
Seldomly
Singapore
Figure17 Overallpatternofplay
Wealsoaskedplayerstocommentontheiroverallpatternofplay:
Berlinplayer: Regularly and more or less continuously. with great effort .Mosttimes
reacting.
Berlin player: At the beginning regularly then stopped because the reactions weren't
pursuable.
Berlin player: Firstly continuously then randomly und later on purpose waiting (I
wantedtoseeweathermyfiguredies).
Singaporeplayer:Thegamecanbeverytimeconsuming.
Singaporeplayer:Iwanttobereallyinvolved...eventhoughIdon'tseemtobedoing
that.
Singaporeplayer:Lackoftimemessagedroppedinduringworkhour.
Singapore player: I enjoyed the game and wished my figurine will have a hectic life
justliketherealme.
Singaporeplayer:Iwasquitebusyatwork.
Singaporeplayer:Itwasnotconvenienttoplayoftenatwork.AndattimeswhenIwas
awayfromaninternetaccess
I couldn't plan what to do next as I didn't know what
placeshadwhatpropsandtools.
Singaporeplayer:ItrynottobetooinvolvedsothatIwon'tgetaddictedtoit.
Singaporeplayer:Iliketotextanddosoquickly.
Singaporeplayer:Iwasveryinvolvedinpromotingthegametofriends.
Singaporeplayer:Itisongoingwhileotheractivitiesareconcurrentlyhappening.
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Perhaps unsurprisingly given the diverse nature of different peoples lives, these
answerscoverarangeof factorsthataffectpatternsofplay.Perhapsthe mostnotable
factormentionedbyseveralplayersisthedifficultyofplayingthegamewhileatwork.
Weaskedplayers:Inwhichrealplacesinthephysicalworlddidyoulikeplaying
thegameandinwhichdidyounot?,askingthemtochosefromasetofpredefined
optionstheplaceswheretheydidliketoplayandalsothosewheretheydidnt.Figure
18summarisestheresults.Playingathomeandontrainsappearstohavebeenpopular
(several positive votes, but no negative ones). Playing at work was quite unpopular,
althoughafewplayersdidenjoythis.Playingonbuseswasalsounpopularwithafew
playersandplayingincafesyieldedamixed(butsmall)response.
RealPlacesthatyoudid/didnotliketoPlaytheGamePlayersinBerlinandSingapore
18
16
14
12
10
10
17
11
11
10
2
0
1
0
3
0
0
1
0
1
0
1
4
1
0
0
Anywhere(p)
Anywhere(n)
Shop(p)
Shop(n)
Caf/Restaurant(p)
Caf/Restaurant(n)
Bike(p)
Bike(n)
Train(p)
Train(n)
Walking(p)
Walking(n)
Car(p)
Car(n)
Bus(p)
Bus(n)
Work(p)
Work(n)
Home(p)
Home(n)
Germany
5
0
Singapore
Figure18 RealPlacestoPlaytheGame
Playerscommentsonthisquestiongivemoreinsightintothesefigures:
Singapore player: Home wasthe place where I could concentrate best on the game
especiallywhenIhadtomakequickdecisions.
Singaporeplayer:Ilikedplayingthegameonthetrainmost.Ididnotlikeplayingthe
gameatworkbutmostlyIwasonvacationsoitwasok.
Singaporeplayer:IlovetoplaythegameathomebecausewhenIamathomeItend
tobefreefromwork.IhatetoreplywhenI haveworktodoas ithinkmyworkisstill
moreimportantthanthegame.
Singaporeplayer:Playedlessatwork.
Singaporeplayer:Likedtoplaythegame ontrainridesastherewasnothing elseto
do but the choices were limited due to lack of information since there was no internet
access.
Singapore player: Like to play at home or in a restaurant because there's more free
time to move about. Don't like to play in the bus or during work because it's
inconvenientandthereisalwaysworktodobeforeIcanplay.
Singaporeplayer:Itgaveexcitementtotheeverydaylifeandroutine.
Singaporeplayer:ItextfromwhereIamatthetime.
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Singaporeplayer:Ihadfreetimeathome.
Singaporeplayer:IncafesIllbeoccupied.BasicallyhatethetimeswhenImbusyin
the real world yet Im dying in the virtual world. Almost all my friends excused my
obsessionwiththephoneduringthegametime.
Singaporeplayer:Noworkasadistraction.
Berlinplayer:Notonthebikebestinthesubway.
Berlinplayer:Bestwithotherplayersatworkorinpublicmeansoftransport.
Berlinplayer:Bestinthesubwaynotatwork.
Berlinplayer:Can'ttell.Doesn'treallymatter.Ihaven'tplayedinthebed.
Berlinplayer:Ilikedplayinganywherebutfounditdifficulttoplaywhenwalkingandat
work.
Berlinplayer:IplayeditonthetrainIdidn'tplayatwork.
Berlinplayer:ItwasdifficulttofocusonthiswhenIwasatworkortravellingetc.I
seemedtoalwaysgetonerightatnoon...whichbecameannoying
Berlinplayer:Notatworkasdisruptive.Goodtoplaywhenwalkinground.
Wealsoaskedplayers:Atwhattimesdidyou likeplayingthegameandatwhat
timesdidyounot?:
Berlinplayer:Eveningafterwork.
Berlinplayer:Whenever.Didn'tusuallyplayatnight.
Berlinplayer:Ialwayslikedplayingthegame.
Berlinplayer:IntheeveningifIwasalone.
Berlinplayer:Intheeveningitwasmorerelaxed(freetime).
Berlinplayer:IlikedplayingitduringthefirstfewdaysandwhenIwasspendingtime
bymyself.
Berlinplayer:IntheeveningsnotduringworkSaturday+Sundaysometimesbutonly
after2pm.
Berlinplayer:Beforemiddayandintheeveningsnotinbetween.
Berlinplayer:Ratherintheafternoonthanintheeveningsbutstronglydependingon
myreallive.
Berlinplayer:Bestinthemorning(onmywaytowork).
Berlinplayer:Varyingdependingonmywork.
Singaporeplayer:FirstthinginthemorningandatnightorwhenI'mbored.
Singaporeplayer:Travellinghours
Singaporeplayer:AllthetimeactuallyIdon'treallyfeelbotheredbytheSMS.
Singaporeplayer:IlikedplayingthegamewhenI'vegotnothingtodoanditkeptme
occupied.Ididntlikeplayingitwhileatworkorinschool.
Singaporeplayer:Weekendonmywaytosomeplaceduringworkhours.
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Singaporeplayer:Betterintheevening.
Singapore player: I liked playing the game in the middle of the day. There was time
differencewhichwasconfusing.
Singaporeplayer:Iplayedmoreduringmyleisuretime.
Singapore player: In the morning is the best when I am refreshed. I hate it during
sleepingtime(10pmandabove).
Singaporeplayer:WhenI'mnotatworkisbest.
Singaporeplayer:Ilikedplayingitatlunchtimeatworkandonlongtrainrides.
Singaporeplayer:Liketoplaythegameatnightandnotintheday.
Singaporeplayer:Ididn'tlikeitwhenIwasinamovieordoingsomethingelsefor a
longperiodoftime.
Singaporeplayer:Duringtheafternoons.
Singaporeplayer:Duringworkhoursthemessageswereirritating.
Singapore player: When Im busy inthe physicalworld I dont like playing the game.
WhenImnotbusyinthephysicalworldiloveplayingthegame.Goodthingtheyhada
timelimit.
There isawide varietyofanswers here suggestingthatplayers mayexhibittheirown

