Abstract
Playing games with friends and family provided a way to stay connected and deal with isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, restrictions introduced to co-located events affected how both regular and casual players scheduled, organised, participated and engaged with various games. Through an online survey, we aimed to gain preliminary insights into how the swift switch from physical to remote play – forced by the circumstances – impacted the gameplay experiences and how different players potentially changed their playing habits. Our preliminary results suggest that computer-mediated communication systems successfully allowed the translation of co-located game sessions, but also highlight the emergence of different points of player friction during remote game experiences, e.g., the tediousness of scheduling and setup, miscommunication or playmates’ wellbeing. We discuss future research and design opportunities that explore the potential to augment social game experiences at a distance and debate the future of remote or hybrid play.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | CHI PLAY '22: Extended Abstracts of the 2022 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play |
Publisher | Association for Computing Machinery |
Pages | 93-102 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781450392112 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 7 Nov 2022 |
Event | CHI Play 2022 - Bremen, Germany Duration: 2 Nov 2022 → 5 Nov 2022 |
Conference
Conference | CHI Play 2022 |
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Country/Territory | Germany |
City | Bremen |
Period | 2/11/22 → 5/11/22 |
Keywords
- games
- social play
- remote play
- COVID-19
- HCI