CSCW at play: 'there' as a collaborative virtual environment

ABSTRACT

Video games are of increasing importance, both as a cultural phenomenon and as an application of collaborative technology. In particular, many recent online games feature persistent collaborative virtual environments (CVEs), with complex social organisation and strong social bonds between players. This paper presents a study of <i>'There'</i>, one such game, focusing on how <i>There</i> has been appropriated by its players. In particular we describe how its flexibility has allowed players to develop their own forms of play within the game. Three aspects of <i>There</i> are discussed: first, how the environment supports a range of social activities around objects. Second, how the chat environment is used to produce overlapping chat and how the game itself provides topics for conversation. Lastly, how the 'place' of <i>There</i> is a fluid interaction space that supports safe interactions between strangers. The paper concludes by drawing design lessons concerning the importance of supporting shared online activity, interaction between strangers, and the difficulties of designing for play.

References

1. Becker, B. and Mark, G. Social Conventions in Computer Mediated Communication: A Comparison of Three Online Shared Virtual Environments. in Schroeder, R. ed. The Social Life of Avatars, 2002.
2. Benford, S., Bowers, J.M., et al. User Embodiment in Collaborative Virtual Environments. in Proceedings of Chi'95, Denver, Colorado., ACM Press, 1995.
3. Benford, S., Greenhalgh, C., et al. Experiments in Inhabited Tv. in Proceedings of CHI 98, Los Angeles, California., ACM Press, 1998.
4. Blythe, M.A., Overbeeke, K., et al. Funology: From Usability to Enjoyment. Klewer, 2003.
5. Bowers, J., O'Brien, J., et al. Practically Accomplishing Immersion: Cooperation in and for Virtual Environments. in Proceedings of CSCW 1996, Cambridge, Ma., ACM Press, New York, 1996, 380--389.
6. Brown, B. and Chalmers, M. Tourism and Mobile Technology. in Kuutti, K., Karsten, E.H., Fitzpatrick, G., Dourish, P. and Schmidt, K. eds. Proceedings of ECSCW 2003, Helsinki, Finland, Klewer Academic Press, Dordrecht, 2003, 335--355.
7. Bruckman, A. Gender Swapping on the Internet, Presented at The Internet Society (INET '93) in San Fransisco, California, 1993. http://www.ramsch.org/martin/uni/fmi-frauen/A.S.Bruckman.html
8. Caillois, R. Man, Play and Games. Thames and Hudson, London, 1962.
9. Castronova, E. Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier, CESifo Working Paper no. 618, 2001. http://papers.ssrn.com, 2001.
10. Churchill, E.F., Snowdon, D., et al. (eds.). Collaborative Virtual Environments. Digital Places and Spaces for Interaction. Springer Verlag, London, UK., 2001.
11. Clanton, C. and Ventrella, J. Avatar Centric Communication in There, Stanford seminar on people, computers and design, Stanford University, 2003. http://stanford-online.stanford.edu/murl/cs547/
12. Curtis, P. Mudding: Social Phenomena in Text-Based Virtual Realities. Intertek, 3 (3). 26--34.
13. Dourish, P. The State of Play. Computer Supported Cooperative Work Journal (JCSCW), 7 (1-2). 1--7.
14. Duck, S. Friends: The Psychology of Personal Relationships. Harvester, 1991.
15. Dyck, J., Pinelle, D., et al. Learning from Games: Hci Design Innovations in Entertainment Software. in Proceedings of Graphics Interface 2003, 2003.
16. Frasca, G. Ludologists Love Stories, Too: Notes from a Debate That Never Took Place. in Copier, M. and Raessens, J. eds. Proceedings of Levelup 2003, DIGRA, 2003.
17. Frasca, G. Sim Sin City: Some Thoughts About Grand Theft Auto 3. Game Studies, 3 (2).
18. Fraser, M., Glover, T., et al. Revealing the Reality of Collaborative Virtual Reality. in Proc. Third ACM Conference on Collaborative Virtual Environments (Cve 2000), ACM Press, 2000, 29--37.
19. Gaver, W. The Affordances of Media Spaces for Collaboration. in Proceedings of Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Cscw'92. Toronto, Canada., ACM Press, 1992, 17--24.
20. Gaver, W., Boucher, A., et al. The Drift Table: Designing for Ludic Engagement. in Proceedings of CHI 2004, Vienna., ACM Press, 2004.
21. Goffman, E. Behaviour in Public Places: Notes on the Social Organization of Gatherings. Free Press, 1985.
22. Goodwin, C. Action and Embodiment within Situated Human Interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, 32. 1489--1522.
