Marcus Carter

#Funeral and Instagram: death, social media, and platform vernacular

This paper presents findings from a study of Instagram use and funerary practices that analysed photographs shared on public profiles tagged with ‘#funeral’. We found that the majority of images uploaded with the hashtag #funeral often communicated a persons emotional circumstances and affective context, and allowed them to reposition their funeral experience amongst wider networks of acquaintances, friends, and family. We argue that photo-sharing through Instagram echoes broader shifts in commemorative and memorialization practices, moving away from formal and institutionalized rituals to informal and personalized, vernacular practices. Finally, we consider how Instagrams ‘platform vernacular’ unfolds in relation to traditions and contexts of death, mourning, and memorialization. This research contributes to a broader understanding of how platform vernaculars are shaped through the logics of architecture and use. This research also directly contributes to the understanding of death and digital media by examining how social media is being mobilized in relation to death, the differences that different media platforms make, and the ways social media are increasingly entwined with the places, events, and rituals of mourning.

Paradigms of games research in HCI: a review of 10 years of research at CHI

In this paper we argue that games and play research in the field of Human-Computer Interaction can usefully be understood as existing within 4 distinct research paradigms. We provide our rationale for developing these paradigms and discuss their significance in the context of the inaugural CHI Play conference.

The Emergence of EyePlay: A Survey of Eye Interaction in Games

As eye trackers become cheaper, smaller, more robust, and more available, they finally leave research labs and enter the home environment. In this context, gaming arises as a promising application domain for eye interaction. The goal of this survey is to categorise the different ways in which the eyes can be incorporated into games and play in general as a resource for future design. We reviewed the literature on the topic, as well as other game prototypes that employ the eyes. We compiled a list of eye-enabled game mechanics and derived a taxonomy that classifies them according to the eye movements they involve, the input type they provide, and the game mechanics that they implement. Based on our findings we articulate the value of gaming for future HCI gaze research and outline a research program around eye interaction in gaming.

Voice in Virtual Worlds: The Design, Use, and Influence of Voice Chat in Online Play

Communication is a critical aspect of any collaborative system. In online multiplayer games and virtual worlds it is especially complex. Users are present over long periods, require both synchronous and asynchronous communication, and may prefer to be pseudonymous or engage in identity-play while managing virtual and physical use contexts. Initially the only medium for player-to-player communication in virtual worlds was text, a medium well suited to identity-play and asynchronous communication, less so to fast-paced coordination and sociability among friends. During the past decade vendors have introduced facilities for gamers to communicate by voice. Yet little research has been conducted to help us understand the influence of voice on the experience of using virtual space: Where, when, and for whom voice is beneficial, and how it might be configured. To address this gap we examined a range of online gaming environments. We analyzed our observations in the light of theory from Human–Computer Interaction, Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, and Computer-Mediated Communication. We conclude that voice radically transforms the experience of online gaming, making virtual spaces more intensely social but removing some of the opportunity for identity play, multitasking, and multigaming while introducing ambiguity over what is being transmitted to whom.

Motion Correlation: Selecting Objects by Matching Their Movement

Selection is a canonical task in user interfaces, commonly supported by presenting objects for acquisition by pointing. In this article, we consider motion correlation as an alternative for selection. The principle is to represent available objects by motion in the interface, have users identify a target by mimicking its specific motion, and use the correlation between the system’s output with the user’s input to determine the selection. The resulting interaction has compelling properties, as users are guided by motion feedback, and only need to copy a presented motion. Motion correlation has been explored in earlier work but only recently begun to feature in holistic interface designs. We provide a first comprehensive review of the principle, and present an analysis of five previously published works, in which motion correlation underpinned the design of novel gaze and gesture interfaces for diverse application contexts. We derive guidelines for motion correlation algorithms, motion feedback, choice of modalities, overall design of motion correlation interfaces, and identify opportunities and challenges identified for future research and design.

Drafting an Army The Playful Pastime of Warhammer 40,000

Multiple recent works have emphasized the contribution that nondigital game scholarship can make to the study of games and gameplay. Warhammer 40,000 is the market dominator of the nondigital tabletop wargame genre. In this article, we perform a ludological analysis of the process of preparing, or drafting, an army for a competitive Warhammer 40,000 tournament. We find that there are four interrelated categories of resources that influence this fundamentally playful process. Our results indicate that this process of preparation constitutes a core component of the appeal of Warhammer 40,000. This emphasizes the importance of understanding the diverse activities that go into gameplay that often exceed the computer game “client” or board of play. We suggest the category of engagement pastime to encapsulate these extended, ongoing elements of Warhammer 40,000’s appeal, which we define as a collection of interlinked and associated activities that serve to occupy one’s time and thoughts pleasantly.

Avatars, characters, players and users: multiple identities at/in play

Avatars are ubiquitous in virtual worlds (VWs). As such, they have become central to how we understand the way they are experienced. Common conceptualisations of the user avatar relationship invoke an identity binary which has influenced discussions of presence and game enjoyment. This paper presents findings from EVE Online which suggest there are more than two identities involved in playing games in VWs. As such, we argue for a more nuanced approach to notions of identity in VWs and discuss how this approach understands the impact of VW design on the way identity is constructed by players.

Remote Gaze and Gesture Tracking on the Microsoft Kinect: Investigating the Role of Feedback

In this paper we present the results of a user experience and preference study into the combination of gaze and gesture in a lounge-style remote-interaction, using a novel system that tracks gaze and gesture using only the Kinect device at a distance of 2m from the user. Our results indicate exciting opportunities for gaze-tracking interfaces that use existing technologies, but suggest that findings from studies of highly-accurate gaze systems may not apply in these real-world simulations where the gaze-tracking is inherently less accurate. We contribute a series of design recommendations for gaze and gesture interfaces in this context, and based on these limitations.

Death and dying in DayZ

Avatar death is essentially universal in combat games, and ubiquitous in all other genres; death of a players materialization in the game space is used to identify the players failure and temporary removal from play. Yet the possibilities for creating interesting social dynamics and game play experiences through the design and configuration of death mechanics in games remains largely unexplored. In this paper we discuss the first person shooter game DayZ, which has configured death with an extreme level of consequentiality not found in other online first-person-shooters. We examine the affect of this consequentiality on the player experience and attitudes towards death and dying in DayZ. On the basis of our research data, we find that the increased consequentiality of death in DayZ principally affects the game experience by intensifying social interactions, raising a players perceived level of investment and invoking moral dilemmas.

Player Identity Dissonance and Voice Interaction in Games

In the past half-decade, advances in voice recognition technology and the proliferation of consumer devices like the Microsoft Kinect have seen a significant rise in the use of voice interaction in games. While the use of player-to-player voice is widespread and well-researched, the use of voice as an input is relatively unexplored. In this paper we make the argument that notions of player and avatar identity are inextricable from the successful implementation of voice interaction in games, and consequently identify opportunities for future research and design.