「真實」的復歸：擴增實境遊戲Ingress社會文化意義之分析

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

Ingress是原屬Google的Niantic Labs於2013年公開推出的擴增實境（Augmented Reality，AR）遊戲。不同於既有虛擬實境（Virtual Reality，VR）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，在社會文化意義上的特色。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虛擬實境線上遊戲的特色。

Ingress, an augmented reality (AR) game, was developed by Google's Niantic Laboratory in 2012. Our detailed literature review shows, though, that to date very few scholars have paid attention to the cultural and social significance of this game. Combining GPS technology in mobile phones and Google Maps with a virtual reality (VR) game and the real world, Ingress requires players to walk in the real world in order to occupy various virtual portals in the game world. This is the reason why the experience of playing Ingress is entirely different from that of playing all previous VR online games. This paper argues that the social and cultural significance of AR games is the return of the ＂real＂. The influence of AR technology, taking Ingress as the exemplar, is explored in this paper from the following aspects: the return of space, the return of time, the return of the body, the return of identity, and the return of regional, hierarchical organizations. In all these aspects, we also try to clarify that the ＂real＂ that is returned to in Ingress is not the real as it exists without AR technology, which is why the word real is used with quotation marks.