Abstract
Networking is a vital but stressful aspect of academic life, one which digital games may be able to make more playful. Existing examples of networking games require players to interact as part of the game-play, and therefore do not bypass the stressful part of networking. In contrast, many other games successfully encourage interaction between players whilst avoiding causing stress to the players. Flashbulb is a networking game that only requires a photograph of another player to be taken in order to progress. Players can choose whether to start a conversation depending on the target and situation. Thematic analysis of interviews with Flashbulb players found that despite not including an icebreaking requirement, it encouraged networking and widened the scope of those spoken to. The act of photographing players promoted conversations without forcing players to engage in uncomfortable discussions. We make recommendations for the design of future iterations of networking games.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | CHI PLAY 2016 - Proceedings of the 2016 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play |
Publisher | Association for Computing Machinery |
Pages | 105-115 |
Number of pages | 11 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781450344562 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 16 Oct 2016 |
Event | 3rd ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, CHI PLAY 2016 - Austin, USA United States Duration: 16 Oct 2016 → 19 Oct 2016 |
Conference
Conference | 3rd ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, CHI PLAY 2016 |
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Country/Territory | USA United States |
City | Austin |
Period | 16/10/16 → 19/10/16 |
Keywords
- Digital games
- Icebreaker games
- Networking
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Human-Computer Interaction