individualpreferences forwhento playandeventhatthese may vary foragivenplay
dependingontheirotheractivities.
An important aspect of interweaving the game with patterns of everyday life is how
playersfeelaboutbeinginterruptedbythegame.Weaskedplayers:Onascaleof1to
10howdidyoufeelaboutreceivingmessagesfromthegame.1beingannoyingand
10 being pleasant. Figure 19 summarises the results. The majority of players find
interruptions to be sometimes pleasant and sometimes annoying, both in Berlin and
Singapore.
TheMessa gesDisruptingPlayer'sActivitiesPlayersinBerlinandSinga pore
17
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
11
6
0
Mostlyinapleasantw ay
Sometimespleasant,
sometimesannoying
Germany
Mostlyinanannoyingw ay
Singapore
Figure19TheMessagesDisruptingPlayersActivities
Thefollowingareplayerscommentstothisquestion:
Singaporeplayer:IreceivedtoomanymessageswhileIwasworkingandmyphone
keptvibratinganditbotheredmebecauseIwaswaitingforanimportantmessagefrom
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afriend.Everymessagefromthegamewhichcameinnearlyevery5minutesbecame
afalsealarmwhichfrustratedme.Asmentionedaboveithappenedbecausetheother
characterswerehavingaconversationamongstthemselves.
Berlinplayer:NoIintegratedorignoredit.1day=1hour>thisleavestimeto
manoeuvre.Donthavetopanic.Butsometimesyouhavee.g.iftherewasacertain
item.
Berlinplayer:Yesitimpedesmefromworking.Sometimesitdisturbedthe
communicationwithrealpersons.
Berlinplayer:Doesn'tchangedbutdisturbedmeinimpropermomentsorwhenI
wasn'tabletorespondalthoughIwouldliketohelp.
Berlinplayer:ItwasdisturbingbecausemyfigurehadtosufferandIhadn'ttimeto
playresultinginevenmorepainformyfigure.
Berlinplayer:SometimesIwouldgetaloadofmessagesataninconvenienttime.If
youarewaitingforanimportantmessage.Andyougetonefromthegamethiscouldbe
abitfrustrating.
Berlinplayer:SinceitisonthemobilephoneIcouldcheckinonthegameanytimeI
wanted.
Berlinplayer:Itsfunnywhensuddenlyeveryoneatworkgotamessageatthesame
time.
Berlinplayer:Itinterferedwithmyjobabitsinceitwouldgooffeverydayat12whenI
wasteaching.
Berlinplayer:YessometimesIfeltlikeIshouldrespondimmediatelytosomeone
althoughIdidnotfeellikedoingitthenandtherebecauseIhadsomeotherthingsto
do.
Berlinplayer:Yesstoppedmetalkingtopeoplewheninthepub.
Thesecommentsrevealavarietyofreasonswhyinterruptionsfromthegamecan
beannoying.Playersmaybewaitingforothermoreimportantmessages.Playersmay
feel compelled to respond quickly in order to help their character even if they do not
reallywanttoplayatthattime.Messagesfromthegamemayinterferewithotherlocal
activities (although this can be amusing when several players are collocated and are
interruptedatthesametime).
This last point leads us to our next question. We asked players: Did you share the
gamewithotherswhowerewithyouwhenyouset/receivedmessagesandhowdid
thisaffectthegame?Themajorityofrespondentssaidthattheysharedmessages,but
thatthisdidnotaffecttheirplay:
Berlin player: Yes I shared messages with friends. That made the game somewhat
lessboring.
Berlinplayer:Yes.Notmucheffect.
Berlinplayer:Itoldotherpeoplebutitdidn'taffectthegameIthink.
Berlinplayer:Itoldpeopleaboutitbutitdidnotaffectthegame.
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Berlinplayer:Friendsfounditfunny.Ididn'tplayveryregularlybecauseofbeingbusy
andsoIdidn'tgetasmuchoutofitasotherplayersmighthave.Inthatwayitbecame
abitofaburdenandthemessagesbecameverysimilar.
Berlinplayer:Yesabitexplainedandshowedthemthemessagewhichtheyalso
foundstrange.
Berlinplayer:YesIexplaineditanddiscussedaboutthemeaningofgames.
Berlinplayer:Yesofcourse.InsofarthatImadeannouncementstothecontextofthe
game(e.g.IthinkIwillgototheHospitalagain)whichwereinterpretedasrealuntil I
disabusedthem.
Singaporeplayer:Isharedbuttheydidnotinfluencemychoices.
Singaporeplayer:Yesbutitdidntaffectthegame..
Singapore player: Yes I kept my family informed of my figurine's adventures. They
advisedmeondecisions.Iseldomfollowedtheiradvices.
Singaporeplayer:YesIdid.Itdidn'taffectthegame.
Singaporeplayer:YES!Notmuchtheyaskedaboutitwhenevertheyseemyreading
messages.
SomeSingaporeplayersmentionedthattheyrecruitedothersintothegamebysharing
messages:
Singaporeplayer:Yes.Itmakesthegamesmoreinterestingasbysharing
I attract
otherstoplaythegame...andtheywillbemyfigurine'sfriendstoo.
Singapore player: I told my friends about it and one of my friend actually signed up.
Wemetupinthegame.
Aminorityofplayersclaimedthatsharingmessagesdidaffecttheirgame:
Singaporeplayer:Yesandyesitaffected.
Singaporeplayer:Yessometimegettinginputfrommyson.
Including a couple who mentioned that sharing messages with other local players
helpedthemplaythegame:
Singaporeplayer:Yessharedwithpeoplewho'dstartedplayingbeforeIdid.Thiswas
greathelpinknowinghowtodealwiththegamesituations.
Singaporeplayer:Yesweknewwhereeachotherwasinthegame.
Finally, in terms of interweaving the game with everyday life, we asked players:
When receiving a message from a real friend and a virtual friend at the same
time, which one do you answer first? Why? The responses indicated that most
playerswouldprioritisemessagesfromrealfriends,butthatforsomethiscoulddepend
upon what was happening in the game or on the chronological order in which the
messagesarrived.Berlinplayers(andafewSingaporeplayers)favouredrealfriends:
Berlinplayer:RealFriend.Notatotalwasteoftime.
Berlinplayer:Realfriend.Becausethey'rereal.
Berlinplayer:Realfriend.usuallyneedingassistancesomoreurgent.
Berlinplayer:Realonesbecausetheotherswerejustfromagame.
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Berlinplayer:Icouldn'trememberofsuchacasesupposableIwouldhaveanswered
themessagesoftherealfriendbecausetheyarewaitingforananswer.
Berlin player: The friends one. I made the experience that my limited acting
possibilitiesassoonasIusedthemhadn'tanyessentialoutcometothegame.
Berlinplayer:Figurinesfrienddoesn'texpectaresponse.
Singaporeplayer:Theyaremoreimportanttome.
Singaporeplayer:Didn'tmakeanysolidDayofthefigurinesfriend.
Singaporeplayersseemedmoreambivalent(asdidafewBerlinplayers):
Singaporeplayer:Reallife.ifthenatureofthetextsinthegamehadbeenthatIcould
interactaswithrealpeoplethenthiswouldhavebeen50/50.
Singaporeplayer:MyDOTFconversationsweremoreinterestingthanrealones.
Singaporeplayer:Dependsontheinformationreceived.
Singaporeplayer:Actuallydependsonwhichismoreurgent.Therealfriendor
whereIaminthegame.
Singaporeplayer:Actuallyitdependsonthetopicandthereason.
Singaporeplayer:Irespondprettyquicklyanyway...butDoFhasgotatimelimit.
Berlinplayer:Sometimestherealsometimesthegamemessages.
Berlinplayer:Thelastmessagefirstthat'sthewayitis!
Berlinplayer:Ijustreadmymessagesinchronologicalorder.
Berlin player: It varied throughout the game according to whatwas happening in my
life.
Ifthere isanydifference between Berlin andSingaporeplayers it may be becausethe

Singaporeplayersseemedtofindthegamemoreenjoyableingeneral.
Insummary,playerfeedbacksuggeststhat,byandlarge,theywereabletointegratethe
game with the patterns of the daily lives without major problems. The most prevalent
features of this integration are general (though by no means exclusive) tendencies
towards occasional play, preferences for playing at home and on trains in contrast to
work,individualvariationinpreferencesfortimesofplay,interruptionsfromthegame
beingsometimespleasantandsometimesannoying,andsharing messageswithnearby
peoplebutwithoutthisstronglyinfluencingplay.
5.4TheuseofSMStextmessaging
We now consider some key questions concerning the specific use of SMS messaging
withinDayoftheFigurinesII.FeedbackfromthetestofDoFIattheLabanCentrein
London in 2005 revealed that managing message flow was a sensitive issue for some
players.Onetheonehandtheyrequiredregularandsufficientmessagesfromthegame
to retain their engagement and yeton the other,could easily become annoyed of they
werefloodedwithmessages.Consequently,weintroducedpacingrulesandaggregation
mechanismsinDayoftheFigurinesIItohelpmanagetheflowofmessagestoandfrom
players.Inthissectionweconsiderhowplayersfeltaboutthevolumeofmessagesthey
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received and sent. We also explore the issue of how they stored messages from the
gameontheirphones.
Weaskedplayers:Pleaserateonascaleof1to10howyouperceivedtheamount
of messages you received from the game where 1 means: I got too few and 10
means:morethanIcouldhandle. Figure20summarisestheresponsesfromBerlin
players, suggesting that on average, the flow of messages to players was quite well
balanced(themeanscoreis5.7withastandarddeviationof2.7).Figure21summarises
theresponsesfromSingapore,whicharebroadlyconsistentwiththosefromBerlin,also
sowingameanof5.7,butwithasmallerstandarddeviationof2.4.
45
39.13
40
PercentageofPlayers
35
30
25
20
13.04
15
10
5
13.04
8.70
13.04
8.70
4.35
0.00
0.00
Igottoo
few
0.00
0
3
MorethanI
could
handle
Figure20 VolumeofmessagesreceivedbyBerlinplayers
NumberofMessagesPlayersinSingapore
PercentageofPlayers
30
25.00
25
25.00
20.83
20
15
8.33
10
8.33
4.17
4.17
4.17
0.00
0.00
0
Igottoo
few
MorethanI
could
handle
Figure21 VolumeofmessagesreceivedbySingaporeplayers
We asked players to: Please tell us about any occasions when you received too
manyortwofewmessagesfromthegame. Someplayerswantedmoremessagesto
helpthemwithcompletingmissions:
Singaporeplayer:ToofewmessageswerereceivedaboutthetasksIhadtodo.
Singaporeplayer:TofewwhenIwasmakingobviouseffortstocompleteataskand
couldnotmanage.Itwouldhavefeltgoodtogetsomehelpthen...
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Whereasothersfeltthattheresponsestotheiractionswereatooslow:
Berlin player: Sometimes the game felt to be very slow in its response. Immediate
feedbackonthefactthatyourcharacterstartsmovingetc...Couldmaybehelp.
ABerlinplayerwantedstrongercluesastowheretheyshouldgoandwhattheycould
do,somethingthatwetriedtofixforSingapore:
Berlinplayer: It would have been nice to have more clues sent. Things to entice me
intosituationswhereIcouldengagewiththestoryline.
Themostcommoncauseofreceivingtoomanymessagesappearstohavebeenplayer
chat,especiallyatcrowdeddestinations:
Singaporeplayer:Ifyouwereinacrowdedplace
then it was a problem as too
manypeoplethereweretalking.
Singapore player: When the location I was at had too many players and each was
sayingsomethingtoeveryoneleadingtomessagebombardment.
Singapore player: Towards the end a character got very excited and wouldn't stop
talkingtoeveryone.Toomanymessages.
Singapore player: When other characters are talking to each other feels like
eavesdroppingonachatline.
Berlinplayer:SometimestherewastoomuchgoingoninKath'sCaf.
Berlinplayer:Igotabout60 in abouthalfan hourwhenintheclubwhichwasfullof
other people and got all of their conversations. Ended up having to delete without
readingthemassomany.Restofthetimeitfeltliketherightamount.
Afewfeltthatthereweretoomanyambientorbackgroundmessagesfromthegame:
Berlinplayer:Toomuchambience.Toofewreactionstomyreplies.
Berlinplayer:IfeltlikeIreceivedtoomanygenericmessagesfromthegameitselfthat
didn'ttellmeanythingaboutwhatIcoulddo.Ididn'tknowwhattodowiththem they
justfeltlikewallpaper.
Forotherplayers,theissuewascloselyboundupwiththeirongoingeverydayactivities:
Berlinplayer:WhenIwasoutofthecountrytherewheretoomanyandIwouldhave
liked to pause. Sometimes there was on no reply from near by players. That was
strangetoo.
Singaporeplayer:WhenIwasawayonholidayandwhenIreturnedhometoreadmy
messages.
Singapore player: There were "too many messages" on days that I wasn't free to
respond.
Berlinplayer:Thereweredaysinbetween.ThatIcouldnottakepartinthegame.The
SMS on these days did frustrate me a little. Because I read afterwards what I had
missed.
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Wealsoaskedplayers:Whatfactorsinfluencedhowmanymessagesyousenttothe
game? Three main factors were raised here. The first was the cost of sending
messages,especiallyforBerlinplayers:
Berlinplayer:MyfreeSMSamount.
Berlinplayer:AtthebeginningalotbutthanIrealisedthatitisgoingtobeexpensive..
Thesecondwasthe currentcontextwithinthegame, i.e.,whotheir figurinewaswith

