Tabletop Games in the Age of Remote Collaboration: Design Opportunities for a Socially Connected Game Experience

Title of the Paper

"Tabletop Games in the Age of Remote Collaboration: Design Opportunities for a Socially Connected Game Experience"

Paper Information

• Domain: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Social Connectivity, Remote Collaboration Technologies
• Keywords: Tabletop games, remote gaming, social connection, collaboration technologies, COVID-19, virtual spaces, game design

Research Background and Issues

• Issues and Challenges:

  • The physical and social nature of tabletop games limits their experience in remote environments.
  • Social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic has compelled people to seek alternative methods to maintain social interaction, particularly through technology-supported means.
  • Most current digital solutions fail to fully replicate the physical interaction and social connection experience of tabletop games.

• Significance:

  • Social isolation negatively impacts mental health, and fostering social interaction can help alleviate feelings of loneliness.
  • Tabletop games, as a common social activity, hold significant potential as a medium for connecting family and friends.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  • Exploring how technology in virtual and physical spaces can support social connections among adults with family and friends.
  • Existing research primarily focuses on the social impact of digital games, with limited attention to the adaptability of traditional tabletop games in remote settings.
  • The authors aim to study the practical implementation of remote tabletop gaming, summarize the impact of these technologies on game experience and social interaction, and provide insights for future collaborative technology design.

Solution

• Proposed Methods or Solutions:

  • Conduct a multi-method qualitative study, including online participatory observation and in-depth interviews, to explore how people adapt tabletop gaming practices in remote environments.
  • Introduce three core themes to analyze technological adaptation in remote tabletop gaming:
    1. Shared Space: Creating shared virtual or hybrid tabletop environments.
    2. Shared Information and Awareness: Building collective understanding through communication.
    3. Shared Time: Facilitating shared temporal experiences.

• Innovative Aspects:

  • Emphasizes the social characteristics of tabletop games and systematically analyzes their transformation in remote environments.
  • Proposes design opportunities to complement existing technologies, such as hybrid space designs connecting physical and virtual elements.

• Implementation Steps and Techniques:

  • Data Collection: Observing user discussions on social media platforms (e.g., Reddit, Twitter), recording relevant posts, and scraping comments; conducting in-depth interviews with 15 remote tabletop game players.
  • Data Analysis: Using text-based open coding methods to generate over 1,000 initial codes, which are further refined into three main themes.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Findings:

  • Identified and described changes in social and gaming experiences in remote tabletop gaming.
  • Summarized technological adaptation methods used by players, such as employing hybrid setups or virtual platforms to maintain gaming experiences.
  • Highlighted major challenges of current technological support, including lack of physical interaction, absence of non-verbal social cues, and social disconnection caused by technical issues.

• Comparison with Existing Solutions and Advantages:

  • Hybrid setups (combining physical and digital elements) better support players' social experiences compared to purely online gaming.
  • Remote gaming offers greater temporal flexibility, enabling asynchronous game organization.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  • Sampled players' experiences indicate that technical limitations (e.g., network connectivity issues) significantly impact social and gaming experiences in remote tabletop gaming.
  • While hybrid setups are complex, they better replicate the enjoyment of physical gaming experiences.
  • Players expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of customization options (e.g., rule adjustments) in current virtual platforms.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Limitations:

    • Data primarily sourced from respondents in the U.S. Midwest, with limited geographic representation.
    • Sample age range skewed younger, excluding individuals aged 55 and older.
    • The study did not directly compare social and gaming experiences between purely digital platforms and hybrid platforms.

  • Future Directions:

    • Further research on remote gaming experiences among different demographic groups (e.g., older players).
    • Design and testing of new hybrid tabletop gaming technologies incorporating physical components (e.g., augmented dice).
    • Investigate the relationship between game customization and user experience to provide guidelines for future virtual tabletop game design.

Conclusion

Through qualitative research, this paper reveals the potential of remote tabletop gaming in fostering social connections, proposes innovative design directions to support enhanced social experiences, and advances the study and design of technology-supported tabletop gaming scenarios in the era of remote collaboration.