Cheating and Creativity in Pervasive Games in Learning Contexts

The frames that set the boundaries of play in pervasive games are ambiguous, thus players must negotiate what is part of the play when playing these games. This negotiation demands and develops creativity among players. The main contribution of this paper is to show how pervasive game designers and facilitators (e.g. game masters and/or teachers) of pervasive games can use the ambiguity and potential cheating in emergent play situations as a driver for promoting creative learning processes. More precisely, game facilitators need to respond to the on-going negotiations of different situational frames so that players are productive in relation to the goals of the game and the learning objectives. The paper outlines what pervasive games are and presents a case involving a pervasive game on global coffee trade. Next, we develop a theoretical framework that allows us to analyse how both players and facilitators need to be creative during a game session in order to play and to facilitate the game and especially how to manage ambiguity. Finally, we discuss the results of our analysis and suggest perspectives for further studies.