Guo Freeman

Revisiting Computer-Mediated Intimacy: In-Game Marriage and Dyadic Gameplay in Audition

Existing studies in the field of HCI and CSCW have pointed to the significance to investigate computer-mediated intimacy and brought together concerns in ubiquitous computing, affective technologies, and experience design. However, existing conceptualizations of intimacy in collaborative online systems are largely based on empirical studies of systems that have similar social dynamics and user groups, which could lead to a bias in investigating intimacy. Using Audition, a dance battle Multiplayer Online Game with a popular marriage system, as our field site, we focus on dyadic intimacy in a non-violent online social space that has many young non-Caucasian and female users. We contribute to both confirming and further advancing existing theories of computer-mediated intimacy using this new dataset. We also suggest promising future directions for exploring the subjective intimate experiences in a scientifically defensible way.

The reviewer in the mirror: examining gendered and ethnicized notions of reciprocity in peer review

Numerous studies have sought to uncover violations of objectivity and impartiality in peer review; however the notion of reciprocity has been absent in much of this discussion, particularly as it relates to gendered and ethnicized behaviors of peer review. The current study addresses this gap in research by investigating patterns of reciprocity (i.e., correspondences between patterns of recommendations received by authors and patterns of recommendations given by reviewers in the same social group) by perceived gender and ethnicity of reviewers and authors for submissions to the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology from June 2009 to May 2011. The degree of reciprocity for each social group was examined by employing Monte Carlo resampling to extrapolate more robust patterns from the limited data available. We found that papers with female authors received more negative reviews than reviews for male authors. Reciprocity was suggested by the fact that female reviewers gave lower reviews than male reviewers. Reciprocity was also exhibited by ethnicity, although non-Western reviewers gave disproportionately more recommendations of major revision, while non-Western authors tended to receive more outright rejections. This study provides a novel theoretical and methodological basis for future studies on reciprocity in peer review.

eSports as An Emerging Research Context at CHI: Diverse Perspectives on Definitions

This paper represents our first endeavor to explore how to better understand the complex nature, scope, and practices of eSports. Our goal is to explore diverse perspectives on what defines eSports as a starting point for further research. Specifically, we critically reviewed existing definitions/understandings of eSports in different disciplines. We then interviewed 26 eSports players and qualitatively analyzed their own perceptions of eSports. We contribute to further exploring definitions and theories of eSports for CHI researchers who have considered online gaming a serious and important area of research, and highlight opportunities for new avenues of inquiry for researchers who are interested in designing technologies for this unique genre.

Intimate experiences in virtual worlds: the interplay among hyperpersonal communication, avatar-based systems, and experiential drives

This paper investigates the intersection of traditional social science understandings of intimacy, established Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) theories developed in the days of text-based Internet communications, and studies of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-mediated intimacy. Using mixed methods, this paper offers an empirical analysis of how users (re)define, interpret, experience, and evaluate “intimacy” in a hyperpersonal sociotechnical system—Second Life (SL). Findings show that SL intimacy closely related to emotional fulfillment, the need to be touched, and interpersonal communication, but that SL intimacy also emphasized new forms of physical proximity. Especially, a subjectively meaningful intimate experience usually emerged in the interplay among selfselection, experiential drives, and technological affordance. This paper contributes to the study of social impacts of ICTs by shedding light on potential changes in how people define and experience interpersonal relationships in hyperpersonal sociotechnical environments.

Understanding eSports Team Formation and Coordination

Team activities that were traditionally offline are increasingly incorporating mediated elements where there is a mix of physical and computer-assisted activities. In this study, we provide a preliminary insight into this understudied yet emerging genre of mixed-form CSCW. Specifically, we present a qualitative research of team formation and coordination mechanics in Electronic Sports (eSports), a unique combination of action and knowledge/decision teams. Our findings highlight online users’ particular needs to coordinate their team activities under pressure (e.g., a mix of online and offline team formation/coordination strategies; technology-enabled knowing and judging before the team is formed; and reinforcing personal relationships to enhance the professional performance) and higher requirements for sophisticated multimodal communication patterns to sustain such coordination. We contribute to both confirming and augmenting existing theories of team formation and team coordination. We also suggest further avenues of research in HCI and CSCW to design systems that support the formation of teams, to explicate the optimal modalities of communication for different teamwork situations, and to fully understand the delicacies of how personal and professional relationships could intertwine in virtual teams.

Explaining Viewers' Emotional, Instrumental, and Financial Support Provision for Live Streamers

On live streams, viewers can support streamers through various methods ranging from well-wishing text messages to money. In this study (N=230) we surveyed viewers who had given money to a streamer. We identified six motivations for why they gave money to their favorite live streamer. We then examined how factors related to viewer, streamer, and viewer-streamer interaction were associated with three forms of social support provision: emotional, instrumental, and financial support. Our main findings are: parasocial relationship was consistently correlated with all three types of social support, while social presence was only related with instrumental and financial support; interpersonal attractiveness was associated with emotional and instrumental support and lonely people were more likely to give instrumental support. Our focus on various types of social support in a live streaming masspersonal platform adds a more detailed understanding to the existing literature of mediated social support. Furthermore, it suggests potential directions for designing more supportive and interactive live streaming platforms.

Making Games as Collaborative Social Experiences: Exploring An Online Gaming Community

In addition to playing games together, making games together has offered new opportunities for social interaction and community building in online spaces. This paper presents an empirical study of how making indie games become interactive and collaborative social experiences in an Asian female-dominated online gaming community. It contributes to the CSCW community by providing a better understanding of the social side of game making in addition to game playing, and points to the importance of social engagement in game making communities.

Bottom-Up Imaginaries: The Cultural-Technical Practice of Inventing Regional Advantage through IT R&D

Recent HCI research on social creativity and bottom-up innovation has highlighted how concerted efforts by the government policy and business communities to develop innovation ecosystems are increasingly intertwined with IT research and development. We note that many such efforts focus on cultivating regional advantage [20] in the form of innovation hubs that are situated in and leverage distinct sociocultural histories and geographies. Cultivating regional advantage entails achieving broad consensus about what that regions advantage might be, that is, the construction of a regional advantage imaginary beyond the policies, IT supports, and practices to make it happen. Here, we document how an ongoing public debate among makers and manufacturers in Taiwan as a region-distinguished by direct engagement with design, fabrication, prototyping, and manufacturing processes-are proposing pathways toward a regional advantage that both reflects Taiwans recent sociocultural and economic histories and also its near future aspirations.

She makes me brave: The emergence of intimacy in gameplay

This paper investigates the complex relationship between intimacy and play, and offers an empirical analysis of how intimacy emerges in a playful digital environment (i.e., Audition). Audition is a non-violent, non-fantasy dance battle Multiplayer Online Game (MOG) that has many Asian and female players, and provides a sophisticated in-game marriage system. Based on players’ self-reports posted on public online forums and in-depth interview data from 35 Audition players, this study shows that Audition marriage is more than a playful game feature for many players. Instead, players experience genuine, meaningful intimate relationships there, and consider their in-game marriage an emergent learning process to satisfy their social and emotional needs. This study contributes to understanding interpersonal dynamics forged around technological objects in digital environments, which is important for designing Intimate (Ubiquitous) Computing and the next generation of ICTs.