Presence Based Play Towards a Design for Large Group Social Interaction

This poster addresses the fundamental research questions that guide our first steps in the design of innovative playful activities for large numbers of people, based primarily on their mere presence. Our research framework draws upon the areas of multiplayer games, instant messaging, social psychology and group behaviour. We introduce the concept of ‘presence based play’ to describe the way social interaction based on the simultaneous presence of many people can be enhanced as a meaningful and engaging experience in the networked world. Our design approach to ‘presence based’ multiplayer games is illustrated with a prototype which we developed to use as a testbed for a series of experiments.