On the Edge of the Magic Circle - Tampereen yliopisto

253 Pages·2012·11.91 MB·English

by  Markus Montola

MARKUS MONTOLA
On the Edge of the Magic Circle
Understanding Role-Playing
and Pervasive Games
ACADEMIC DISSERTATION
To be presented, with the permission of
the board of the School of Information Sciences
of the University of Tampere,
for public discussion in the Auditorium Pinni B 1097,
Kanslerinrinne 1, Tampere, on September 22nd, 2012, at 12 o’clock.
UNIVERSITY OF TAMPERE
ACADEMIC DISSERTATION
University of Tampere
School of Information Sciences
Finland
Copyright ©2012 Tampere University Press and the author
Distribution Tel. [phone]
Bookshop TAJU Fax [phone]
P.O. Box 617 [email protected]
33014 University of Tampere www.uta.fi/taju
Finland http://granum.uta.fi
Cover design by
Mikko Reinikka
Acta Universitatis Tamperensis 1750 Acta Electronica Universitatis Tamperensis 1222
ISBN 978-951-44-8863-4 (print) ISBN 978-951-44-8864-1 (pdf)
ISSN-L 1455-1616 ISSN 1456-954X
ISSN 1455-1616 http://acta.uta.fi
Tampereen Yliopistopaino Oy – Juvenes Print
Tampere 2012
For years, I’ve lived a double life.

In the day, I do my job. I ride the bus, roll up my sleeves with the hoi polloi.
But at night, I live a life of exhilaration, of missed heartbeats and adrenalin.

And, if the truth be known, a life of dubious virtue.
I won’t deny it; I’ve been engaged in violence, even indulged in it.
I’ve maimed and killed adversaries and not merely in self-defense.
I’ve exhibited disregard for life, limb and property, and savored every moment.
You may not think it, to look at me, but I have commanded armies and conquered worlds.
And though in achieving these things I’ve set morality aside, I have no regrets.

For though I’ve led a double life, at least I can say:
I’ve lived.

– PlayStation commercial
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4
Table of Contents
Preface .................................................................................................................. 7

Acknowledgements .......................................................................................... 8

List of Publications ............................................................................................... 9

1.
  Introduction .................................................................................................... 11

1.1
  Goals of the Research ............................................................................. 12

1.2
  Structure of this Work ............................................................................. 14

1.3
  About the Author .................................................................................... 14

2.
  Towards Constructionist Ludology ............................................................... 17

2.1
  Play and Games ....................................................................................... 20

2.1.1
  Play ............................................................................................... 21

2.1.2
  Games ........................................................................................... 25

2.1.3
  Rules ............................................................................................. 32

2.2
  Domains of Play ...................................................................................... 47

2.2.1
  Magic Circle of Play ..................................................................... 48

2.2.2
  Game World and Diegesis ............................................................ 55

2.3
  Ephemeral Games ................................................................................... 74

2.3.1
  Emergence .................................................................................... 75

2.3.2
  Coincidence .................................................................................. 77

2.4
  Games and Creativity .............................................................................. 79

2.4.1
  Creative Games ............................................................................ 81

2.4.2
  Play and Narrative ........................................................................ 86

2.4.3
  Performing for the First Person Audience .................................... 89

2.4.4
  Fun and Games ............................................................................. 94

2.5
  Discussion ............................................................................................... 99

3.
  Defining Pervasive Games and Role-Playing .............................................. 101

3.1
  Historical Context ................................................................................. 102

3.1.1
  Roots in Children’s Play ............................................................. 102

3.1.2
  History of Psychological Role-Playing ...................................... 105

3.1.3
  Origins of Tabletop Role-Playing Games .................................. 108

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3.1.4
  Origins of Larp ........................................................................... 109

3.1.5
  Origins of Pervasive Games ....................................................... 111

3.2
  Defining Role-Playing in Games .......................................................... 113

3.3
  Defining Pervasive Games .................................................................... 120

3.4
  Pervasive Role-Playing ......................................................................... 122

4.
  Studying Pervasive Role-Play ..................................................................... 125

4.1
  Ephemeral Prototypes ........................................................................... 126

4.2
  Evolution of Pervasive Role-Playing Prototypes .................................. 133

4.2.1
  Beginning: Där vi Föll ................................................................ 134

4.2.2
  Scaling Up: Momentum ............................................................. 135

4.2.3
  Spinning Off ............................................................................... 136

4.3
  Central Outcomes .................................................................................. 137

5.
  Introduction to the Included Papers ............................................................. 141

5.1
  Methodological Papers .......................................................................... 142

5.2
  Papers on Role-Playing ......................................................................... 142

5.3
  Papers on Pervasive Games .................................................................. 143

5.4
  Papers on Pervasive Role-Playing ........................................................ 144

Ludography ....................................................................................................... 147

References ......................................................................................................... 151

