Meeting with Steffen P. Walz

Today we had a meeting with Steffen P. Walz from ETH Zurich. Steffen’s research: looking at (pervasive) game design methods, ethnography… how that can be used in the computer aided architecture methods.

Steffen:
- he has 2 projects: a class called “ETH game”: a location based learning/history game: depending on the location, history notes will appear + quizz + collaborative features (you need to answer to sites-specific question + proximity/range), wlan, 1000 people + how to optimize surveillance systems by using games (getting ahead of babydoc), a video tracking things
- phd topic: using game design method to enrich architecture methods
- “how do we deal with 5000 people fucking around with each other”
- works on a book project about book and architecture (1. games, history, architecture 2. ubiquitous games… 3. how game design methods relates to/could enrich architectural methods). Might be interesting to write a chapter of it.
- from an architectural point of view, it would be nice to have a topology of space/location that you can annotate, and why?
- he points me to erick klopfer (MIT)
- mad countdown: impressive scenario, event-based, site specific
- raumtaktik: a board game based for urban planning (architectural game design:education)
- – his phd is funded by MICS (Mobile Information and Communication Systems), mics is goind to an end, there’s gonna be a mics2 (about ‘sensor internet’, sentient buildings…)… Prof. Karl Aberer … steffen: using games for research about sentient building.

How to engage people into location-based annotation:
- spatial-scale + number of people involved
- critical mass of people with shared interest, how they can form a somehow ‘community of practice’: density of people
- rewards (steffen), nicolas: especially true with mobile games that happens in the real world (social reward in community of practice)… steffen mentioned an interesting reward: a secret that you have to share but cannot… social statuts
- …