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Museummedia Case Study 32: Mobile games and museums

SOURCE: Posted: April 20th, 2010 | Author:  Jasper Visser

Wrap up of post-MW2010 unconference session

Although the most popular location based mobile games, Foursquare andGowalla, still have limited user bases, their potential is huge. At themoment, Facebook has over 100 million mobile users, a number that isgrowing with the second.

As a part of the official post-MW2010 programme, Paul Stork and I hosted

an unconference session about mobile games and museums. These aremy notes, please add your thoughts and opinions through the comments.I’ll add them to the post to create a full document on mobile games andmuseums.

What is mobile gaming?

Both Foursquare and Gowalla work alike. Based on your location you cancheck in to a venue, be it a bar, a museum, or whatever. By doing so youlet your friends know your location, but you also enter a competition. You

can earn badges, become the mayor of a place, score points, etc.

In addition to that, people can leave “tips” at a venue. Other visitors cansee these tips. For instance, to eat a certain burger or to see a certainpainting. Limited marketing options are also available.

For both Foursquare and Gowalla you need a smartphone and an internetconnection. Mobile apps are available for all major platforms. Yourlocation is determined with GPS or similar services.

Meaningful service and engaging gameplay

When it comes to mobile games, the old dispute between education andentertainment fires up again. However, there’s consensus on what is mostimportant.

“You have to start with a great gaming experience.”

People first have to like to play the game. If you then can add some usefulcontent or learning objectives to the game, that’s a great plus. It all startswith the gameplay, though. Take, for instance, the Science Museum’sLaunchball, which – as one of the participants put it – simply a great gameto play.

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“Do something people do every day and connect them to your institutionthrough that.”

“Mobile gaming is gaming on their (the gamer’s) terms.”

 You can use existing platforms or build new mobile games, as long as theydo not interfere with people’s normal usage of mobile games. Checking in,collecting badges and leaving tips are enough tools to design greatgaming experiences.

Don’t go fancy on your game design either. All great gaming conceptshave been discovered and there are only a few that actually work.

Competition and rewards

Competition is an important element of mobile games. With Foursquareand Gowalla, rewards are purely digital, however as one participantmentioned:

“The physical reward is underrated.”

People enjoy physical rewards. Both Museum Boerhaave and Beeld enGeluid have had good experiences with rewarding online participationwith small physical rewards.

Altruism can be a reason for people to participate in games. This meansyou can have volunteers put things on platforms like Foursquare. Forinstance: historical locations or cultural heritage.

 To make this successful, it is suggested that,

“Mobile gaming should be part of a (marketing) strategy.”

 This strategy should involve various platforms and consistent ways of rewarding. This strategy could even be inter-institutional. Differentmuseums in one city could work together. If a user has visited allmuseums, they get a reward.

Most participants agreed that it doesn’t hurt if people just run aroundtown to check in to all venues to win the award. Throughout thecompetition they might pick up a thing or two.

Connecting with your collection

Beeld en Geluid, the audio and video archive of the Netherlands,explained a project in which they added material from their archive tophysical objects in the country. People who visit one of these objects getaccess to the related archival material.

Locations could be tagged with objects from a collection. Imagine an “add

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this to Foursquare” button in your online collection, which allows users toposition it at the exact physical location of the object. When people checkin to this location, they get the object plus a link to its online location as atip.

Foursquare’s API (probably) allows these kinds of actions. The “add this toFoursquare” button might then even be added to Europeana, to make allEuropean cultural heritage available on location.

Objects can be games

Objects can be games themselves. Hide and seek, treasure hunts, trails,etc. are based around objects and their (contemporary) location. Gowallaeven uses digital objects to encourage participation. These objects can be“found” by checking into specific places and can be added to a personal

inventory.

At the moment these are objects like “a cheesecake”, but what if we add100,000 of the world’s best cultural heritage in Gowalla. All of a suddenpeople might be collecting pre-Columbian art or Picassos.

It really gets interesting when people start competing for objects, like inflag capture.

Encourage discovery

Foursquare and Gowalla allow you to check in where you already go. Assomeone put it:

“Foursquare encourages you to be boring. Location based games shouldencourage discovery.”

Because mobile games have the surprise effect of “tips” and locationbased suggestions, they are great tools for discovery. Maybe they don’thave you discover new places, but they can give users more informationabout the location they’re at.

Paid or free games

Simply put, you can charge people for great gameplay, not forinformation.

Existing platforms such as Foursquare can be used to develop mobilegames cheaply. It’s a pre to use an existing or web based platform sopeople don’t have to download a separate app for your mobile game.

However, organisation specific apps can be used to better cater the

information needs of the people who are already in your audience. Youcan help them experience your museum better with up-to-date tools.

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A combination of platforms helps to make a full mobile gaming strategy.

Useful links

Mobile games on WikipediaLocation-based games on WikipediaMobile games blog