How location-based gaming affects players' nature and forest experiences
First author: LaatoYear: 2023
Abstract
In our digitized modernity, there are an increasing number of discourses related to the benefits of returning to nature for well-being, health, lived daily experiences and promoting ecological sustainability. Concurrently, location-based games (LBGs), such as Pok´emon GO, have become a prominent game-technological trend, which influences players’ movement out and about in nature. Therefore, LBGs could potentially provide a fruitful development to re-establish some of the human-nature relationships lost in urbanization and industrialization. The aim of this study, therefore, is to explore how contemporary LBGs affect peoples’ relationship with nature. We conducted a qualitative study through semi-structured interviews among LBG players. We focused on two complementary seeding points of departure, (1) what aspects of the games affect how players interact with nature and/or are enticed to move in nature, and (2) how LBGs affect the experience in and of nature. The findings detail the multifaceted and bi-directional relationship of how LBGs affect players’ perceptions of nature, but simultaneously, nature changes and shapes players’ movement and experiences, potentially resulting in increased well-being and more sustainable gaming praxis.Details
Language: EnglishCountry of affiliation: Finland
Published in: Proceedings of the 56th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
Publication type: Conference proceeding
Source: https://doi.org/10.24251/hicss.2023.396
Games
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Franchises
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Studies
Description: Interviews (semi-structured)
Research type: Non-experimental
Data type: Qualitative
Comparator: none
Control group: no
Pilot study: no
Pre/post measures used: no
Follow-up: no
Sample type: Players
Sample size: 21
Power analysis: no
Sample countries: Finland
Games studied: null
Franchises studied: null
Study outcomes: Engaging with nature