A three person poncho and a set of maracas:designing Ola De La Vida, a co-located social play computer game

Events that bring people together to play video games as a social experience are growing in popularity across the western world. Amongst these events are ‘play parties,’ temporary social play environments which create unique shared play experiences for attendees unlike anything they could experience elsewhere. This paper explores co-located play experience design and proposes that social play games can lead to the formation of temporary play communities. These communities may last for a single gameplay session, for a whole event, or beyond the event. The paper analyses games designed or enhanced by social play contexts and evaluates a social play game, Ola de la Vida. The research findings suggest that social play games can foster community through the design of game play within the game itself, through curation which enhances their social potential, and through design for ‘semi-spectatorship’, which blurs the boundaries between player and spectator thus widening the game’s magic circle

The relationship between the use of social networking sites and student spectator behaviour: A case of university sport in the Western Cape

Magister Artium (Sport, Recreation and Exercise Science) - MA(SRES)Social networking sites are important communication tools used in different industries including the sports industry. Professional athletes, coaches, spectators, journalists, and broadcasters from nearly every sports code maintain a social media presence. The rapid growth in the use of social networks in sport and the challenging economic climate launched an urgent need for sport administration departments at universities to understand SNSs and how student spectators use these sites in the realm of university sport. This understanding serves as an attempt to enhance spectator attendance at university sports games through the use of SNSs by integrating these sites into marketing strategies. Sports spectators are key constituents of sports event attendance, however, little is known regarding whether a relationship exists between students’ activities on SNSs and their spectator behaviour. Subsequently, the purpose of this study was to examine and describe the relationship between the use of SNSs and student spectator behaviour in university sport by considering attendance, loyalty, trust, and commitment as determinants of behaviour. A quantitative methodological approach was adopted to collect data, using a cross-sectional research design. By applying a random sampling method, 540 full-time registered university students provided consent to participate in this study. An online survey was distributed to the entire student population, N=24000. All significance levels were set at p<0.05. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) V.25 software. Results showed statistical significance, p<0.00, for the relationship between the use of SNSs and student spectator behaviour during student spectator attendance of university sports games. No statistical significance was found in the relationship between the use of SNSs and student spectator behaviour before and after student spectator attendance of university sports games. These results suggest that greater investment should be placed in marketing through SNSs in order to develop, increase, and retain longstanding relationships of loyalty, trust, and commitment with student spectators in the fast-growing segment of social media and spectatorship

A typology categorization of millennials in their technology behavior

Hay un interés creciente por los millennials; y sin embargo, hasta la fecha hay escasas segmentaciones de los millennials en cuanto a su comportamiento en relación a la tecnología. En este contexto, este estudio trata las siguientes cuestiones:”¿Son los millennials monolíticos o hay diferentes segmentos en esta generación en cuanto a su comportamiento tecnológico?”. Y si este fuera el caso: “¿Existen diferencias importantes en cuanto a la forma en que los millennials usan la tecnología?”. Nuestro objetivo consiste en examinar los potenciales perfiles de los millennials en relación a su comportamiento y uso de la tecnología. Los datos obtenidos de una muestra de 707 millennials se analizaron mediante un análisis de componentes principales y análisis clúster. A continuación, los segmentos se caracterizaron mediante un análisis MANOVA. Nuestros resultados revelan la existencia de cinco segmentos o tipologías de millennials en cuanto a su comportamiento tecnológico: los “devotos de la tecnología”, los “espectadores”, los “prudentes”, los “adversos” y los “productivos”. Este estudio contribuye de forma detallada al conocimiento sobre cómo las diferentes categorías de millennials usan la tecnología.There is an increasing interest for millennials; however, to date millennials’ segmentations regarding their technology behavior are scarce. In this context, this study addresses the following questions: “Are millennials monolithic, or are there segments within this generation group regarding the technology behavior?”. And if so: “Are there important variances in the way that millennial segments use technology?”. Our purpose is to examine the potential profiles of millennials regarding their technology use and behavior. Data from a sample of 707 millennials was gathered and analyzed through principal component analysis and cluster analysis. Then, millennials’ segments were profiled using a MANOVA analysis. Our findings revealed five different segments or typologies of millennials regarding their technology behavior: technology devotees, technology spectators, circumspects, technology adverse users and productivity enhancers. This study contributes with a detailed perspective of how different millennial segments use technology

MarathOn Multiscreen: group television watching and interaction in a viewing ecology

