Campus knights: situated pervasive display as a window into pseudo-immersive game world

In this paper we explore how a situated public display can be employed as a window into pseudo-immersive virtual game world. Our experimental construct is Campus Knights, a location based mixed reality game that is played by teams, using mobile phones inside several indoor arenas that have both physical and virtual representations. Each game round begins with players exploring the physical world to recover digital artifacts, and culminates in a boss fight inside a 3D virtual replica of the physical game arena. We study the immersive quality of such a physical-virtual game environment in two semi-controlled field trials conducted on a university campus. Our results show that the social aspect of using a public display as a gathering point for players can provide an \"in game\" alternative for situated game play and enhance social interaction between players in otherwise spatially dispersed game.