andwhatitwasdoing:
Berlinplayer:Beingaskedsomethingbyanotherplayer.
Berlinplayer:WhereIwaswhoIwaswithontheboard.
Berlinplayer:Thesituationmycharacterwasinandtalkingtootherpeoplewhowere
inthegame.
Berlinplayer:Ifpeopletalkedtomeoraskedforsomethingoraskedmetojointhem
personally.
Berlinplayer:WhetherIhadamissiondirectedfromthegameandwhethertheplace
Idgonetowasopen.
Singaporeplayer:Choicesavailableinterestlevelofplotresponsesmade.
Singaporeplayer:Thequeststhechattinghumaninteractions.
Singaporeplayer:Gameeventsinterestingpeople.
Singapore player: The curiosity and excitement around the game not knowing what
wasgoingtohappennext.
Thethirdfactorwastheplayerscurrentcontextwithintherealworld:
Singaporeplayer:IusesenttextsmoreintheeveningafterworkandwhenIwason
holiday.IfIwastalkingtoanotherplayerthenIsentmessagesquitefrequently..
Berlin player: I was travelling at the time so it was kind of hard because of time
differences...
Berlinplayer:WhetherIwasworkingorinthesortofcircumstanceyouwouldnotwant
toplay.
Berlinplayer:HowbusyIwas.
Berlinplayer:IfIwasinthecountry.
Berlinplayer:WhatIwasdoingatthetime.
Singaporeplayer:Eventsandactivitiesthataffectmeinreal life.Especiallyactivities
thatkeepmeawayfrommyphonelikesports.
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Singaporeplayer:HowbusyIaminameetingetc.
Singaporeplayer:Iwasonholidayoverseasforawhilethatcutdownthemessages.
Sodidbeingmortallyillandshotintheknees.
Singapore player: Depends on whether I was preoccupied with something else or
whetherIwasbored.
Singaporeplayer:Myschedule.
Singaporeplayer:AmountoffreetimeIhadinmyhands.
Finally,inrelationtotheuseofSMSmessagingbyDayoftheFigurinesII,weasked
players:Didyousavemessagesfromthegameonyouphone?Howcome? Figure
22showsthataboutaquarter(24%)ofplayerssavedallmessages,whereasnearlyahalf
(45%) deleted messages immediately and the rest sometimes saved and sometimes
deletedmessages.
SavingMessagesinthePhonePla yersinBerlina ndSingapore
11
12
10
10
8
5
4
4
2
0
Yes,Isavedallmessages
received
No,IdeletedassoonasI
finishedtoreadthem
Germany
Isavedsomeofthem
Singapore
Figure22 SavingMessagesinthePhone
Players comments on shed light on the reasons for these behaviours. Players saved
messagestohelpthemplantheirgameplayandalsotoshowothers:
Berlinplayer:IkeptthemforreferenceassometimesIhadtolookbackoverprevious
messagestoworkoutwhattodonext.
Berlinplayer:Isavedtwomessages.Theyareimportantatapersonallevel.
Berlin player: Yes I Wanted to compare them with other players and review to keep
trackoftheorderofevents.
Berlinplayer:Yes.Inordertobeabletocheckbacktoitlaterandperhapstinkerabout
itacademically.
Berlinplayer:Atthebeginningyesbutwhenmymemoryonthephonestartedtoget
fullIdeletedallmessagesexceptthelast1020.Thatwasn'taproblembecauseIfound
outthatIcouldseeallSMSintheinternet.ThatwasimportantformebecauseIwanted
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to read certain information later again. (e.g. who has a defibrillator? Where was the
party?...)
Berlinplayer:Yes.IthoughtthatIwanttoreadthemagainlater.
Berlinplayer: Yes some, because they are funny, interesting and help to explain the
ideaofthegametofriends.
Berlinplayer:Yes.Unfortunatelyitwasfullthen.
Berlinplayer:Sometimestohelpfigureoutapuzzle.Wishthereweremoreofthese.
Singaporeplayer:Isaveallmymessagesuntiltheinboxgetsfull.
Singaporeplayer:Isavedtheonethatisstillongoingforquestsorrelatedtothedaily
news.
Singapore player: Saved everything to be able to use the text when composing my
ownmessages(tosavetime).
Singaporeplayer:Onlykeepthosewhichrequiresmetoreplytomakemynextmove
inthegame.Ideletethosewhichweren'tneededanymore.
Singaporeplayer:Toretainthenumberandtotrackwhereismylastdestination.
Singapore player: I saved the ones that made me laugh and were rather illogical to
showthemtofriendsnotinthegame.
On the other hand, the limited storage capacity of phones meant that saving all
messageswasimpracticalformanyplayers:
Singaporeplayer:Imessagedthegametoomuch
Icantsaveall.
Singapore player: Deleted to save memory space on my cell phone and keep a tidy
inbox.
Singaporeplayer:Thereweretoomany.
Singaporeplayer:Idon'twantmyinboxtobefloodedandIdohaveothermessages
frommyfriendstoo.
Singaporeplayer:Ihavealimitedmemoryonmyphone.
Insummary,anSMSnarrativegamesuchasDayoftheFigurinesneedstomaintaina
tricky balance between sending players enough information to engage them with the
game, responding to the actions and yet also backing off and not flooding them with
messages when they wish to disengage. Feedback from players suggests that DoF II
managedthisquitewell.Mostplayers feltthattheyreceivedanacceptable volumeof
messages from the game. Perhaps one of the most challenging remaining issues
concernshowplayerscaneasilyaccesstheirpasthistorywhenplayingwithouthaving
tosaveallofthemessagesfromthegameintheirSMSinbox.
5.5Theroleoftheaugmentedgameboard
ThegameboardisseenasbeingcentraltoDayoftheFigurines,especiallythewayin
whichitinitiallyframesaplayersexperience,andconsiderableeffortwasinvestedinto
redesigning the board for the Berlin and Singapore performances including the
introduction of digital augmentations of figurines movements. This section reflects on
playersopinionsoftheboard.
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Weaskedplayers:Howdidthephysicalgameboardcontributetoyourexperience
ofDayoftheFigurines?Themajorityoftheresponsessuggestedthattheboardmade
apositivecontribution.
Theboardalsohelpedplayersvisualisethetown:
Singaporeplayer:Itmappedmymindaboutthetown.
Singaporeplayer:Itgivesmeanideaofwhatthetownlookslikeandwhowerewhere
IcanpicturewhereIambetter.
Singaporeplayer:itgavemementalimageofareasinthegame.
Andforsomeitprovidedasenseofrealism:
Singaporeplayer:Thatmakesthegamesmoreinteresting.IknowwhereIamlocated
anditmakesthegamesmorerealtoonotonlyagamethroughSMS.
Singapore player: Made the game more realistic. It was good to see my character
movearoundphysicallyonthegameboard.
Berlinplayer:Itallowedmetovisualisethegameworldasaspaceanditmadeevents
inthegamemorereal.
Berlinplayer:Nicetoknowthattherewasagameboardareality
Singaporeplayer:Connectivityandasenseofweirdrealism.
Singaporeplayer:canseethefigurinesmorerealistic
Singaporeplayer:Itprovidesrealismtothegame.
Someplayersreferredpositivelytothephysicalityoftheboardintheiranswers:
Berlin player: Good to have a 3d schematic of the game and locations as a point of
reference.Toaddabitofphysicalitytothedigitalbitsischangingthegameexperience.
Singaporeplayer:Itiscutemadeexperiencemoretangible
Singaporeplayer:Gavemeavisualoverviewphysicaltouchtothegame.
WhilesomeenjoyedthinkingbacktotheboardwhileplayingviaSMS:
Berlinplayer:Therewasaninterestinglinkbetweenvirtualandphysicalspace/Afew
timesIthoughtofthegameboardwhileplaying
Berlinplayer:ItwasnicetoimagineasIplayedonthecellphone.
Theboardalsohelpedlocateotherplayerswithinthevirtualworld:
Berlinplayer: Profoundly as it created the setting for the piece and then became the
onlymeanstofindoutwhereotherfigurines/playerswhere.
Berlin player: Good basis to follow the events/the distribution of figures in different
places.
Berlin player: It was interesting to see how people gathered at certain points on the
board over the course of the game. I would have liked to be able to visit the board
virtuallytobeabletotellmoreplacestogowheretherewereonlyafewpeople.
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Berlinplayer:Ittellssomethingabuttheotherplayersandtheirbehaviours.
Singaporeplayer:Icanlocateotherplayerseasily.
Singaporeplayer:Ithelpedfigurewhereeveryonewas.
Singapore player: yes! yay! :) i like seeing my piecemove and where the rest of the
piecesare.
Aswellasprovidinganopportunitytomeetplayersintherealworld:
Berlin player: Better orientation/technical support is easier face to face/ permits
meetingotherplayers.
Singaporeplayer:Interestingtoseemyfigurineandmeetotherplayer.
Finally,othersjustfeltthatitwascute:
Singaporeplayer:Ishowedmyfriendsandtheythoughtitwasinsanelycute. Ithinkit
wastoo.Likemylittleavatarthing.
Aminorityofplayersfeltthattheboarddidnotaddgreatvaluetotheexperience:
Berlinplayer:Veryperipherally.Onlyasamementoinmind.
Berlinplayer:Notmuch.Ionlyhavebeenthereinthefirstday.
Berlinplayer:Notmuch.NiceartworkIassumethatitonlyservestoguidetheplayer
tothetheatreitdidnotinfluencethegameplay.
Berlinplayer:Itwasinterestingtoseethefigurines(nicemade).Thatisallnotmore.
ThatisthereasonthatIcometothegameboardonlyonce.
Berlinplayer:Beautiful.Buttheboardandthefigurinesdoesnotfittothesoundofthe
language of the messages. The construction of the city looked randomly. The overall
structurewasnotunderstandable.
Berlinplayer:Itdidn'tmakethatmuchdifferenceas apartfromlocationchangesyou
couldfindoutverylittleaboutthestateoftheworld.Itwasbeautifullymadethough.
Singaporeplayer:Nothingmuch.OnlythefirsttimeIfounditinterestingother
thanthatIdidn'tthinkitwouldaffectmygame.
Singaporeplayer:None.Couldn'ttherebeawebcamorsomething?
Singapore player: Not good. My figurine's location didn't correspond to where the
messagessaiditwassupposedtobe.
Singaporeplayer:nocontribution.
Singaporeplayer:Itdidn'thavemuchimpact#
Even then, it is interesting to notethat several of these players found the board to be
beautiful.
Wealsoaskedplayers:HowwouldyoufeelaboutplayingaversionofDayofthe
Figurines without the physical game board? Their responses reflect the previous
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observations,andalsostressthattheboardwasoneofthe mostdistinctive featuresof

