Glazkov K.P. (2017) The bodily presence in location-based mobile games. Part 1. Sociology of Power, 29 (3): 163–196.

Abstract

The paper examines the transformation of bodily experience in locationbased mobile games. Through the concept of presence, we consider the player’s experience of place and relations with others. The concept of presence is quite ambiguous in different theoretical approaches. The Goffmanian analysis of public behavior uses alternately both meanings of presence: presence as a physical location and presence as a level of involvement in what is happening. We rely on empirical data including interviews with players of Ingress the Game and Pokémon Go (10 interviews), video recordings of five gaming episodes (244 minutes) and players’ comments about gaming experience (2 comments). We managed to find out that in spite of considerable enthusiasm for mobile devices, players spend a significant share of the game process in order to observe public decorum of co-presence with other passers-by. To achieve this goal, players have to demonstrate the reserves of involvement, switching attention from time to time from the phone to others, or to hide the fact of the game, disguising it for other activities, or to play together. Thus, players are constantly engaged in repairing their presence in a situation, the violations of which are connected with the loss of the proper degree of involvement in what is happening here and now. The paper examines the transformation of bodily experience in locationbased mobile games. Through the concept of presence, we consider the player’s experience of place and relations with others. The concept of presence is quite ambiguous in different theoretical approaches. The Goffmanian analysis of public behavior uses alternately both meanings of presence: presence as a physical location and presence as a level of involvement in what is happening. We rely on empirical data including interviews with players of Ingress the Game and Pokémon Go (10 interviews), video recordings of five gaming episodes (244 minutes) and players’ comments about gaming experience (2 comments). We managed to find out that in spite of considerable enthusiasm for mobile devices, players spend a significant share of the game process in order to observe public decorum of co-presence with other passers-by. To achieve this goal, players have to demonstrate the reserves of involvement, switching attention from time to time from the phone to others, or to hide the fact of the game, disguising it for other activities, or to play together. Thus, players are constantly engaged in repairing their presence in a situation, the violations of which are connected with the loss of the proper degree of involvement in what is happening here and now.