In recent years, the notion of the Metaverse has become the focus of a growing body of work in the industry. However, there is no consensus on the conceptualization in academia. To date, much of this attention has revolved around technological challenges.However, what is notably missing from these discussions is a consideration of the human factors and social aspects that are considered more critical challenges within HCI. The aims of this SIG are as follows: Firstly, to provide a platform for researchers and practitioners to engage with the various definitions and the ways in which the Metaverse is developing. Secondly, to discuss the opportunities, challenges, and future possibilities in the context of HCI. This will lay the foundations to build a network for academics interested in the field for future multidisciplinary research relating to the Metaverse. CCS Concepts: • Human-centered computing → Human computer interaction (HCI).
The overlaying of physical spaces with digital information produces hybrid spaces, redening people's experience of social interactions.Location-based games (LBGs) with social components are a good case. Yet, the impact LBGs have on sociability remains underresearched. In April 2020, the new in-person/remote raiding format in the LBG Pokémon GO provided a lens to explore people's social interactions in hybrid spaces. We interviewed 41 Pokémon GO players to understand how players coordinate and collaborate for in-person/remote raids and other social patterns. Our ndings demonstrate that new social dynamics occurred: participants' social interactions highly rely on external social media groups bridging cyberspace and the physical world. In such external social media groups, spontaneously formed leadership roles and mentor-mentee relationships demonstrate autonomy among players in the hybrid space. However, we observed that the interoperability issue challenges people's experience. Overall, this work sheds light on the social interactions in LBGs as hybrid spaces.CCS Concepts: • Human-centered computing ! Empirical studies in collaborative and social computing; User studies.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.