Pervasive Games Beyond the Promotional Tools

Approaches of Aesthetic Pervasiveness in Consumption of Experience

Résumé

This paper proposes an analysis of the aesthetic elements that permeate both pervasive gaming and pervasive advertising, a type of advertising that infiltrates urban spaces and allows for a ludic and tangible experience. This research discusses the aesthetic similarities between pervasive games and pervasive advertising. It analyses a selection of the most shared videos from around the world, collected by Unruly Viral Video Chart and looks into the following common features: the social expansion carried out by convening performances that are directly related to the engagement of the interactor and viewer; the establishment of a fictional agreement characterised by the fluidity of boundaries between reality and fiction; the space-time expansion occurring as part of this agreement. This process of engaging in movement between real and fictional borders, engaging and entering into built environments, prevents the occurrence of involuntary micro-suspension of disbelief in the sense that, for a few seconds, the limiting notions of what is real lose their foundations. This research argues that the elements that permeate both pervasive games and pervasive advertising are part of this experiential moment of searching for tangible pleasures characteristic of a ludic society.