Tag and seek: a location-based game in Tainan City

Abstract

Tag and Seek is a location-based game which leads a traveler through Tainan City in Taiwan. The traveler's task is to find Harry's friends who are hiding at different sites in the city. Once at the site, the traveler has to scan a Near Field Communication (NFC) tag placed on a board looking like Harry's friend. When the NFC tag is scanned the lost friend is found, information about the site is presented and instructions to the next site will be available. The game lets the traveler experience culture, gain knowledge about sites in the city and meet local citizens -- without the traveler having to plan the trip ahead. By implementing NFC technology as check points the interaction with the game differs from regular tourist guides and the threat of privacy which comes with location-based services is greatly lowered as the traveler is not being tracked by GPS. From our user evaluation we found that both the interface and interaction with the boards could use some improvements to increase the usability.