I haven't been to the lighthouse for years. There's no road to it; you have to walk. You drive the car to a spot the locals call Jack's Point. It's named after Bloody Jack, a hard man who, by his name, you might think was a fierce warlord. Turns out he got his nickname from his colourful language. His real name he gave to the headland half a mile to the south, Tuhawaiki Point. It's marked with a white octagonal light tower. On my right is a rolling paddock of wheat, on my left a sharp drop to the shingle beach fifty feet below. The dog is in a state of high excitement, new scents abound. I am having a ball, and I wouldn't be here if I wasn't playing Ingress.
So if your opinion is that computer games promote a disconnect from the planet, obesity, and a taste for violence, then you may have to rethink it; if only by acknowledging that there are games you can play on your feet, in the open air, in loosely knit teams of like-minded, peace-loving people your own age. These games go by many names: alternate reality game, augmented reality game, urban gaming, location-enabled game, pervasive game, street game, and probably more. I'll use just the one term in this article: alternate reality game (ARG). Imagine a world in which things are slightly different. Allow yourself to buy into that idea, and temporarily re-invent yourself. In your real life you'll be whoever you are, but in this other world you are effective, pro-active, insightful, and above all resilient. Put that other life on hold. See if this new effective self transforms your old self. Maybe even transcends your old self. That's why ARGs come under the broad mantle of reality hacks.
Typically these games are played on mobile devices, most likely your phone. They are "multi-player location-based games played out on city streets and built up urban environments" [Wikipedia], but I'd say that there is plenty of evidence and rationale for Ingress to push out into the wider landscape, and even to really remote locations. Ingress is a game from Niantic Labs, a startup within Google led by John Hanke, the man who, with others, invented Google Earth. You think it's a game, but it's not a game, the authors say. Every time you long tap an empty space on the Ingress map and choose New Portal, you are sending Google a little tiny piece of their stock in trade. That's not a bad thing, nor is it a conspiracy theory; it's just crowd-sourcing.
Exotic Matter (XM) is entering the world through portals. These portals are statues, monuments, porticos, churches, football stadiums, murals; any object of interest openly available to the public. The players are divided into factions: the Enlightened, and the Resistance. I chose to play on the side of the Resistance, because I don't want the world filled up with this Exotic Matter, whatever it is. I like the old world, the way it was before. You can defend a portal of your own, and you can attack a portal of the other faction and try to take it over. You must physically approach a portal to play it, you have to move in the real world to engage. The gameplay is deliciously complex, rich in rewards, inventory and powers. It's played out on Levels 1 to 8 and beyond. I heard of a Level 15 player the other day, a demi-god. There are frequent bulletins, videos posted on YouTube called the Ingress Report, and Ingress News. There are communities, both official and unofficial. There are around 7 million players worldwide.
So, why am I doing this? For the good of my health? At one level, yes. I need the exercise. But at another level, I am trying to understand the anatomy of an ARG. There's a whole new pedagogy here. It's constructionist, connectivist, and game-based. I have a strong feeling that students and their teachers should be doing this in some way. Designing, building and playing alternate reality games folded around curriculum. Just how I don't pretend to know yet. I'm looking for that now. That's why I'm at the lighthouse with my dog.
I’m keen to hear from any educator who is following a similar pathway, and may have experience of alternate reality or augmented reality games used in an educational context. I’d like to join any existing community, else I’ll start one and we can begin sharing!
***
Just as Niantic Labs is a start-up within Google, so is Stephen's project a start-up within CORE Education. Towards the end of last year CORE established their internal incubator. ARG-EF, The Alternate Reality Games in Education Framework, is one of the projects supported by the CORE Incubator, and is scheduled to deliver its first demonstration game in June of this year.
LINKS
- Ingress on the Web https://www.youtube.com/user/ingress
- Ingress on Google+ https://plus.google.com/+Ingress
- Ingress on Twitter https://twitter.com/ingressnews
Stephen Lowe
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I love this post – really interesting topic and I love the way Stephen writes so frankly about the unknown, but highlights how important it is to have the discussion anyway: "Just how I don't pretend to know yet. I'm looking for that now. That's why I'm at the lighthouse with my dog." I'm so excited for June this year and the unveiling of ARG-EF, and in the meantime, I'll be "at the lighthouse with my dog" too.
Wow Stephen!, your article left me very intrigued so I am going to go and do some exploring of this new AR world and will follow your journey towards ARG-EF with curiosity. Will look forward to future updates.
Thanks Nina! Join the ranks of Ingress Agents who work for CORE! Hint: All so far play on the side of the Resistance. I’ve also done case studies on The Walk, and Superbetter. If you hear of any others that you think are interesting – do let me know!
This is very cool Steven. I had viewed the video but not shifted my tail into the outdoors. Thanks for making it so enticing. I will dip or dive in today.
One way to build an NZ & wider educ community might be to set up a VLN group and perhaps tweet with #IngressEdu.
I'll do the latter, v soon.
Thaks again Steve for the Friday #bonus :)
Ed, good point… that’s exactly what I should do. I’m on leave for a couple of weeks, and I’ll get onto it as soon as I am back. I’m sure there’s a lot of interested peeps out there, once we spread the word.
Been trying to get some gaming going on at my school. Hard to find the time to set it up, but I will get there!
Ang… go you! I think once you accept that for you gaming is work, or at least one aspect of work, then suddenly it becomes easier to justify the time spent. Perhaps just giving the right students permission to play will make it all happen, and you won’t have to do much more than steer, encourage and support.
This is such a cool idea. I am thinking of all the possibilities for integration of curriculum. Look forward to reading and seeing more. Would love for my students to be 'creating" their own ARGs.
Well then, Michele, you and I should stay in touch! A bit further down the track I will need early adopters and testers, perhaps we could get together then?
Oohh…keep me on your address list for that too please. Inspiring article. So many ways of using this authentically in the curriculum bouncing around my head right now.
This is great. i am going to make all my gaming boys in the library read it. We are trying to win support for gaming to be taken more seriousy and are in the process of trying to set up a club and committee. This really supports our cause.
Thanks
Lisa
Thanks for this post. It sounds really interesting. Very keen to give it a go, might also be a way to get my boy and his friends away from their computer screens and DOTA! It would be interesting to see how widely the portals spread – a great link between the outdoors and technology. We already "geocache" and this seems to add a whole extra dimension.
Stephen,
I was impressed by your post. I live in Moscow. I'm a researcher, IT for education. My son also played for Resistance team.
It will be great if you manage to build it into curriculum. Could you share your experience then?
Diana
hi Stephen, I'm really keen to connect and talk about our mutual interests in games and education! Myself and Dan Milward from Gamelab are doing a CORE brekkie in Wgtn in May, like you really keen to build and extend our connections with others exploring this space. The research possibilities abound! We started an in-house Google+ community at NZCER which has a nice repository of articles now – I was thinking of just opening up to anyone who wants to be involved in sharing links and building ideas about games and education together… What do you think??
Love your take on the 'business' of gamifying learning. If ARG gets us out of our classrooms, even if it's in the weekends to capture new portal resources for Ingress or some other ARG tool, then that is a wonderful step in gaining some balance back in the lives of students and teachers. The MindLab Diploma course opened my eyes to ARG and this post helps my Social Studies teacher brain to 'see' it a little better! Be cool if I coud build elements such as Zombie Run into an exploration of our city…