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Preface
In 1983 my dad brought in a Commodore VIC-20 microcomputer, together with a
Radar Rat Race game module. I do not know why, and he couldn’t really explain it
either when I asked him 25 years later. It was far too expensive for a toy, but had no
utility value either.
However, for whatever reason, he did. Radar Rat Race grew old quickly, but it was
followed by a number of games painstakingly typed in from computing magazines.
Two years later, he upgraded to the legendary Commodore 64, giving us access to
classics such as Wizard of Wor and Daley Thompson’s joystick-killing Decathlon.
Those two computers got me hooked on computer games from an early age, and
gave me a comprehensive education in the history of digital games. However, an even
bigger life-changing experience occurred in 1987, when my friend Topi obtained a
copy of the tabletop role-playing game RuneQuest. We quickly fell in love with its
infinite possibilities. I vividly remember the death of my first character as a collateral
victim of a status contest between the game master and another player.
Worried about the extensive amounts of time my brother and I spent with the C64,
my parents tried to enforce a daily limit of one hour of computer time for each of us.
They failed, of course. Topi’s mom was hit by one of the religious moral panics against
role-playing games, and one day she junked all our RuneQuest books. We spent an
afternoon going through dumpsters to recover them. The next time she dumped them
somewhere far beyond our reach. We pooled our money, bought replacement copies,
and played in secret from then on. We still sometimes play the characters we originally
created in 1989.
Over the decades, gaming grew from a hobby to a passion to a career. I have been
told, repeatedly, that I will stop playing games when I grow up. But until then, I look
forward to seeing where the road that started from the VIC-20 goes next.
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Acknowledgements
I want to thank my supervisors, professors Frans Mäyrä and Annika Waern. Their
work made it possible for this research to be undertaken in the first place, and their
support in the process has been invaluable. Professor Mikko S. Lehtonen provided a
home for this dissertation in its early years, and professor Steve Benford wrote the kind
words that secured the funding of this work for two years.
The scholars who have helped me on the road are too numerous to be named here.
Jaakko Stenros has been the best imaginable partner in crime. Our close collaboration
has been an essential part of this dissertation process. Satu Heliö commented and
encouraged this work during its first years. The discussions, debates and disagreements
with J. Tuomas Harviainen, Petri Lankoski, Jussi Holopainen and Staffan Björk have
refined my thinking and argumentation. I want to thank my external examiners Christy
Dena and Jesper Juul for their comments on the full-length manuscript.
I want to thank all the Finnish and Nordic role-players, larpers and gamesrs who
have inspired, informed, questioned and given meaning to this work. Above all, I’m in
debt to the creators of the Prosopopeia prototypes, such as Martin Ericsson, Staffan
Rosenberg, Christopher Sandberg, Adriana Skarped and Daniel Sundström.
I have been able to work on this dissertation in several wonderful research
organizations. From 2004 to 2008 I worked in the GameLab research group at
University of Tampere, funded by the EU-project IPerG (FP6–004457). In 2008-2009 I
spent a year at Nokia Research Center Tampere. For two years between 2008 and 2011
I was funded by a grant from the Finnish Cultural Foundation. This dissertation was
printed with the support of the City of Tampere. Without this network of supporters,
you would not be reading this work.
I want to thank to my family for the inexplicable decision to purchase the VIC-20
computer. Thank you for allowing me to waste my youth playing all kinds of games.
Finally, I want to thank Sanna, not only for the late night debates on social
constructionism, but especially for the love and support on the home stretch.

Helsinki, May 30th, 2012,
Markus Montola
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List of Publications
I. Montola, M. (2011): Social Constructionism and Ludology: Implications for
the Study of Games. In Simulation & Gaming. Sage, London.
doi:10.1177/1046878111422111
II. Montola, M. (2008): The Invisible Rules of Role-Playing: A Structural
Framework of Role-Playing Process. In International Journal of Role-Playing
1 (1).
III. Montola, M. (2009): Games and Pervasive Games. In Montola, M., Stenros,
J. & Waern, A. (2009): Pervasive Games: Theory and Design. Morgan
Kaufmann, Burlington. ISBN:978-0123748539.
IV. Montola, M. (2010): A Ludological View on the Pervasive Mixed-Reality
Game Research Paradigm. In Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing 15 (1).
Springer, Berlin. doi:10.1007/s00779-010-0307-7
V. Jonsson, S., Montola, M., Waern, A. & Ericsson, M. (2006): Prosopopeia:
Experiences from a Pervasive Larp. In ACE 2006 conference.
doi:10.1145/1178823.1178850
VI. Montola, M. (2007): Tangible Pleasures of Pervasive Role-Playing. In Baba,
Akira (ed.) (2007): Proceedings of DiGRA 2007 Situated Play conference
178-185. September 24.-28. University of Tokyo.
VII. Waern, A., Montola, M. & Stenros, J. (2009): The Three-Sixty Illusion.
Designing for Immersion in Pervasive Games. In CHI ‘09 conference.
doi:10.1145/1518701.1518939
Two of the seven papers were jointly authored. Staffan Rosenberg (Jonsson) and
Martin Ericsson contributed to Paper V through the design and implementation of the
game prototype. The prototype was evaluated together with Annika Waern, and the
paper was co-written with her. Annika Waern was the project coordinator, and the
author was in charge of the evaluation work.
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All authors participated in the writing of Paper VII, based on earlier work. Annika
Waern coordinated the work and contributed especially to the sections on Interference.
The focus of the author’s contribution was in the theoretical framework and the
sections on Momentum. Jaakko Stenros contributed especially to the sections on
Momentum.
Paper I is reprinted from Simulation & Gaming with permission from Sage
Publications, copyright © 2011 by Sage Publications. Paper III is reprinted from
Pervasive Games: Theory and Design with permission from Elsevier, copyright ©
2009 by Elsevier. Paper IV is reprinted from Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing 15
(1), with kind permission from Springer Science+Business Media, copyright © 2010
by Springer-Verlag London Limited. Papers V and VII are author’s versions reprinted
with permission from ACM, copyright © 2006 and 2009 by ACM.
In the remainder of this work, roman numerals are used to refer to the papers.
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