Challenges in Preserving Augmented Reality Games: A Case Study of Ingress and Pokémon GO

Video games, as an evolving medium, present specific challenges to preservation, and with the introduction of newer technologies, these difficulties are ever increasing. Augmented Reality Games (ARGs) present challenges unique to the technologies implemented within them, blending the physical world with the virtual world, the socializing factors embedded in play, and the increasingly network-distributed nature of their content. We examine two popular ARGs, Ingress and Pokémon GO, as case studies and illustrate the additional challenges ARGs bring to preserving video games. Boundaries in ARGs question the traditional understanding of gameplay, while preserving changes in virtual and physical space present challenges to ARG representativeness and authenticity. Metaplay illustrates behavior based on non-deterministic situations, often as a result of real world changes. We also review different approaches suggested in prior literature for preserving video games, focusing on preserving the context and history of the game by collecting relevant artifacts and documentation, and explain why implementing these approaches could be challenging for ARGs.