thegame.
Berlin player: Less orientation/ less service ??? ???, ??? Loss of the option to
establishareallayerbeyondthevirtuallayer.
Berlinplayer:Wouldbepossible,butwouldthenbenothingnew,Ithink.
Berlinplayer:Iwouldn'tlikethattoomuchtheboardisanimportantbasisand
meetingpointtomixvirtualandreal.Itwouldworkwithouttheboard.Concrete
components,wouldgetlostthroughthat.
Berlinplayer:OddlyenoughevenifIonlysawittwiceitwasstillastrongelementin
mymind.
Berlinplayer:Withouttheboard,itwouldbelikeandordinarycomputergame.
Berlinplayer:Onewouldloosewhatmakesitspecial.
Berlinplayer:Iwouldfindthattoodetached.Iwouldmissthebasisformyimagination.
Berlinplayer:Ithinkchoosingaphysicalobjectasyourcharacter'srepresentationisa
verygoodwaytogetpeoplestarted.
Berlinplayer:Iwouldnothaveenjoyed itasmuchasthegameboardhelpstowards
maintainingengagementduringthegame.
Berlinplayer:Ithinkitisgoodthatthereisacentrethatyoucanvisitevenifyoudon't
needtoafteryouhavejoinedthegamebutitgivesitanimportantcontext.
Singaporeplayer:I'mfinewiththat.Thephysicalgameboardwasjusttoseehowmy
figurineaswellastheotherfigurineslooklike.
Singaporeplayer:Iwouldn'tlikeit.Thegameboardhelpedthevisualisation.
Singaporeplayer:Iwillfeellost.Imeanitwillbeboringtojustplaythegamethrough
SMSbuthavenothing'real'tolookat.
Singaporeplayer:Itwillbeslightlylessexperiential.
Singaporeplayer:Iwouldbelost.
Singaporeplayer:Willbenodifferentfromothergames.
Although, as with the previous question, some players were less impressed with the
board.
Berlinplayer:Itwouldbegoodthoughmaybeinashorterversion.Forexample,during
afestival.
Berlinplayer:Wouldnothavemademuchdifferenceformewithouttheboard.
Berlinplayer:Verygoodidea.
Berlinplayer:Ithinkitwouldbeok.
Singaporeplayer:Notmuchdifference.
Singaporeplayer:Itwon'tmakeadifference.
Singaporeplayer:Itwouldbethesameforme.
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Singapore player: Not too bad. It already feels like I'm playing without the physical
gameboard.
Singaporeplayer:Shouldbestillok.
Finally with respect to the augmented game board we asked our players: Is there
somethingyouwouldliketoaddtothegameboard?Aswehavenotedpreviously,
players raised the idea of having an online view of the board, for example via a
webcam:
Berlinplayer:Maybealivewebcamera.Additional:Hotel,Nature(Park).
Berlinplayer:AwebcamerawhichshowsthegameplayovertheInternet.
Singaporeplayer:Wouldlovetheboardtobeonline
Berlinplayer:Thisseemstobethekeyelementbutitneedstoalsobeonline.
Berlinplayer:Iparticipatedinthisway but experience would have benefited from up
todatewebcamofphysicalgameboardviathewebsite.
Othermentionedwantedmoredetails,eitherphysically:
Berlinplayer:Afewitemslyingaroundordescriptionsofthedifferentlocations
Singaporeplayer:Morestructuresminiaturebuildings,trees,etc.
Ordigitally:
Berlinplayer:To improve the design places in the board. To display thestory in any
form. Animation in the board. To show possibilities (things) that you cannot get via
messages.
Berlinplayer:Ithinkthereneededtobemorevisualisationoftheeventsandthestatus
ofthecharactersintheworld.
Berlinplayer:Maybethepathsofthecharacters.
Singaporeplayer:Youcouldalsohavetheprojectoronallthetimewithitlightingup
thetitlesofthevariousplacesthere.
Somehadideasfornewdestinationsorstructures:
Berlinplayer:Aswimmingpoolabustotravelfasteragoodrestaurant
Singaporeplayer:Aninformationcentre.
Whereasothersfocusedontheaestheticoftheboarditself:
Berlinplayer:Morecolours.
Berlinplayer:Colour.
Berlinplayer:Lessminimalism.
Singaporeplayer:Maybeyoushoulduseglassortransparentplasticbuildings.
Insummary,the boardappearstobe have beenapositive factorintheexperience for

the majorityofrespondents,enablingthemtoframethe experience,addingasenseof
realism andprovidingusefulinformationaboutotherplayers.
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5.6Briefinterimsummary
Feedbackfromplayershasgivenusabroadoverviewofhowtheyexperienceddifferent
aspectsofDayoftheFigurinesII,bothinandbetweenBerlinandSingapore.
In terms of the overall experience, Singapore players have reacted considerably more
positivelythandidBerlinplayers.Thisisprobablydueinparttochangesinthegame
contentthatweremade betweenthetwoperformances,but mayalsobe influenced by
language andcostfactors.Wewouldtentatively concludethatDayofthe FigurinesII
stepped over the gain line at Singapore to become an experience that was generally
wellreceivedbyplayers.However,thereisstillroomforimprovementespeciallyin
creating more and easier missions. We may also see whether SMS cost was a critical
factorwhentheexperiencecomestotheUKlaterin2007.
Intermsofthegamecontent,theautomaticallygenerated messagesgenerally seemto
be fairlywell structured,comprehensibleand informative,tough notyetperfect.Most
players enjoyed interacting with others and missions seem to have been a popular
feature.
Players managed to interweave the experience withtheir patterns of daily life and the
overallflowofmessagestoandfrom thegameappearstohavebeenquitewellbalanced
formostplayers.
Finally, the augmented game board does appear to be a powerful aspect of the
experienceformany,eveniftheyonlyexperienceitatthebeginningofthegame.
Wewillreturntomanyoftheseissuesinlaterdiscussions.However,fornow,wefirst
turn to another kind of data that provides further insights into the experience the
system log files that captured the history of each players actual interactions with the
game.
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6LOGANALYSIS
Following on from our discussion of player feedback via questionnaires, we now
present an analysis of actual player behaviour as captured by system logs of the
messagesthatweresentandreceivedbythegameserver.
The game event model of the system, and also the structure of the underlying
middleware platform, produced both a static final snapshotof all events thatoccurred
duringagame,andalogfilethatcanpotentiallybereplayedforfurtheranalysisofthe
game.
Webeginwithageneraloverviewofthenumbersofplayersandvolumesofmessages
that were involved in the Berlin and Singapore performances, noting any key
differencesbetweenthetwo.Thisisfollowedbyamoredetaileddiscussionofdifferent
playerbehavioursintermsoftheirlevelsofengagementwiththegame,thevolumesof
differentmessagesthattheysent,andplayerandsystemresponsetimes.
6.1Overallvolumesofmessages
This section presents some general statistics drawn from the game logs regarding the
overall differences between the two games. The following table shows that although
both games had a similar number of players, there were significantly more messages
bothsentandreceived,almostastwiceasmany,intheSingaporegamethantheBerlin
game.Clearly,ourSingaporeplayerswerefarmoreactive,reinforcingourobservations
fromplayerfeedbackthatthegamewasmoresuccessfulhereduesomecombinationof
improvedcontent,nativelanguageuseandthereducedcostoftexting.Thehighvolume
of messages sent by Singapore players suggests strongly that price was not a major
barrier.
Table3Messagevolume
Berlin
Singapore
Numberofplayers
141
146
Messagessenttothegame
4557
10981
Messagesreceivedfromthegame
12685
21767
Theoverall ratioofmessagesreceivedbyallplayerstomessagessentbyallplayerswas
2.4 for Berlin, falling to 1.7 for Singapore (this ratio has been nearly 6 in the initial
2005textofDayoftheFigurinesinLondon).Thisratioisimportantbecauseitshows
thatwenowneedtosendfewermessagestoplayersinordertosolicitresponsesfrom
them.Presumablythismeansthatthecontentofthemessageswearesendingisinsome
sensestronger,moreeasilyencouragingplayerstoreply.
6.2Patternsofjoining,leavinganddying
Figures23and24belowshowthepatternsof playersjoining,leaving,ordyingoverthe
courseofthe24daysthat Dayofthe Figurines in bothBerlin andSingapore.Players
could join on any day. They could voluntarily leave the game using the LEAVE
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TOWNcommand inanyday.Dyingwas involuntary,arising fromactionswithinthe

game.
playersenteringandleavingthegameberlin
80
numberofplayers
70
60
50
join
leave
dead
40
30
20
10
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011121314151617 18192021222324
dayofthegame
Figure23Thepatternofjoining,leavinganddyingfromBerlin
playersenteringandleavingthegamesingapore
35
25
join
20
leave
15
dead
10
5
23
21
19
17
15
13
11
numberofplayers
30
dayofgame
Figure24Thepatternofjoining,leavinganddyingfromSingapore
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Itis interestingnotethatthe majorityofplayers inBerlin joinedattheopeningofthe

