To Virtualize or Not? The Importance of Physical and Virtual Components in Augmented Reality Board Games

Whereas traditional games have employed entirely physical interfaces, computer games provide a generally virtual alternative. Motivated by interest in supporting conventional gameplay in the computer environment, we investigate the benefits of game interaction techniques based on gestures applied to tangible objects, comparing the user experience with that resulting from more virtualized interaction. Our study is applied in the context of a basic roll-and-move game and German-style board game, Settlers of Catan. User preferences and quality of player interaction, revealed through our experiments, suggest a number of important design factors relevant to the decision of digitization for game interface components. Significant findings indicate a preference for tangible components for complex interaction tasks.