Designing for Social Interaction in Collaborative Games on Large Multi- Touch Displays

Abstract

Although computer games enable people from all around the world to play games together and can provide very immersive virtual environments, most computer games are still played in a separate fashion quite contrary to the social events that physical games are. Large interactive surfaces can bridge this gap, bringing together the best of both worlds: highly social activity and colorful, dynamic game worlds. With this paper we contribute to research on gaming on large multi-touch displays. Based on game mechanics successfully brought to small multi-touch devices, we developed our own game intro-ducing features and gestures specifically designed for large surface and multi-player gameplay with special regard for the social interaction among players. We provide insights on the social protocol of collaborative multi-player gaming on large interactive displays by studying people playing our game. Our results suggest that communication and social interaction does not just happen by itself but must be designed into the game, taking into account the specifics of multi-touch interaction, such as non-verbal communication possibilities between players.