Toward a Design Theory of Game-Mediated Social Experiences - A Study of Among Us

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected face-to-face social interaction with and among relational partners -relatives, friends, and others. Prior to the pandemic, many people relied on face-toface social play experiences to help them maintain relationships and satisfy relatedness needs. However, growing coronavirus-related concerns have made such activities unwelcome or inaccessible, leading many to turn to technology-mediated experiences, as a safer alternative means of supporting recreational play with nonproximal relational partners. But how does one design technologymediated recreational play experiences to satisfy a diverse range of user needs, interests, and preferences? To explore this area of interest we study the social experience afforded by the multiplayer game, Among Us. We conduct a diary study with students enrolled in an undergraduate HCI course and report on the findings of a post-study reflective activity. Our findings highlight that casual interdependent games that explicitly and implicitly foster social interaction among players, do provide opportunities for satisfying remote play social experiences when augmented by rich communication technologies.

Socially Distanced Games: Exploring the Future Opportunities of Remote Play

“…However, little is known how widespread their use is and whether people engaged with these types of games when playing remotely during the pandemic. COVID-19 and the lockdowns forced people to try new ways of communicating, including new ways to play games together at a distance [14]. Unlike other studies conducted in this area that focus on a single game media (e.g.…”

“…In response to these changes, researchers have explored the use of videogames to cope with the pandemic [7,14,18], how games could support remote outdoor activities [13] or how digital games have been used as a medium to help move in-person events and celebrations to digital worlds [16]. However, the research has been limited to studying digital games, with little attention to the impact of forcing other game nights to the online medium.…”

Integrating Social Media into the Design Process

“…Social media has become a ubiquitous part of our daily lives. People use social media to communicate with others beyond geographical borders [5], share information, form networks of relationships, discuss common interests [11], and express their opinions. Hence, there is a lot of information from various demographics with different perspectives worldwide on social media platforms.…”

“…Communication has also evolved in multiple ways and formats in the digital age and remote life. With the advancement of technology, people have fewer face-to-face interactions and leverage modern communication methods to stay connected [4,11]. For instance, social media revolutionized how information is disseminated and how successfully people communicate [1].…”

“…Social media platforms are evolving into much more than purely social interaction. Shopping, gaming, advertising products, learning, and live streaming are just a few of the many things individuals can do by using social media [3,11] that was formerly limited to texting a friend or posting a daily status update. Analysis of social media has been used in the design process.…”