This panel presents and discusses unique aspects of the design issues and technologies involved in developing “pervasive electronic games.” Pervasive electronic games are experiences that move game play into the real world, outside of the usual venues in which electronic gaming occurs. Moving from sedentary venues (living room, video game parlors) into more quotidian spaces is made possible by the proliferation of mobile communications devices, ubiquitous network access, global position sensing and electronic location tagging.

Unfortunately there is no remaining recording from the panel or such, and the SxSW2007 archive seems to be dead and gone..What I can say is that this was a moment when the idea of location-based gaming, and new kinds of game mechanics were being considered, prototyped, discussed in a very energetic way. This was all pre-iPhone (which dropped June 29, 2007) and we were cobbling bits of kit together in whatever ways we could, including integrating commercial and bespoke GPS systems, accelerometers, and such. You can see the photo of Aaron Meyers holding the hand-held PC that we ran MobZombies on, for example.

I organized this panel and reached out to friends/students who were operating in this space earnestly, like Kevin Slavin, Aaron and Dennis Crowley.