Location-Based Gaming: A potential Global and Healthy Experience

Yo Folks,

Back in 1999, when I was the innocent age of ten years old, I used to play a hell of a lot of my Nintendo 64. I played it so much that it actually affected my health. Everyday I would spend less time moving around and more time pushing buttons. I inevitably did gain more weight, which caused my parents to believe that ‘playing video games are generally bad for children’. From then on for a couple of years, I was limited to playing a certain amount of time during a week, sometimes none at all.

It’s not suprising that even today a majority of parents (like mine) claim video games can drain a child’s past time and cause them to gain weight. Many sites such as Child Development Institute and What They Play are supporting and spreading the belief that playing video games can deteriorate health. I’m not implying that this is untrue, but parents are failing to realise that the times have changed. The year 2008 offers many technical advancements and innovations of video games that allow players to move around instead of sitting on the couch. Some examples include Wii-Fit, an exercise game that uses a Wii balance board peripheral; and eye toy, a digital camera device that allows players to use their motion to play. But a significant amount of parents are ignorant of these innovations, simply because the belief ‘video games are bad for children’ overshadows their judgement. Thus, parents will be reluctant to purchase video games for their children, even though they are beneficial to the child’s health.

Discussed by Danny Quinn (our Mobile Gaming’s news writer) in an intriguing article ‘Location Based Gaming, Reshaping the way we think about Video Games’ is one emerging form of gaming that, unlike it’s competitors (Wii-fit, eye toy), uses mobile technology that aims to encourage children to physically step outside, manoeuvre on an open field and play with other players (McAndrews 2008). This concept is known as location-based gaming, which relies on a player’s position to progress in a location-based game using GPS-enabled mobile phones. Games such as Fruit Farmer operate with a group of friends playing outside in a field or park, each player’s position is mapped on their mobile phone’s screen where they have to collect fruit as quickly as possible while avoiding killer wasps (Locomatrix 2007). Essentially, to play location-based games, players have to move and interact at a much more deeper level than wii-Fit, and this seems to be the answer for what parents are seeking: healthy and outdoor activities that appeal to their children.

On the sidetrack, location-based gaming isn’t limited to a park or open field, try visualising the whole world as your virtual playground. This concept can be identified in the location-based game, geocaching, where over 800,000 real treasures are hidden all over the world and can only be found using a GPS and the right co-ordinates via the geocaching website. Once the treasures are found, you can share your experiences in the global online community (Geocaching 2008). As this game operates with players collaborating, sharing, communicating and playing with one another using the Internet, this concept could be described as a form of globalisation of social information. As described by Flew (2008, 194), globalisation derives from the international communications flow from new media such as the Internet, and embodies of the global circulation of ideas, ideologies and digital goods (images, text, ect). Flew (2008, 10) states “new media are central to globalisation because they constitute the technological and service delivery platforms through which international flows of images, information … and all other digitally based forms are transacted”. We can also identify that concept of Geocaching utilises the circulation of user-generated content to operate (check out my previous blog), as users must both contribute their information and use information from other participants to play in the game. As Humphreys (cited in Flew 2008, 36) explains “massive multiplayer online games for instance, derive their particular dynamism as media forms from the productivity of the players themselves, and the investments they make in the evolution of the game itself. Thus, as Bruns (cited in Flew 2008, 36) states the users of the content are also contributors themselves, a term used to define this concept is ‘prod-user’.

And there you have it, location-based gaming, an activity to satisfy a growing market of parents who seek healthy fitness games that appeal to their children. It dissolves the distinctions between physical exercise and gaming, and manages to have the potential to use globalisation to share experiences with others around the world with user-led generated content. I strongly believe parents will like the idea of their children playing with location based games, if it means running around in the outside. Location-based gaming definitely has potential to expand and become more popular, however, there are still some drawbacks. One prominent challenge is that people may find it hard to find other players that have GPS technology to play with. As Dredge (2008) questions “what use is a location-based mobile game if there's nobody near you to play against? All too many of the cool GPS game ideas from developers fall down against this simple question.” That being said, I’m sure in time we will definitely be seeing more of location-based gaming in the future towards targeting children’s fitness.


Bruns, A. 2008. Global Economic Drivers (KCB202). Podcast. http://www.slideshare.net/Snurb/global-economic-drivers-kcb202-pres... (accessed October 19, 2008).

Child Development Institute. 2008. Video Games and Children.http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/health_safety/video_games_and_children.shtml (accessed October 19, 2008).

Dredge, S. 2008. Opinion: The problem with location-based mobile games. http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/feature.asp?c=9042 (accessed October 19, 2008)

Flew, T. 2008. New Media: An Introduction. 3rd ed. South Melbourne, Vic.: Oxford University Press

Geocaching. 2008. Welcome to Geocaching.http://www.geocaching.com/ (accessed October 19, 2008).Locomatrix. 2007. Fruit Farmer.http://www.locomatrix.com/index.php/locomatrix-games/3-games/14-fruit-farmer (accessed October 19, 2008).

McAndrews, B. 2008. Location-based games lure kids off the couch. http://www.springwise.com/gaming/locationbased_games_lure_kids/ (accessed October 19, 2008).

Quinn. D. 2008. Location Based Gaming, Reshaping the way we think about Video Games.http://mobile-media.ning.com/group/mobilegaming/forum/topic/show?id=2255903%3ATopic%3A1088 (accessed October 19, 2008).

What They Play. 2008. Parents more concerned about Video Games than Alchohol and Pornography.http://www.whattheyplay.com/blog/2008/08/11/parents-more-concerned-about-video-games-than-alco/ (accessed October 19, 2008).