Applying GIS Concepts to a Pervasive Game: Spatiotemporal Modeling and Analysis Using the Triad Representational Framework

Given pervasive games that maintain a virtual spatiotemporal model of the physical world, game designers must contend with space and time in the virtual and physical. Previous works on pervasive games have partially contended with these representations, but an integrated conceptual model is lacking. Because they both make use of the Earth’s geography, the problem domains of GIS and pervasive games overlap. The goal here is twofold: (1) help designers contend with the spatiotemporal representations and the analysis thereof; and (2) show that Peuquet’s Triad Representational Framework from the domain of GIS is applicable to specifically the sub-domain of pervasive games that maintain a virtual model of physical space and time. By borrowing the Triad framework, space and time can be conceptualized in an integrated model as the WHAT, WHEN and WHERE, allowing for spatiotemporal analysis. The framework is evaluated and validated by applying it to the pervasive game called, Codename: Heroes.