first day, whereas Singapore players joined more steadily throughout the game. The
spikes that can be seen in the figures correspond to various events that encouraged
players to join including the official opening of the game, and various prearranged
visits by students. That said, the overall volumes and rates of players joining was
relatively lowcomparedtoourexpectationsandthe finaltotalsachieved,roughly140
players ineachcase,weredisappointing.FollowingBerlin, we feltthatthis may have
beentheworkwassitedinatheatrefoyerwhichwasnoteasilyaccessibleoranatural
focalpointforanyoneotherthantheatregoerswithtickets.However,inSingapore,the
game was located in the national museum which we had anticipated would attract a
large flow of visitors. It appears that while the augmented game board is a powerful
aspect of the experience for players, it may also be a bottleneck to recruiting players.
This may bearesultofthedesignand locationoftheworkorperhapsthetrainingof
local operators. Further investigation is needed as to how we can increase player
recruitmentinfutureperformances.
In terms of leaving the game of their own accord, 25 players left Berlin which was
reducedto18forSingapore.
Finally,59playerswerekilledduringtheSingaporegamecomparedto0Berlinplayers
(infact4playersdiddieinBerlinduetoanerrorinthecontent,butweresubsequently
broughtbacktolife).ThesedeathsinSingaporewereduetoafewplayersgoingona
shortkillingspreeatonepoint,butweremostlyduetothenewendingtothegamein
which players were divided into two camps, those at the Recreation Ground who
escapedtownonthehelicopterandeveryoneelsewhoremainedbehindanddied.
6.3Volumeofmessagesbyhourofday
Figures25and26showhow messages senttoandfromthegameweredistributedby
houroftheday.Thelargespikeindicatesthestartofdaymessagethatwassenttoall
playerswhenthegameopenedeachday.Beyondthis,thepatternisrelativelyconstant.
PleasenotethatthexaxisshowsGreenwichMeanTime,sowecanclearlyseethetime
zone shifts that were involved in both Berlin and Singapore. In both Berlin and
Singaporethegamewasopenfor10hoursadaythesmallnumberofmessagesboth
before and after this period indicate players sending messages to the game that were
rejectedwithabouncemessageindicatingthatthegamewasclosed.
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messagessentandreceivedbyhouroftheday
berlin
numberofmessages
2500
2000
1500
rcvdbythegame
sentbythegame
1000
500
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
houroftheday(GMT)
Figure25MessagestoandfromthegamebyhourofdayBerlin
messagessentandreceivedbyhouroftheday
singapore
4500
3500
3000
2500
rcvdbythegame
2000
sentbythegame
1500
1000
500
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
numberofmessages
4000
houroftheday(GMT)
Figure26MessagestoandfromthegamebyhourofdaySingapore
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6.4Volumeofmessagesbydayofthemonth
Figures27and28belowshowsthevariationinthedailyvolumesofmessagessentand
receivedacrossthe24daysof each game.TheBerlingameshowsasmallinitialpeakof
activityasplayersinitiallyjointhegame,butthisquicklyfallsawaytoamoreorless
constantlevelofplayerssendingbetween100and200messagesadaytothegame.In
contrast,Singaporeshowsasteadybuildupofactivityuntilitreachesasuddenpeakat
day9,coincidingwiththefeteattheRecreationGround,thefirstmajormasseventin
thegame.Afterthis itdropsdowntoareasonablyconstant level withplayerssending
about400messagesadaytothegame.Therealsoappearstobeasmalldipinactivity
inthelastweek,althoughthisrisesagainfortheendinginthefinalcoupleofdays.
messagessentandreceivedbydayberlin
1000
900
700
600
rcvdbythegame
500
rcvdfromthegame
400
300
200
23
21
19
17
15
13
11
100
1
messages
800
day
Figure27MessagessentandreceivedbydayBerlin
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messagessentandreceivedbydaysingapore
1800
1600
messages
1400
1200
1000
rcvdbythegame
rcvdfromthegame
800
600
400
23
21
19
17
15
13
11
200
day
Figure28MessagessentandreceivedbydaySingapore
6.5Volumeofdifferentmessagetypes
Figure29showsthebreakdownofmessagetypessenttothegame,astheywereparsed
bytheincomingmessageparser.BothBerlinandSingaporearesimilar,andshowthat
thepredominantactionswithinthegameweremovingbetweendestinations,speaking,
andusingobjects(thelatterincludingthepickup,use anddrop commands).
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messagesfromplayersbytype
4500
4000
frequency
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
go
fi n
pi d
ck
up
us
e
dr
op
sa
up y
da
te
re
st
he
lp
di lea
le ve
m
di ma
le
m a
di ma
le
m b
m
a
c
un
kn
ow
berlin
messagetype
singapore
Figure29MessagesbytypeBerlin andSingapore
Interestingly,themostpopularmessagetypeinBerlinwassay,whereasinSingapore
it was go. We also see a greater proportion of object use in Singapore, including a
largergapbetweenthenumberofusemessagesversuspickupmessages,suggesting
that there was a greater tendency to carry the same object around and reuse it
repeatedly. These trends may reflect the fact that missions and other aspects of the
automatedgameplayworkedmoreeffectivelyinSingapore,increasingthetendencyfor
playerstovisitdifferentplacesandfindanduseobjectsmoresystematically.
6.6Completionofmissionsanddilemmas
As mentionedpreviously,thecontentofDoFII wasrevisedafterthe Berlingame for
theSingaporegame,inanattempttoinvolveplayersinthegamemorebycreatingmore
interactivecontentandmissionsthatwereeasiertocomplete.Figures31and32below
show how the completion and failure (timeout) distribution of missions differed
betweenthetwogames.
58
IPerGFP6004457
missionsberlin
80
70
60
count
50
40
30
20
10
0
completed
timeout
nopin
completionstatus
Figure30CompletionofmissionsBerlin
missionssingapore
450
400
350
count
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
completed
timeout
completionstatus
Figure31CompletionofmissionsSingapore
59
nopin
IPerGFP6004457
The nopin mission completion status refers to a mission where the player was
requiredtohelpaspecificplayerinneed,andforsomereasonthatplayerceasedtobe
inneedatsomepointduringthemission,forexamplebeinghelpedbyanotherplayer.
Itcanbeseenthat manymore missions wereallocated intheSingaporegamethan in
Berlin(656comparedto94).Furthermore,agreaternumber(225comparedto18)and
proportion (34% compared to 19%) were completed. That said, 34% is still a low
completion rate and more investigation is needed and further revision is probably
requiredtoreauthorandtunemissionsbeforetheyareworkingeffectively.
dilemmasberlin
45
40
35
count
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
completed
timeout
moved
completionstatus
Figure32CompletionofdilemmasinBerlin
60
incap
IPerGFP6004457
dilemmassingapore
400
350
300
count
250
200
150
100
50
0
completed
timeout
moved
incap
completionstatus
Figure33CompletionofdilemmasinSingapore
Similarly, figures 33 and 34 above show the completion status of dilemmas mini
missions that occurred at a specific time and place within the game and had to be
answered before a player moved. In Berlin, 39 out of 102 dilemmas (38%) garnered
responses,comparedto369from607(61%)inSingapore.
6.7Playerlevelsofengagement
This section focuses our analysis more on individual player behaviours. We begin, in
figures 35 and 36, with some high level visualisations of individual engagement with
thegamethroughoutthetwoperformances.
Figure35 showspatternsof engagement forBerlinand figure 36 forSingapore.Each
rowrepresentsan individualplayers history.Eachcolumn isrepresentsadistinctday
ofthegame(orderedfromday1towardstheleftthroughtoday24atthefarright).The
players(rows)arelistedintheorderinwhichtheyjoinedthegame.
A browncellrepresentsaday whichthisplayer was inthegameand senta message,
i.e.,whenwedeemthemtobeengagedwiththegame.Ayellowcell representsadayin
whichthisplayerwasinthegamebutwhentheydidnotsendamessage,i.e.,whenwe
deemthemtobedisengagedfromthegame.Awhitecellshowsadaywhenthisplayer
was not in the game, either because they had not yet joined or because they had left
early.Agreycellshowsthattheyvoluntarilylefttown(quitethegame)onthisday.A
pinkcellshowsthattheydiedonthisday.
We see quite marked differences between patterns of engagement between Berlin and
Singapore.InBerlin,manyplayersdisengagedearlyandquiteafewevenleftthegame
61
IPerGFP6004457
early. In Singapore, we see more players engaged towards the end with few leaving
early. Another notable feature of these images is that many players show an episodic
pattern of engagement, sometimes disengaging from the game for several days before
thenreengaginglateron.ThisbacksupourearlierfindingsfromtheLabantestandalso
playersowncommentsabouttheirpatternsofplayfromthequestionnaires.
Alegendforreadingtheengagementfiguresisgivenbelow.
Engaged
Disengaged
Lefttown
Died
Notplaying
62
IPerGFP6004457
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Figure35PatternsofengagementfromSingapore
64
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IPerGFP6004457
6.8Messagessentandreceivedperplayer
Figure37showsthefrequencydistributionof thenumbersofplayerswhosentdifferent
numbers of messages to the game. The graph shows a falling distribution from
approximately25playerswhosentzeroorjustaveryfewmessagesdowntooneplayer
whosent849messages(theoutlieratthefarright).Themedianvaluewas40messages
per player. The player who sent 849 messages was the professional playerwho was
employedbytheteam tointeractwithandhelpotherplayersinthegame(seelater).
20
15
Frequency
10
0
0
200
400
600
800
Numberofmessagessent
Figure36Frequencydistributionofplayerssendingdifferentnumbersofmessages
Followingonfromthis,figure38showsthecorrespondingfrequencydistributionof
messagesreceivedbyourSingaporeplayers.Thedistributionhasasimilarshape,
thoughmostplayersdidreceiveatleastafewtensofmessageswhichpresumably
includeddailymessages,somekeyeventsandmaybesomechatfromotherplayers,
eveniftheywerentthemselvesactive.Again,theplayerintheextremecornerofthe
figureisaprofessionalplayer.
65
IPerGFP6004457
1
0
8
Frequency
6
0
0
200
400
600
800
1000
Numberofmessagesreceived
Figure37Frequencydistributionofplayersreceivingdifferentnumbersofmessages
Figure39plotsthenumberofmessagessentbyeachSingaporeplayeragainstthe
numberreceived.Eachpointontheplotrepresentsoneplayer.Ourextremeplayercan
beseentopright.Wehaveplottedthelinefortheformula:
sent= received*1/1.7
overthisgraph,where1.7wastheratioofthetotalnumberofmessagesreceivedbyall
Singaporeplayerstothetotalnumbersent.Weseethatonthewholeplayerswhoonly
sendafewmessagestendtoreceivemorethanthisaveragemultiplierinreturnwhereas
thosewhosendmanymessagestendtoreceivelessthanthismultiplierinreturn.Thisis
notsurprisingasplayerswillreceiveabaselinestreamofdailymessagesandkeyevents
eveniftheyhardlysendanythingasnotedpreviously.
66
400
0
200
sent
600
800
IPerGFP6004457
200
400
600
800
received
Figure38Plotofsendingversusreceivingmessages
Thischapterhaspresentedan initial, highlevelanalysisofplayer behaviourbasedon
systemlogsfromtheeventsinBerlinandSingapore.
Thisanalysisatfirstglanceappearstosupporttheconclusionsofthepreviouschapter
that Singapore players reacted more positively than Berlin players, in terms of
prolongedengagement,adramaticincreaseinmessagessentandreceivedtoandfrom
thegameandalargeramountofcontentexperienced.Again,thiscouldbeattributedto
costofSMSaswellasachangeinthegamecontent.
The analysis of the system logs have focused on providing an overview of all of the
playersinthegame.Thenextstepwouldbetoundertakeadeeperanalysisfocusing
onthedifferencesbetweenindividualplayerswithinthesamegame,anddiscoveringif
thereareanypatternsorgroupingsbetweenplayers.
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7TOOL DESCRIPTIONANDEVALUATION
This chapter shifts our attention away from the players experiences of Day of the
Figurines II to instead focus on the behind the scenes authoring and orchestration
activitiesthatmadeitpossible.Inparticular,itdescribesandreflectsontwonewweb
basedtoolsthatwereconstructedtosupporttheauthoringandsetup,andthemonitoring
and orchestration of DoF II. For each, a description of its functionality is given,
followedbyanevaluationbyitsusersandhowthetoolcouldpossiblybeextended in
thefuture.
7.1Authoring
TheDayoftheFigurinesauthoringtoolisusedtocreateandinputcontentintoDoFII.
Content is authored spatially (on a map of the virtual town) and temporally (on a
timeline that stretches over 24 virtual hours) in order to trigger and deliver text
messagestoplayers.Forexample,aplayermovingtothegamelocationTheRecat
midday will receive a specific message based on content provided by the authors for
thisplaceandtime.Additionally,contentmaybedependentontheplayerscurrentstate
forexampleaplayermayreceivespecificcontentwhentheyareonamissionthata
playernotonthemissionwouldnotreceive.
7.1.1AuthoringChallenges
Belowisalistofcontentthatneedstobeauthoredforthegame:
DestinationsThedestinationsinthetown
Destination Descriptions Messages sent to players about the destination at
specifictimesinthegame
ThingsObjectsthatcanbefoundandusedbyplayerse.g.cupofcoffee,bator
defibrillator
DilemmasQuestionsposedtoplayerswithmultiplechoiceanswersthataffect
theirhealtheitherpositivelyornegativelye.g.Youseeamanonthe floordo
youA:gooverandhelphimuporB:walkonby
LocalEventsEventsthathappenatdestinationssuchasagigbyabandora
fireatthehospital
MissionsAgoalissetforaplayerandtheyhavetotryandachievethisina
certainamountoftimee.g.getfourpeopletocomewithyoutotheparkanduse
thefireworkstogivethemashow.Missionscombinetheotherelements.
These content elements are further supported by a set of message elements and
specificationsthatprovidetemplatesforconstructingthefinalmessagesthataresentto
players.
Theauthoringtoolaimstosupportcontentauthorsinovercomingthekeychallengesof
authoringlargeamountsofcontentnamelyhowtoorganise,group,andcheckauthored
content,howtosensiblyauthoritbothspatiallyandtemporally,and howtoprovide a
useful,centralised(specifically,webbased)interfaceforauthoring.
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7.1.2TheAuthoringTool
The DoF II authoring tool is integrated with the main game engine, and provides
authors with direct access to the content database that is eventually used to run the
game.Thetoolconsistsoftwomain interfacesthatarebothaccessedonline viaweb
pages,allowingmultipleauthorstoauthorcontentsimultaneously.Afullmanualcanbe
foundin IPerGdeliverableD7.5
Thefirstinterfaceisasetofwebformsthatallowanauthortoadd,editanddeletegame
objectswithinthedatabase.Theseformsaregeneratedautomaticallyfromthedatabase
definitions,usingXSLTtocreateJSPpages,whichareinturnrenderedasformsbythe
web server. These web forms are then customised by making modifications to a
configuration JSP filethatperforms functions suchasgivingauthorfriendly namesto
database types and values for example by replacing numerical enumerations with
readable strings. While editing a content object within the system, the form provides
text entry fields, drop down boxes containing enumerated options, and hyperlinks to
otherobjectsthatarerelatedwithinthedatabase.
Thesecondauthoringinterfaceisanappletthatprovidesamechanismtocreatecontent
arrangedbyspaceandtimewithinthegame.Again,thiscanbeconfiguredwithminor
modificationstobemoreuserfriendlythantheunderlyingdatatypes.Theappletlinks
throughtotheweb formsdescribedabove,whereanauthorcanthencreatecontentto
assignusingtheapplet.Ineffecttheappletisasimplewaytonavigatethroughauthored
contenttospotholesandgaps,andtojudge howcontentisdistributedthroughoutthe
game.
The authoring tool allows different content elements to be grouped together using a
metatagknownasanarrativearcwhichisaauthorspecifiedgroupingthatallows
themto group content as they see fit, and to hide and show groups as required. The
appletisshowninfigure40below,andfigure41showstheappletdisplayingjustone
narrativearcanditsassociatedcontent.
This combination of interfaces allows an authorto approach the content from a high
levelview,byseeinghowitisarrangedspatiallyandtemporally,orfromasystempoint
ofviewforfinetuninganddebugging,bydirectaccessviathewebforms.
Bothinterfacesarefurthersupportedbyascriptthatcheckstheconsistencyofentered
content,highlighting blankorincorrectlyauthoredfieldsandensuringthatthecontent
willrunwithinthegameengine,showninfigure43.
Finally,theMessageMangalatorallowedauthorstoseehowsnippetsoftextmessage
would be rendered as an outgoing message by the game, to check that newly entered
textcontentwasofthecorrectstyleandgrammar.
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Figure39OverviewoftheAuthoringApplet
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Figure40Closeupshowingcontentfromjustonenarrativearc
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Figure41WebformforeditingthedetailsofaThing
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Figure42OutputfromtheSanitycheckingtool
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7.1.3Feedback
Thissectionpresentsasummaryoffeedbackfromgameauthorsandoperators,having
used the authoring tool to create content fortwothe deployments of DoF II in Berlin
and Singapore. This feedback was collected through a short email interview with key
membersoftheteam.
Thegeneralresponsetothewebbasedauthoringtoolwaslargelypositive,statingthat
thetoolwasuseful,butwithsomereservationsthatdidnotcompletelyremovetheneed
forsomepaperbasedauthoringinadvance:
Theauthoringtooleventuallybecamethedominantspacewherecontentforthe
DayoftheFigurineswasauthored.Howeverpriortothiswewerepushedtouse
other means to write and develop the content, this involved creating excel
documentsandproducingpapertimelines.Wecontinuedtousethese meansto
develop content throughout the entire authoring process. This was due to a
combination of the complexity of learning the tool in short time frames and a
numberofrestraintsofthetool.
The feedback also gives an interesting insight into the development process of the
content begin with a large paragraph of text, work up a timeline on paper before
finally entering the content using the authoring tool, and potentially rearranging other
contenttofit.Thefollowingisatypicalexampleofsuchaparagraph:
Thesoldiersarekeensmokersandarealwayscollectingchangesothatthey
canemptycigarettemachineswhentheopportunitypresentsitself.Thiscarries
majorrisksbecausetobeseeninapubisanintolerableviolation.Anysoldierin
TheVicortheBattleof TrafalgarSquareforanyreasonwillbeonedge.The
ProductBarnsalehoweverattractsafewofthesoldierswithfamiliesback
home:eventhoughitslateatnighttheyriflethroughthedebrisoutsidetoseeif
thereareanyhouseholdgoodsleftbehind.Theywastenotimeingatheringup
theterracottacolouredplasticplantpotsingiantsizesandloadingthemontothe
roofoftheirtroopcarrier.
IwasalsoreliantonHannah(andlaterKirsten)toprintoutlargespreadsheets
that showed the actual message content in each time slice and at each
destination.Thisallowedmetogetanoverviewandalsoswiftlyaccessthefull
contentofmessagesand,whennecessaryaddannotations.Theywouldthentake
mywrittennotesandtranslatethisintotheauthoringtool.
Despite this, it is apparent that the authoring applet was the most useful part of the
authoringsystem,mainlyasitprovidedaclearandaccessibleoverviewofthecontent
anditslayout:
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Akeytaskwastospreadthecontentacrossthe24daysandthe50destinations
in an even and systematic manner. The authoring interface of the tool was
invaluable to this process it clearly demonstrated the number of events,
dilemmasandmissionsauthoredforeachday.Fromaglancethecolourcoding
allowedforaninitialoverviewastowhichtimeslotsappearedbareandneeded
more work. Moving to an hourbyhour view gave a more focused insight,
providingaclearoverviewofeachdaysmessages.
ThefiltersystemwasaneffectiveelementoftheauthoringinterfaceandIused
this tool to filter the timeline and the webforms to concentrate upon specific
narrativearcs.
The most useful feature was being able to author anywhere where I had an
internet connection. This allowed me to work collaboratively with the other
authorsevenwhenIwasindifferenttimezonesetc.andtoalwayshaveaccess
tothemostuptodatecontent.BeingabletofilternarrativearcsintheAuthoring
Interface was the single most powerful tool. It gave a useful visual
representationofhoweacharcbuiltandebbed,especiallyfortheMetallistarc.
ThemaintoolIusedwastheAuthoringInterfaceasthisprovidedasnapshot
ofgamecontentespeciallywhenfilteredbynarrativearc
Thisfeedbackshowsthattheauthoringappletandespeciallythenarrativearcmetadata
and grouping functionality was a useful addition in managing the large amounts of
contentinDoFII.
Feedback regarding the webforms, however, was more varied as it more directly
reflectedtheunderlyingarrangementofdatabase objectsandgame logic andwas less
intuitivecomparedtotheapplet:
IttooktimetounderstandthelogicbehindauthoringMissions,thisisduetothe
complexity of this content, Dilemmas and Events were simple and logical to
understand. However a common mistake was to forget to change the first box
whenaddingascope,thedefaultwasforlocalevent,whenauthoringdilemmas
and missions I would forget to change this box as I initially thought it was
generatedautomatically.
Authoringonepieceofcontentovermanydestinationsbecameextremelytime
consuming. For each destination in the game to receive the same message I
needed to create a new scope for each destination, here I needed to add the
timeslots, select the type of message and the destination. To do this for 50
destinationstookapproximately20minutes.
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Finally, the authors regarded the content testing and sanity checking tools as being
usefuladditionsforvalidatingcontentespeciallythemessagemangalatorthatallowed
themtopreviewthecontentofmessagesinanalmostingamesetting:
The Mangalator was indispensable as it provided both a technical evaluation
(maximum possible character counts) and a creative evaluation (a sense of the
message flow across a variety of different configurations). It also identified
hiddenornonuseablecharactertypes.
7.1.4PossibleExtensions
Whileitisapparentthattheauthoringtoolsuccessfullyaidedcontentauthorsincreating
andenteringthelargeamountsofcontentforDoFII,thereareanumberofextensions
andenhancementsthatcouldbemadeforfutureversions.
Theauthorssuggestedanumberofcosmeticchangestoboththeauthoringappletand
supporting webforms, largely focusing on content filtering and sorting. For example,
beingabletoarbitrarilygroupnarrativearcsandthenfilterbythisparentgroupwould
be useful one author commented that as the interface filled with content it became
difficult to get a sense of how populated areas were, needing a coarser grained filter
thanjustnarrativearcs.Agenericapproachwouldbetoextendtheconceptofnarrative
arcs into a generic grouping concept allowing authors to group arbitrary content
together,andifnecessarytothengroupthesegroupsinanestedhierarchythatcouldbe
viewedorhiddenasrequired.
Secondly, a tighter integration between the authoring applet and the supporting web
forms would be desirable. Some aspects of the authoring process involved pre
constructingcontentinthewebformsbeforebeingabletouseitintheapplet,followed
by fine tuning in the webforms again, which is perhaps unnecessarily complicated.
Being largely dynamically generated, some of the forms did not accurately reflect a
higher level view of how the different contentobjects interacted, which some authors
foundintractable.
Finally,asDoFIIcontinuestobepresented,thedevelopmentprocessisfocusedonthe
iterativedevelopmentofcontentratherthanunderlyinggamedesignandsoftware.For
thisreasonitisimportanttounderstandhowbesttochangeexistingcontentwithregard
tohowitwasexperiencedinearliergamessomecontentmayberedundantorplaced
in such a manner that it is not experienced by many players. A major addition tothe
authoringappletwouldbetoaddalayerthatshowedvisually, inthesamespatialand
temporal manner, which content was experienced and by how many players in a
previousoutingofthegame,enablinganauthortomovecontentaccordingly.
7.2Orchestration
This section describes the DoF II suite of supporting orchestration tools. These were
usedasthegamewasrunning,tosupportthedaytodayoperationofthegame,trouble
shooting and monitoring, and a professional player in interacting directly with other
playerstoenhancegameplay.
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7.2.1OrchestrationChallenges
With a large number of destinations, and a large number of players, the immediate
challengefororchestratingDoFIIishowtosupportoperatorsingaininganoverviewof
whether the game is running smoothly, whether players are active or have not moved
from the entrance point atthe edge of town, and how many players are or have been
engaged with critical game events, such as embarking on or completing missions, or
havebeenkilled.
This monitoring should then be supported by the ability to intervene orto modify the
gameinsomeway,frombothahighlevelthataffectsallplayersdowntoanindividual
perplayerbasisforpersonalinteraction.
7.2.2ToolsforSupportingOrchestration
TheDoFIIorchestrationtoolsaresplitintotwodistinctpartstoolsforoperatingthe
gameandtoolsfororchestratingit.
Operating tools are those that are used in the daytoday maintenance of the game as
part of its normal operation. The duties of the game operator involve opening and
closingthegameatthebeginningandendoftheday,andrespondingtohelpanddeath
messages sent by players who may be struggling. These functions are spread across a
setof web pagesthatguidetheoperatorthroughtheactionstheywish toperform,andin
thecaseofdeathandhelpmessagesgivetheplayershistoryforcontext.
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Figure43Theinterfaceforhandcraftingmessagestobesenttoplayerswhohavedied
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Figure44Theinterfaceforopeningthegame
The orchestration tools are further split intotwocategories tools for monitoring the
gameandtools for intervening.Allofthesetoolscan bethoughtofaseithertools for
monitoringorinterveningwiththegameasawhole,ormonitoringorinterveningwith
anindividualplayer.
The monitoring pages first provide a high level overview of the game. The game
overview page shows how many messages have been sent and received, how many
players are currently in the game with a breakdown of status, and the time within the
game.Italsogivesa summaryof how manypeople have experiencedthekeycontent
withinthegame,forexamplemissionsanddilemmas.
Thispageissupplementedbythetodayseventspage,showninfigure46below.This
showskeyeventsthathaveoccurredwithinthelastday,andhelpstheoperatortobegin
todrilldown intoeventsthatmayrequire furtherattention.Itshowsplayersthathave
died, left, joined or been incapacitated during the day. Notably, it shows players who
havecausedanerrortobeflaggedbysendingamessagethatwasnotunderstoodbythe
message parser, and players who have joined the game but have not moved from the
starting destination those players who are still on the edge of town. These are
players who may warrant closer attention or intervention if they are struggling while
interventionisnotrequired,unlikethepersonaliseddeathmessagewhenaplayerdies,it
is in the best interests of the game as a whole to help them to play.
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Figure45Thetodayseventsorchestrationpage
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Figure46Theplayeroverviewpage
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Figure47Orchestrationpageshowinganindividualplayersdetails
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Figure47aboveshowsafurtherorchestrationpagethatlistsallplayersinthegame,and
theirstatus.Boththispageandthetodayseventspageprovidelinkstoadetailedview
of each players game to date, including which missions and dilemmas they have
receivedandcompleted,theirhealthstatus,andmostimportantlyacompletehistoryof
allmessagesthattheyhavesentandreceived.Usingthis,anoperatorcangetapicture
ofwhethertheplayerneedsanyassistance.
Figure48Excerptfromanindividualplayershistory
Finally,thisplayerpageallows anoperatortointerveneon behalfoftheplayer.They

