Martians from outer space: experimenting with location-aware cooperative multiplayer gaming on public displays

Abstract

In this paper, we describe our experiences with location-aware cooperative multiplayer game on public displays. The game world is modelled after the city of Oulu, Finland where players protect the city from a Martian invasion. We investigate the potential of the used platform, the effects of locality and how a more complex and challenging gaming experience on public displays is received. We demonstrate that locality does have a significant effect on the game-play especially when the player can actually see the familiar surroundings in the game world. We also show that while the use of the different services vary a lot from place to place, our game can maintain a very good ranking when compared to other, more casual games.