Long-Term Engagement in Mobile Location-Based Augmented Reality Games

Abstract

Pokémon GO was the first mobile location-based Augmented Reality (AR) game to be widely publicized, and its predecessor—the Ingress game—was the first mobile location-based game reaching a broader audience. Both games are continuously developed and have a large basis of regular players. Therefore, Pokémon GO and Ingress can be seen as successful examples of game design in terms of players’ long-term engagement. The usage of games in engineering education has a long tradition, mostly for mediating the understanding of complex systems and often used in a workshop setting where learning takes place not only during game play but also in the debriefing parts. These games have often been multi-player games and have profited from the player interactions, which, since quite unpredictable, has helped to keep the players’ engagement high. However, the costs of designing such games are high, the time for improvements and adjustments is long, and due to the high dependency of user interactions, it is also difficult to ensure a formalized learning outcome. Thus, from a game design perspective, it is beneficially to know how the game mechanics of successful games are constructed. The aim of the study described in this chapter is to identify the game mechanics of Pokémon GO that lead to the observed high level of player engagement. The data collection is done with the help of a survey (N = 50). The results are refined by a comparison with the results of a similarly structured study on Ingress (N = 131). Both surveys have for the most part gathered players who have been playing regularly since the release of the games. The results of the study are summarized in a set of hypotheses and recommendations for the design of mobile location-based AR games. These findings intend to contribute to an effective design of serious mobile location-based AR games.