The Return of the ＂Real＂: The Social-Cultural Implication of Ingress

Abstract

Ingress 是原屬 Google 的 Niantic Labs 於 2013 年公開推出的擴增實境\n（Augmented Reality，AR）遊戲。不同於既有虛擬實境（Virtual Reality，VR）\n線上遊戲，Ingress 的遊戲設計使玩家一方面必須行走於真實世界中，另一方面\n卻得經由手機上的 APP，才能看到架構在真實世界之上的虛擬實境。基於作者數\n年來的參與觀察，本研究企圖凸顯擴增實境遊戲相較於虛擬實境線上遊戲，在社\n會文化意義上的特色。\n本研究以「真實」的復歸為題，依序從最顯而易見的空間的復歸開始，延伸\n至時間的復歸、身體的復歸、身分的復歸與地域性層級組織的復歸等方面來呈現\n擴增實境遊戲的特性。甚至以研究者個人所參與策劃的一個結合 Ingress 的社會\n運動，以及這段期間醞釀設計經驗研究時的挑戰為例，來說明擴增實境遊戲、尤\n其是 Ingress 對社會運動與經驗研究的影響，以期呈現擴增實境遊戲有別於既有\n虛擬實境線上遊戲的特色。

Ingress, an augmented reality (AR) game, was developed by Google’s\nNiantic Laboratory in 2012. Our detailed literature review shows, though, that to\ndate very few scholars have paid attention to the cultural and social\nsignificance of this game. Combining GPS technology in mobile phones and\nGoogle Maps with a virtual reality (VR) game and the real world, Ingress\nrequires players to walk in the real world in order to occupy various virtual\nportals in the game world. This is the reason why the experience of playing\nIngress is entirely different from that of playing all previous VR online games.\nThis paper argues that the social and cultural significance of AR games is\nthe return of the “real”. The influence of AR technology, taking Ingress as the\nexemplar, is explored in this paper from the following aspects: the return of\nspace, the return of time, the return of the body, the return of identity, and the\nreturn of regional, hierarchical organizations. In all these aspects, we also try to\nclarify that the “real” that is returned to in Ingress is not the real as it exists\nwithout AR technology, which is why the word real is used with quotation\nmarks.