can sendacustom messagetotheplayer,they canperformanactionon behalfofthe
player by creating a message that the system treats as coming from the player, or
arbitrarilyaltertheplayershealthiftheyfeelthattheyhavebeenunfairlyincapacitated.
For gamewide intervention, the advanced game controls page, shown in figure 50
below, enables operators to change gamewide settings and variables. These include
howfastthegameruns inrelationtorealtime,varioustimedelaysrelatingtocontent
and message delivery, and the probability of players receiving certain content such as
beingallocatedamissionordilemma.Aswillbedescribedinthefollowingfeedback,
this functionality wasused by anoperatortocopewithanunexpectedoccurrencethat
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meantthatthegamewouldrunforeighthoursononedayratherthantenbymaking
thegamerunslightlyfasterforjustthisperiod.
These configurable game variables are stored as objects within the dataspace. The
advanced game controls page shows all variables of this type, allowing it to
automaticallyupdateifnewconfigurationvariablesareadded.
Figure49TheAdvancedGameControlsInterface
The final orchestration tool is support for a professional player. A member of the
operation team continuously plays the game as if they were a real player, interacting
withregularplayers,givingadviceandstimulatingconversation.
The professional player uses a combination of the tools described above, aided by an
SMSsimulationtool.Thisisshowninfigure51below,andisawebinterfacethatsits
outsideofthe maingameengine,allowingtheprofessionalplayertosendandreceive
messages from the game rather than to a phone allowing them to use a normal
keyboard and, if necessary, simulate multiple phone numbers and therefore players at
thesametime.
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Figure50TheSMSsimulationinterfaceusedbytheProfessionalPlayer
7.2.3Feedback
Thissectiongivesasummaryof feedbackontheuseoftheorchestrationtoolsduring
DoF II in both Berlin and Singapore, where the use of a professional player was first
introduced. It describes which part of the set of tools the operators found useful, and
howtheywereused.
Firstthefeedbackdescribeshowthetoolswereusedonaneveryday,monitoringbasis:
Themainuseformewastoidentifyareasofinterestinthegame(manyplayers
gathered, unusual or idiosyncratic behaviour, prolific chat etc.) or problems in
thegame(eithererrorssuchasplayersdyingwithoutreasonorplayergenerated
suchasserialkilling).Iusuallydidthisdaily,bycheckingtheGameoverview
page,thenjumpingtothePerPlayerdetailedviewtoreadthemessagehistoryof
playerswhichhadbecomeincapacitatedorhaddied.
Todays events is very useful as an immediate snapshot of the game. The
Player Changes, 30 days graph provides a good way to measure the flow of
players into and out of the game. The Total Messages, 30 days provides a
guideastoplayersengagement.
Next,anoperatordescribeshowtheydiscoveredandreactedtoaneventinwhichtwo
oftheplayersbegantryingtokillasmanyotherplayersastheycould:
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The daily stats page was the most useful for identifying problemplayers and
oftenledmetolookatspecificplayersandoccasionallyemailtheoperatorsor
the player if necessary. In particular, this page was useful for spotting DJ Raj
andDrNo,whodecidedtogoonakillingspree.
The operator describes how they used the interface to respond and to restrict the two
playerswhowerecallingproblems:
Followingtheirkillingspree,DJRajandDrNowerebothincapacitatedusing
theadvancedgamecontrolspageandamanualmessagewassenttoeachinan
attempttoslowthemdown.Theirhealthwasalsorepeatedlysettonearly
incapacitatedafterthis.
Asmentionedpreviously,anoperatordescribeshowtheyusedthepagestoidentify
gamewideproblemsoreventsandtoreacttothem:
Threetimesduringthegame,theincomingsmsgatewaystoppedforwarding
messages.Asaresultplayersstoppedreceivingresponsestotheirmessages,
althoughscheduledgameeventsstillproducedoutgoingmessages.Thegame
overviewpage'smessagesinthelast10minswasusefulinconfirmingthe
problemasthegateway.Normally,thiswasinlowdoublefiguresthroughoutthe
gamebutalwaysshowedzeroaftergatewaycrashes.
Duringthegamewealsohadthreedayswherethegamewashalted
unexpectedlyorstartedatthewrongtime.Followingthese,weusedthe
advancedgamecontrolsforadjustthetimebasedefaulttospeedorslowthe
gametocompensateforthelossorgainintime.
Finally,theprofessionalplayerdescribestheirroutinewhattheydidonadailybasis,
whattheywereattemptingtodoandhowtheydidit.Theaimoftheprofessionalplayer
was:
Generally: Keepthegamerunning,andpreventtheplayerstogetannoyedor
bored.Findoutmistakesandproblems.
Monitoringforplayersinneedorunexpectedevents:
Imadeadailycheckof:gameoverview,playeroverview,dailystats.Topstats
pagetogetafirstoverviewonthegame(e.g.tocheckthehistoryofthe
seriouslyillplayersandtherecentlydiedones.),playeroverviewtofindout
wherethebusiestplacesintownwere,playerdetailedviewtoreadthroughtheir
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historyandfindoutwheretheplayerswereincasetheyneededanyhelpor
advices(e.g.howtousethings,howtoimprovetheirhealth...)
to find out why they died and if there was anything suspicious about (bugs,
serialkillers)
Check all the individual players history beginning with the ones who had
health50,followedbytheoneswiththelowesthealthstate.
Iusedtheauthoringtooltofindoutwhatwasgoingonataspecifictimeinthe
game,findthemainnarrativearchesandthemostinterestingplacestogo.
Finallytheprofessionalplayerwouldintervenetotryandresolveasituation:
Checkonorsendaplayeramessagetosendmessagestoplayerspretendingto
speak to them to encourage them to play, esp. when they were at the edge of
town.
Help them in case they needed help or to encourage other players to help
them.
IfIfoundany mistakestheydid,Itriedtoexplaingamerules.Howdoyou
improve your health, how do you use objects. If they were bored I tried to
encourage them by pointing them towards interesting narrative arches or
destinations.IftheywereseriouslyillIeitherhealedthemormadeotherstoheal
them.
7.2.4PossibleExtensions
Asdescribedinthediscussionoftheauthoringtool,theorchestrationtoolsappearedto
formausefuladditiontotheorchestrationofDoFII,andwereusedonadailybasisby
operators, the game authors and the professional player in both monitoring and
maintainingthegame.
However, there are a number of extensions that could potentially be made to the
orchestrationtoolforuseinthenextdeploymentofthegame.
Asmentionedpreviously,apossibleextensionisalooseintegrationoftheorchestration
tool with the authoring tool. As one of the operators describes in their feedback, the
authoringtoolisusefultoseewhichareasplayersarelikelytobein,andwhattheyare
likelytobedoing.Thiswould helptogiveauthorsandoperatorsabetteroverviewof
thegamenotjusthowmanyplayersareinteractingwiththegame,buthowandwith
what.
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Secondly,theoperatorscommentedthattherewasa need foran intermediateviewon

