1 Supporting the emergence of specific forms of encounters through location awareness: the case of the Mogi players

Working Draft, not to be quoted without permission This paper presents a case study of the uses in Japan of a multiplayer location-aware mobile game in which users must gather sets of related objects that are both 'virtual ' and localized. The key feature is a virtual onscreen map which is continuously reset with each server request and which features geo-localized players and virtual objects within a radius of 500 meters. This particular interface therefore allows players to 'see ' the location of other players onscreen and assess their mutual proximity. We analyse how these features are exploited by participants to accomplish collaboratively four types of specific encounters, that may be characteristic of location-aware communities: a) noticing another player‟s position by a text message in a way such as to invite him to further elaborate b) a form of co-proximity event in which two players are close enough to appear on the other‟s mobile screen; such onscreen proximity invites strongly to a text message interactions and projects the possibility of a face to face encounter c) another form of co-proximity invented by players in which they disjoin they “freeze ” their icon in a given place, and try to try to get their icon to touch the icon of another mobile player d) rate face to face encounters between players which are experienced as a collective accomplishment and a public performance