What Are We Talking About When We Talk About Location-Based Games Evaluation?

Once location-based games (LBGs) have peculiar characteristics (such as mobility and pervasiveness), evaluating the quality of the user interaction with these games is not an easy task. It is necessary to explore the players' perspective carefully, focusing on their relation with the game, satisfaction, motivation, and fulfillment of expectations. Thus, the present research aims to investigate how the evaluation of LBGs has been employing, creating, or adapting data gathering methods in this context. We performed a systematic mapping of the literature, seeking to identify common practices, issues, and gaps in LBGs evaluation, regarding the player-game interaction. Based on our results, we present leading strategies and methods commonly employed to assess diverse aspects of the player interaction in LBGs. We also discuss relevant issues as the adequacy of chosen methods, the importance of considering LBGs' characteristics in the evaluation, the diffuse application of the concept of player experience, and the apparent lack of integration between the Games User Research community and researchers and practitioners evaluating LBGs.