thegame.Currentlytheorchestrationtoolsprovideahighlevel viewofthegameand
players, with the ability to request a detailed view of an individual player. An
intermediate view would allow an operatorto view events that had occurred within a
specific destination or silo, allowing them to view conversations and the effects of
specificcontentonagroupofplayers,ratherthan justthemessages sentandreceived
byoneplayer.
ThischapterhaspresentedanoverviewofthetwomainsupportingtoolsofDayofthe
FigurinesIIsupportingauthoringandorchestration.Wehaveseenhoweachtoolwas
used, and received a generally favourable evaluation from its users, and finally
discussedhoweachtoolcouldpossiblybeextendedtobettersupportfutureoutingsof
DoFII.
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8CONCLUSIONS
Aftertwoyearsindevelopmentwhichhasinvolvedtwomajoriterationsofdesignand
implementation and four major public tests, Day of the Figurines II appears to have
emergedasastableandgenerallyenjoyableexperienceforitsplayers.Playerfeedback
fromSingaporewherethegamewasplayed by morethana hundredand fortypaying
players for over a month was largely positive. In particular, 71% of players from
Singapore said that would be willing to take part in future games of Day of the
Figurines.AnalysisofsystemlogsfromSingaporeprovidesfurtherevidenceofplayer
engagement,withplayerssendingnearly11,000messagestothegameandmaintaining
acollectiveratioof1messagesenttothegameforevery1.7received.
Ingeneral,playersreportedenjoyingthefollowingaspectsofthegame:
Socialinteractionwithotherplayers
Itsgeneralmysteryandsenseoftheunexpected
Thestructureofthegameleavingspacefortheirimaginationstooperateand
Theuniquenessandimpactoftheaugmentedgameboard.
However,thereactiontotheSingaporeperformancecontrastedwiththattotheearlier
Berlinperformance.Berlinplayersfeltslightlynegativelytowardsthegameandwerein
general not inclined to play again. They were also apparently less engaged with the
game,sendingfarfewermessagestoit.
TheimprovedreactionfromSingaporewhencomparedtoBerlinappearstobeforsome
combinationofthefollowingreasons:
Weupdatedthecontentbetweenthetwo,addingandrefiningmissions
ThecostoftextmessagingwasfarcheaperinSingaporeand
Nonnative English speakers in Berlin struggled with some of the games
referencesandslang.
Feedbackfromplayersandanalysisoflogsshedlightonpatternsofplay.Whilethese
vary among individuals, there appears to be a general tendency to episodic play in
whichplayersdip intoandoutofthegame,sometimesdisengaging foraseveraldays
before reengaging again. This was a pattern that we first noticed in the August 2005
LondontestofthefirstversionanditappearstohavecontinuedthroughBerlinandthen
Singapore. Feedback from these experiences suggest that in general, people enjoy
playingathomeandontrains,whileplayingatworkismorecontroversial.
Following Laban, we developed new techniques specifically to support episodic play
includingasetofrulesforpackingmessagedelivery,arevisednavigationmodelbased
on movement through a central hub, and aggregation techniques for combining
informationaboutmultipleeventsintoasinglemessage.OurevaluationsofBerlinand
Singaporesuggestthatthesewerequitesuccessfulplayersgenerallyfoundtheflowof
messagesfromthegametobeacceptableandfoundthecontentofmessagestobewell
structuredandeasytounderstandand,toalesserextent,informative.
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WeautomatedandextendedthecontentofthegameafterLaban,addingasimplegame
grammarsothatmessages could beautomaticallyparsedand handledand introducing
missions in order to give greater structure and direction to the experience. These
changesappearedtohavebeenpopular,althoughthecompletionrateformissionswas
quite low even at Singapore, suggesting that further refinements are required as we
moveforwardtofurtherperformancesinthefuture.Wealsoaddedobjectsandahealth
system,bothofwhichappeartohaveaddedtothegame.
One of the most innovative and distinctive features of Day of the Figurines is the
augmentedgameboard.Thisappearstohelpframetheexperienceforplayers,provides
a reference point for thinking of the game as they subsequently play via their mobile
phones,enablesthemtospotthelocationsofotherplayersandprovidesanopportunity
tomeetsomeotherplayersfacetoface.
Finally, Day of the Figurines was supported by a set of webbased authoring and
orchestrationtools. Feedback fromgameauthorsandoperatorssuggeststhatthesedid
provide important support for creating and managing the game, especially graphical
interface for assigning different kinds of content totimes and places in the game and
interfaceforsummarisingkeyeventsthathadhappenedinthegamethatday.However,
feedback also suggested that these interfaces could be refined and extended to make
themmoreusable.
Based on this evaluation, we would recommend making some further refinements to
Dayofthe Figurines inthe neartomediumterm future,potentially intimetosupport
theUKtourthatisscheduledforthelateSpringandearlySummerof 2007.Keyissues
toaddressinclude:
Furtherimprovingmissions.Theseseemtoaddagreatdealtothegame,butthe
completion rate remains low. We need to review player histories in order to
understand why different missions failed and then revise them accordingly. It
mayalsobeagoodideatoaddsomenewmissions.
Recruitment intothegameappearstobeabottleneck. We may havetochance
therecruitmentprocess ifwewishtoenlistseveral hundredplayers intofuture
versions of the game. This may be possible through better advertising and
introductions around the augmented game board. Alternatively, some players
might be able to register online, for example returning players from previous
games.
There were many requests for some kind of online access to the augmented
game board sothat players could continue to keep in touch with it throughout
thegame.
Itwouldalso be interestingtoexploretheextenttowhichtheDayofthe FigurinesII
structure of destinations, time, events, chat, objects, health, dilemmas and missions
couldbeusedtosupportotherlongtermSMSbasedexperiences.Mightwebeableto
createengagingeducationalexperiencesforteenagers,forexampleexploringhistorical
settingsandevents,ormightbeabletoextendcurrentSMSvotingmechanismsthatrun
alongsideTVshows?
Finally, there are further research questions to drill down into in greater depth.
Interestingquestionsinclude:
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IPerGFP6004457
Further unpacking the design and role of the augmented game board as a
spectator interface? How does this work for players and what more general
lessonscanbelearned?
What additional techniques would enable us to manage interruptions and
episodic play? Can we draw on context aware computing to understand a
playerscurrentsituation andtodeterminethebesttimetotryanengagethemin
thegame?
How should we supportplayers inreviewingthe historyofwhattookplace in
theirgame?Wouldnewkindsofreplayinterfaceprovideapowerfuladditionto
thiskindofexperience?
Whatarethecultural,languageandcostdifferencesbetweenstagingthisgame
in different countries and what do these tell us about the design of pervasive
gamesingeneral?
WeanticipatethatfurtheranalysisofthedatafromBerlinandSingaporeaswellasthe
opportunitytostudy Dayofthe Figurinesas ittourstheUKwillenableustoaddress
someoftheseissuesoverthecomingyear.
91
IPerGFP6004457
9REFERENCES
Appelt, W., Ohlenburg, J., Capra, C., Flintham, M., Oppermann, L., Wenninger, C.
(2006). "Deliverable7.3:ToolboxwithPrototypesofthefirstBasicTools."
Benford,S.,Drozd,A.,Flintham,M.,Tandavanitj,N.,Adams,M.,RowFarr,J.,Capra,
M., Opperman, L., Kanjo, E., Dobbert, A. (2005). "Deliverable D12.2: Design
Specification and Development Report for the first City as Theatre Public
Performance".
Benford,S.,Flintham,M.,Smith,K.,Greenhalgh,C.,Wright,M.,Green,J.,Drozd,A.,
Adams,M.,RowFarr,J.,Tandavanitj,N.,Talbot,H.,Lindt,I.,Peitz,J.,Bjork,
S., Becam, A. (2006). "Deliverable D12.5: Delivery of the Second City as
Theatreprototype."
Capra,M.,Benford,S.,Flintham,M.,Drozd,A.,Crabtrea,A.,Rasanen,M.,Tallyn,E.,
Tandavanitj,N.,Adams,M.,RowFarr,J.,Opperman,L.,Kanjo,E.,Fischer,J.
(2006). "Deliverable D12.4: Evaluation of the first City as Theatre Public
Performance".
Flintham,M.,Tandavanitj,N.(2005)."DeliverableD12.3:FirstPhaseGamePrototype
forthefirstCityasTheatrePublicPerformance."
Montola, M., Jppinen, A., Lahti, J., Lankoski, P., Waern, A., Holopainen, J. (2006).
"DeliverableD5.4:PervasiveGameDesignandEvaluationGuidelinesforIPerG
PhaseTwo."
Svahn,M.,Kullgard,P.,Waern,A.,Holopainen,J.,Koivisto,E.,Stenros,J.,Lankoski,
P., Hughes, J., Lindroth, S. (2006). "Deliverable D4.5: Business Opportunities
andBusinessStructures."
92