This paper reports and discusses the findings of an exploratory study into collaborative user practice with a multiscreen television application. MarathOn Multiscreen allows users to view, share and curate amateur and professional video footage of a community marathon event. Our investigations focused on collaborative sharing practices across different viewing activities and devices, the roles taken by different devices in a viewing ecology, and observations on how users consume professional and amateur content. Our Work uncovers significant differences in user behaviour and collaboration when engaged in more participatory viewing activities, such as sorting and ranking footage, which has implications for awareness of other users’ interactions while viewing together and alone. In addition, user appreciation and use of amateur video content is dependent not only on quality and activity but their personal involvement in the contents

Embedding a Crowd inside a Relay Baton:A Case Study in a Non-Competitive Sporting Activity

This paper presents a digital relay baton that connects long-distance runners with distributed online spectators. Such baton broadcasts athletes’ live locative data to a social network and communicates back remote-crowd support through haptic and audible cheers. Our work takes an exploratory design approach to bring new insights into the design of real-time techno-mediated social support. The prototype was deployed during a 170-mile charity relay race across the UK with 13 participants, 261 on-line supporters, and collected a total of 3153 ‘cheers’. We report on the insights collected during the design and deployment process and identify three fundamental design considerations: the degree of expressiveness afforded by the system design, the context applicability, and the data flow within the social networ

Flowing bodies: Exploring the micro and macro scales of bodily interactions with urban media installations

In this paper we investigate human interactions with urban media installations by adopting two scales of analysis: the body scale (micro) and the city scale (macro). This twofold approach allows us to better understand the relationships between the design properties of outdoor installations and the urban spatial layout around them. We conducted in-the-wild studies of two urban media installations, one consisting of fixed components, and the other of movable components, which were deployed in different places and encouraged different types of whole-body interaction. We provide a detailed account of the micro and macro levels of interactions, based on observational and qualitative explorations. Our studies reveal that the urban spatial layout is a key element in defining the interactions and encounters around outdoor interfaces, and therefore it needs to inform the design process from the outset

Embedding a Crowd inside a Relay Baton:A Case Study in a Non-Competitive Sporting Activity

This paper presents a digital relay baton that connects long-distance runners with distributed online spectators. Such baton broadcasts athletes’ live locative data to a social network and communicates back remote-crowd support through haptic and audible cheers. Our work takes an exploratory design approach to bring new insights into the design of real-time techno-mediated social support. The prototype was deployed during a 170-mile charity relay race across the UK with 13 participants, 261 on-line supporters, and collected a total of 3153 ‘cheers’. We report on the insights collected during the design and deployment process and identify three fundamental design considerations: the degree of expressiveness afforded by the system design, the context applicability, and the data flow within the social networ

PlaneVR: Social Acceptability of Virtual Reality for Aeroplane Passengers

Virtual reality (VR) headsets allow wearers to escape their physical surroundings, immersing themselves in a virtual world. Although escape may not be realistic or acceptable in many everyday situations, air travel is one context where early adoption of VR could be very attractive. While travelling, passengers are seated in restricted spaces for long durations, reliant on limited seat-back displays or mobile devices. This paper explores the social acceptability and usability of VR for in-flight entertainment. In an initial survey, we captured respondents' attitudes towards the social acceptability of VR headsets during air travel. Based on the survey results, we developed a VR in-flight entertainment prototype and evaluated this in a focus group study. Our results discuss methods for improving the acceptability of VR in-flight, including using mixed reality to help users transition between virtual and physical environments and supporting interruption from other co-located people

Do we need permission to play in public? The design of participation for social play video games at play parties and ‘alternative’ games festivals

Play is a fundamental to being Human. It helps to make sense of the self, to learn, to be creative and to relax. The advent of video games challenged traditional notions of play, introducing a single player experience to what had primarily been a communal social activity. As technology has developed, communal play has found both online and real-world spaces within video games. Online streaming, multiplayer games and built-in spectator modes within games underpin online communal play experiences, whilst ‘alternative’ games festivals, play parties and electronic sports, provide real world spaces for people to meet, play and exchange knowledge relating to both playing and making video games. This article reports the study of social play events which bring people together in the same space to explore video games making and playing. Expert interviews with curators, and event facilitators provides qualitative data from which design processes are formalised into a ‘model of participation’ of social play. Four key areas of balance are proposed as core considerations in supporting participation in event design. The study of these events also suggests that their design and fostering of participation has the potential to evoke cultural change in game making and playing practices