4.1.1 Communication Dynamics.
As a game taking place in co-located CS-AR, Urban Legends had no in-game communication, such as voice communication or embedded text options. Furthermore, the game did not have any visual indicators on the interface that could assist the participants in finding the location of the enemies or where the next attack would come from. The participants had to constantly move their devices to scan their real-world surroundings and look for enemies to attack or dodge the enemy attack. Participants had to communicate in a real environment outside of the game. As they took action (e.g., attack the enemies, dodge an enemy attack, step into the healing aura to boost health, etc.), it would reflect in the game environment of AR. We observed them using verbal cues, gestures, and body language as their methods of communication before and during the game. Participants who could communicate verbally did so using verbal cues before the game; otherwise, they used gestures and body language. Three out of the 17 [P01G01, P07G03, and P09G04] participants could not communicate verbally; they were competent in ASL but were unaware whether other participants in the group could use ASL.
Interestingly, we observed that all the participants who could not communicate verbally came prepared with a speech-to-text app on their smartphones. Whenever they had to participate in complex communication, such as selecting a role, discussing game strategy, and expressing their comprehension of the game roles during the discussion period before each round, they used the speech-to-text app to comprehend what other participants were saying verbally. When it was their turn to communicate, they typed their thoughts on their smartphones and showed them to other participants. P01G01, who was deaf, said later in a text-based interview,
“We did the gestures by pointing them out to each other, and sometimes we used texting to communicate.” [P01G01]
The key findings from all three deaf participants were that the game was fast-paced, and they did not have time to type for communication, so they opted out for gestures when they wanted to communicate with others during the game. Participants who could communicate verbally (14/17) used verbal cues mostly for communicating before each round. P04G02 explained,
“During the discussion time, we communicated the entire time verbally. The other people in my team showed no difficulty in just communicating verbally, so that was the method I defaulted to.” [P04G02]
Another notable discovery was that, when interacting with participants who communicated non-verbally, various methods like speech-to-text, typing on the phone, gestures, and body language were employed. P02G01, who played with a non-verbal participant, mentioned,
“I tried to communicate verbally and with hand gestures. I noticed that one of the participants was definitely deaf, and I don’t really know a lot of ASL. The only problem, I would say, was figuring out how to communicate so that everyone could understand. So I had to rely on either hand gestures or texting on the phone.” [P02G01]
During the game, they used verbal cues to communicate with other participants who were comfortable with spoken communication; otherwise, they used hand gestures. In our code, we annotated it as “gestures during the game.” However, more than half of the participants (10/17) mentioned not communicating much during the game. P03G01, who played with one participant who could communicate verbally and one who could not, said,
“To be frank, we didn’t really communicate with each other much during the gameplay. I feel like we would have communicated more if we knew each other, but we didn’t.” [P03G01]
Another participant, P1507, who played with two other participants who could communicate verbally, said,
“I don’t really think there was that much communication necessary during actual gameplay.” [P1507]
Even though there was little perceived communication during the game, only one participant [P08G03] mentioned it as an issue, saying,
“I don’t think we had the best communication during the game. So that was an issue.” [P08G03]
In contrast to this sentiment, we observed and recorded all the participants using body language or hand gestures during play to communicate with others in the game. As participants were focused on their own activities in the game, communication may have been less prioritized in their recollections of the play. After all rounds, we observed two participants [P02G01 and P11G05] using ASL to convey their names, even though they could communicate verbally.
4.1.2 Collaboration Strategies.
We divide collaboration during the user study into two phases: (i) before each round of the game and (ii) during the game. More than two-thirds of participants (12/17) reported equal collaboration during role selection discussions between rounds, as elaborated by P14G02,
“I felt like we’re pretty even. I don’t think either of us did more than the other.” [P14G02]
Two of the participants, from Group 01 [P02G01] and Group 02 [P08G01], mentioned that they were more outspoken during the discussion time and initially led the discussion about roles and strategies, but they would not describe it as aggressively leading either, which can be clarified by a comment from P02G01,
“It was mostly me commenting on strategy and noticing the things with the additional members of the team. And then me saying, “Hey, this is the best idea,” and no one really tried to veto that.” [P02G01]
Like the communication aspect, our coding highlighted another prevalent theme: participants collaborated less during the game, even though more than half (9/17) identified it as the best aspect of the game. Comments from P17G07 further solidified our observation,
“I’d say it [collaboration] happened in one of all five rounds, and again, we mostly communicated before each round[...], but asking for help, I think it only happened once in every play that we did.” [P17G07]
The participants’ concept of collaboration during the game revolved around assisting one another throughout the gameplay. Only two participants [P10G04, P13G06] stated there was plenty of collaboration during the game; on the other hand, 8 out of 17 participants mentioned they did not often collaborate, while one participant [P15G07] said he did not collaborate at all during the game. P16G07 said,
“Because nobody was in danger of dying if someone were in danger of dying, I think we would communicate more.” [P16G07]
We labeled comments like this as “limited collaboration due to the game’s design,” indicating that participants perceived the game’s design as a factor contributing to restricted collaboration during gameplay. P12G05 also brought up an intriguing point,
“We knew what to do, and I didn’t need help that much in the later rounds.”[P12G05]
This suggests participants adapted and became more familiar with the game through repeated rounds.