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IntegratedProjectonPervasiveGaming

Prototypep Report Disseminationp

2A BRIEF INTRODUCTIONTO DAYOFTHE FIGURINES II

Their figurine isplacedontothe maingame board,waitingat the edgeoftown(see

Fromthispointonwardsthegame isplayed by sendingandreceivingSMS messages.

Finally,the followingextendedsequence showstheendofthegame forFloss.She is

Languageand costissuesaside,thecontentand structureofthegamewereofcourse,

In summary, it appears that Singapore was a considerably more successful experience

MessagesCharacte ristics:WellCompsedPlayersinBe rlin

Meanscore Meanscore Meanscore

when therewere manytasks obviously leading

so I tried to cure myself and get

I couldn't plan what to do next as I didn't know what

There isawide varietyofanswers here suggestingthatplayers mayexhibittheirown

Ifthere isanydifference between Berlin andSingaporeplayers it may be becausethe

then it was a problem as too

Thesecondwasthe currentcontextwithinthegame, i.e.,whotheir figurinewaswith

observations,andalsostressthattheboardwasoneofthe mostdistinctive featuresof

Insummary,the boardappearstobe have beenapositive factorintheexperience for

TOWNcommand inanyday.Dyingwas involuntary,arising fromactionswithinthe

Itis interestingnotethatthe majorityofplayers inBerlin joinedattheopeningofthe

Finally,thisplayerpageallows anoperatortointerveneon behalfoftheplayer.They

Secondly,theoperatorscommentedthattherewasa need foran intermediateviewon

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