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Socially Distanced Games: Exploring the Future Opportunities of Remote Play

Published: 07 November 2022 Publication History

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.

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Cited By

View all
  • (2023)Lessons from Homebrewed Hybridity: Designing Hybrid Digital Boardgames for Distanced PlayProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36110227:CHI PLAY(45-72)Online publication date: 4-Oct-2023
  • (2023)Remote Wavelength: Design and Evaluation of a System for Social Connectedness Through Distributed Tabletop GameplayProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581142(1-19)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI PLAY '22: Extended Abstracts of the 2022 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play
    November 2022
    419 pages
    ISBN:9781450392112
    DOI:10.1145/3505270
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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    Publication History

    Published: 07 November 2022

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    Author Tags

    1. COVID-19
    2. Games
    3. HCI
    4. Remote Play
    5. Social Play

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    View all
    • (2023)Lessons from Homebrewed Hybridity: Designing Hybrid Digital Boardgames for Distanced PlayProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36110227:CHI PLAY(45-72)Online publication date: 4-Oct-2023
    • (2023)Remote Wavelength: Design and Evaluation of a System for Social Connectedness Through Distributed Tabletop GameplayProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581142(1-19)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023

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