Personal playlists and collective experiences: Findings from the pervasive game ‘What we take with us’

This research investigates the impact of self-selected music, communal music sharing, and personal audio and video recordings within the pervasive game What We Take With Us (WWTWU) on player wellbeing, emotions, and narrative engagement. WWTWU is a wellbeing-focused pervasive game deployed across a Discord-based ARG, a physical room-based game, and game workshops. Players created personal playlists to use during play, vocalised self-reflections in some tasks, and shared these artefacts on the communal Discord server. Findings show that players reported music significantly enhanced their play experience, fostering community, supporting emotional regulation, and deepening their sense of engagement with the game. The personal playlists and communal interaction pivotally provided comfort to players while completing the game’s often emotional tasks. However, individual music preferences impacted the resonance of players’ experiences, with some participants finding the repetition of music-based tasks less engaging. Based on these findings, recommendations for developers include using audio interludes for reflection, music playlists as narrative tools, and integrating personal and communal music design to facilitate emergent narratives in games.