23. Grinter, R.E. and Eldridge, M. Y Do Tngrs Luv 2 Txt Msg? in Prinz, W., Jarke, M., Rogers, Y., Schmidt, K. and Wulf, V. eds. Proceedings of ECSCW '01, Kluwer Academic Press, Dodrecht, 2001, 219--238.
24. Guye-Vuillieme, A. and Capin, T.K. Non-Verbal Communication Interface for Collaborative Virtual Environments. Virtual Reality Journal, 4. 49--59.
25. Harrison, S. and Dourish, P. Re-Plac-Ing Space: The Roles of Place and Space in Collaborative Systems. in Proceedings of CSCW '96, ACM Press, Boston, Mass., 1996, 67--76.
26. Heath, C. and Luff, P. Technology in Action. Cambridge university press, Cambridge, 2000.
27. Hindmarsh, J., Fraser, M., et al. Fragmented Interaction: Establishing Mutual Orientation in Virtual Environments. in Proceedings of CSCW 1998, Seattle, Wa., ACM Press, 1998, 217--226.
28. Hindmarsh, J., Fraser, M., et al. Object-Focused Interaction in Collaborative Virtual Environments. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), 7 (4). 477--509.
29. Hindmarsh, J., Heath, C., et al. Creating Assemblies: Aboard the Ghost Ship. in Proceedings of CSCW 2002, ACM Press, 2002, 156--165.
30. Hine, C. Virtual Ethnography. Sage, London, UK, 2000.
31. Holmquist, L.E., Bjö rk, S., et al. What About Fun and Games? in Ljungberg, F. ed. Informatics in the Next Millennium, Studentlitteratur, Lund, Sweden., 1999.
32. Hughes, L. Beyond the Rules of the Game, Why Are Rooie Rules Nice? in Manning, F. ed. World of Play: Proceedings of 7th Annual Meeting of the Association of the Anthropological Study of Play, 1983.
33. Jakobsson, M. and Taylor, T.L. The Sopranos Meets Everquest - Social Networking in Massively Multiuser Networking Games. fineArt forum, 17 (8).
34. Jancke, G. Linking Public Spaces: Technical and Social Issues. in Proceedings of CHI 2001, ACM Press, 2001, 530--537.
35. Kauppinen, A.K.K. and Robinson, M. Identity in Virtual Communities. SIGGROUP Bulletin, 19 (3). 29--33.
36. Kurlander, D., Skelly, T., et al. Comic Chat. in Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, ACM Press, 1996, 225--236.
37. Lieberman, H., Dyke, N.W.V., et al. Let's Browse: A Collaborative Web Browsing Agent. in Proceedings of the International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces, Redondo Beach, Ca., ACM Press, 1999, 65--68.
38. Marriott, M. Now Playing: Reality without the Downside, January 9, 2003., The New York Times, New York, 2003.
39. Morningstar, C. and Farme, F.R. The Lessons of Lucasfilm's Habitat. in Benedikt, M. ed. Cyberspace:First Steps, MIT press, Cambridge, Mas., 1991, 273--302.
40. O'Neill, J. and Martin, D. Text Chat in Action. in Proceedings of Group '03, ACM Press, New York, 2003.
41. Roy, D.F. Banana Time: Job Satisfaction and Informal Interaction. Human Organization, 18. 156--168.
42. Rutter, J. and Bryce, J. Editorial Comment. Information, Communication and Society, 6 (4). 5--11.
43. Sacks, H. Lectures on Conversation: Vol 1 & 2. Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1995.
44. Sacks, H., Schegloff, E.A., et al. A Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn Taking for Conversation. Language, 50. 696--735.
45. Salen, K. and Zimmerman, E. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 2004.
46. Seay, A.F., Jerome, W.J., et al. Project Massive 1.0 : Organizational Commitment, Sociability and Extraversion in Massively Multiplayer Online Games. in Copier, M. and Raessens, J. eds. Proceedings of Levelup 2003, DIGRA, 2003.
47. Sinnott-Armstrong, W. Consequentialism. Zalta, E.N. ed., Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2003. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2003/entries/consequentialism/
48. Sterling, B. An Analysis of Mmog Subscription Growth, 2003. http://pw1.netcom.com/ sirbruce/Subscriptions.html
49. Sutton-Smith, B. The Ambiguity of Play. Harvard Univ Press, 2001.
50. Turkle, S. Life on the Screen: Identity in the Gae of the Internet. Simon and Schuster, New York, 1995.
51. Xiong, C. Where the Girls Are; They're Online, Solving Puzzles and Making up Characters in Narrative-Driven Games, Wall Street Journal, 2003.
52. Yee, N. Mosaic: Stories of Digital Lives and Identities, 2002. http://www.nickyee.com/mosaic/home.html

Index Terms

• Computing methodologies

  • Computer graphics

    • Graphics systems and interfaces

      • Virtual reality

• Human-centered computing

  • Human computer interaction (HCI)

    • Interaction paradigms

      • Mixed / augmented reality

      • Virtual reality