A design framework for awareness cues in distributed multiplayer games

Jason Wuertz; Sultan A. Alharthi; William A. Hamilton; Scott Bateman; Carl Gutwin; Anthony Tang; Phoebe O. Toups Dugas; Jessica Hammer

doi:10.1145/3173574.3173817

A design framework for awareness cues in distributed multiplayer games

Jason Wuertz, Sultan A. Alharthi, William A. Hamilton, Scott Bateman, Carl Gutwin, Anthony Tang, Phoebe O. Toups Dugas, Jessica Hammer

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Other

57 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In the physical world, teammates develop situation awareness about each other's location, status, and actions through cues such as gaze direction and ambient noise. To support situation awareness, distributed multiplayer games provide awareness cues-information that games automatically make available to players to support cooperative gameplay. The design of awareness cues can be extremely complex, impacting how players experience games and work with teammates. Despite the importance of awareness cues, designers have little beyond experiential knowledge to guide their design. In this work, we describe a design framework for awareness cues, providing insight into what information they provide, how they communicate this information, and how design choices can impact play experience. Our research, based on a grounded theory analysis of current games, is the first to provide a characterization of awareness cues, providing a palette for game designers to improve design practice and a starting point for deeper research into collaborative play.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Editors	Anna Cox, Mark Perry
Place of Publication	New York NY USA
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Number of pages	14
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450356206, 9781450356213
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3173817
Publication status	Published - 2018
Externally published	Yes
Event	International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2018 - Palais des Congrès de Montréal, Montreal, Canada Duration: 21 Apr 2018 → 26 Apr 2018 Conference number: 36th https://chi2018.acm.org/ https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/3173574 (Proceedings)

Conference

Conference	International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2018
Abbreviated title	CHI 2018
Country/Territory	Canada
City	Montreal
Period	21/04/18 → 26/04/18
Internet address	https://chi2018.acm.org/ https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/3173574 (Proceedings)

Keywords

Awareness cues
Distributed multiplayer games
Game design
Situation awareness
Workspace awareness

Access to Document

10.1145/3173574.3173817

Cite this

Wuertz, J., Alharthi, S. A., Hamilton, W. A., Bateman, S., Gutwin, C., Tang, A., Toups Dugas, P. O., & Hammer, J. (2018). A design framework for awareness cues in distributed multiplayer games. In A. Cox, & M. Perry (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Article 243 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3173817

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title = "A design framework for awareness cues in distributed multiplayer games",

abstract = "In the physical world, teammates develop situation awareness about each other's location, status, and actions through cues such as gaze direction and ambient noise. To support situation awareness, distributed multiplayer games provide awareness cues-information that games automatically make available to players to support cooperative gameplay. The design of awareness cues can be extremely complex, impacting how players experience games and work with teammates. Despite the importance of awareness cues, designers have little beyond experiential knowledge to guide their design. In this work, we describe a design framework for awareness cues, providing insight into what information they provide, how they communicate this information, and how design choices can impact play experience. Our research, based on a grounded theory analysis of current games, is the first to provide a characterization of awareness cues, providing a palette for game designers to improve design practice and a starting point for deeper research into collaborative play.",

keywords = "Awareness cues, Distributed multiplayer games, Game design, Situation awareness, Workspace awareness",

author = "Jason Wuertz and Alharthi, {Sultan A.} and Hamilton, {William A.} and Scott Bateman and Carl Gutwin and Anthony Tang and {Toups Dugas}, {Phoebe O.} and Jessica Hammer",

note = "Funding Information: This material is based upon work supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. IIS-1651532 and IIS-1619273. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).; International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2018, CHI 2018 ; Conference date: 21-04-2018 Through 26-04-2018",

year = "2018",

doi = "10.1145/3173574.3173817",

language = "English",

editor = "Anna Cox and Mark Perry",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)",

address = "United States of America",

url = "https://chi2018.acm.org/, https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/3173574",

}

Wuertz, J, Alharthi, SA, Hamilton, WA, Bateman, S, Gutwin, C, Tang, A, Toups Dugas, PO & Hammer, J 2018, A design framework for awareness cues in distributed multiplayer games. in A Cox & M Perry (eds), Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems., 243, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), New York NY USA, International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2018, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 21/04/18. https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3173817

A design framework for awareness cues in distributed multiplayer games. / Wuertz, Jason; Alharthi, Sultan A.; Hamilton, William A. et al.
Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ed. / Anna Cox; Mark Perry. New York NY USA: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2018. 243.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Other

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AU - Alharthi, Sultan A.

AU - Hamilton, William A.

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AU - Tang, Anthony

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AU - Hammer, Jessica

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A design framework for awareness cues in distributed multiplayer games

Abstract

Conference

Keywords

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