Yet, current understanding on what makes these games successful in such endeavours is still insufficient. Earlier research on user requirements for such games have identified seven different activity types that have proven to initiate social interaction and capture real life exchanges for meaningful play-based social experiences.
Location-based games invite players to have new forms of meaningful social interactions with others and provide opportunities for players to engage with their own neighbourhood's public space.
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For play in the outer world, research suggests balanced gameplay between the digital and the real world is recommended, and proposes that social interaction is best triggered when involving play settings allowing for the full range of exchanges between people (players or not). Even though the most conveniently deployed way of interaction in games is digital, researchers consider that out-of-the-digital-game communication is key for outdoor-based play, and that social interaction can be seen as a purposeful bilateral communication that is either stimulated (required by the gameplay) or natural (emergent) : stimulated communication can be triggered via mechanics such as (a)synchronous competition/collaboration, whereas natural face-to-face communication can emerge through meta-gaming (activities parallel to the main game). Even though this is the case, such literature still contributes to better comprehending the different ways that interaction has been triggered in the most varied studies. These guidelines, requirements, and heuristics often pertain to games for children and the elderly, covering quality requirements for emotions, exertion, motivation, engagement and awareness levels, behaviour education, presence, social adaptability, accessibility, intergenerational and indoor gameplays both with computers, toys and table tops, and they also include recommendations specific to user experience for impaired users, mobile learning experiences, and user-game interaction.
The requirements that are documented are scattered across different types of games, such as requirements for pervasive games in general, serious games, movement-based exergames, online gaming sites, electronic computer games, mobile multiplayer (AR) games, massive multiplayer online games, non-digital multiplayer games, AR (augmented reality) indoor-based games, and guidelines for education. Game design practitioners have shown to explore non-user-centred requirements during early-stages of game conceptualization, but this knowledge is most often not shared with the "outer world".