This summer, I attended the 10th Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) Conference in Melbourne, Australia. DiGRA is an international, multidisciplinary conference for games research. While there I presented research at two workshops, presented a full paper publication, and volunteered for the conference.

Our Design Model of Curiosity

My research focuses on encouraging curiosity and curiosity-related actions for middle school-aged students through transformational games. Curiosity is linked to both science-related skills and player engagement and motivation in games, making this work relevant to researchers as well as game designers interested in curiosity .

In this most recent work published at DiGRA, my research group and I presented a design model of curiosity. The model looks at the cyclical relationship between curiosity (which we define as the desire to find and fill information gaps) and uncertainty (a set of game design principles/techniques).

We explored the model further by instantiating question-asking and repeated opportunities for failure in the design of a cooperative tabletop game, Outbreak. In the paper we share our playtesting findings and the following design takeaways:

“In designing for comfort with failure we find that (1) risk can be more frightening than failure and affective responses to failure can be modified by (2) aesthetic decisions as well as (3) group norms. In designing for comfort with questions we find that (1) empowering quieter players supports the entire group, (2) flexibility in enforcing rules fosters curiosity, and (3) questions can serve multiple simultaneous roles.”

What I Presented

Modeling and Designing for Key Elements of Curiosity: Risking Failure, Valuing Questions [Full Paper, Game Design Session 2] Co-Authors: Jarrek Holmes, Elaine Fath, Eda Zhang, Geoff Kaufman, Jessica Hammer

In this paper, we present a design model of curiosity that articulates the relationship between uncertainty and curiosity. This model further defines the role of failure and question-asking within that relationship. (See more below).

Character Diversity in Digital and Non-Digital Games [Workshop Paper, Gaming the Systems: Towards a More Inclusive DiGRA Workshop] Co-Authors: Jessica Hammer, Geoff Kaufman

In this paper, we present work exploring how aspects of diverse identities are represented in both digital and non-digital games, looking specifically at opportunities for understanding and representing diversity more richly. We look at identity beyond surface-level visual or static features, including but not limited to: race, gender, culture, generation, ability, religion, language, etc. This work was presented as a preliminary step before submission as a full paper for the ToDiGRA journal.

In this paper, we present work describing how tabletop games naturally support various social interactions and positing that both game designers and researchers can use these natural affordances to scaffold conversation. We argue that conversations can be viewed as the natural fun of a tabletop game experience (from both in-game analysis to out-of-game context social conversation).

Scaffolding Conversations through the Design and Implementation of Board Games [Workshop Paper, Boardgame Studies Round Table Workshop] Co-Authors: Geoff Kaufman, Jessica Hammer

Researchers can then leverage these conversations both as opportunities to embed transformational goals or interventions, as well as an opportunity for data collection in a natural context.

Environment and Overall Impressions

DiGRA is a very research-heavy venue (as compared to something industry-heavy like the Game Developers Conference (GDC)) and very interdisciplinary (as compared to something like the Foundation of Digital Games Conference (FDG) which is computer-science focused). Despite the word “digital” in the name, DiGRA is extremely accepting of both digital games (e.g., mobile games, VR experiences, etc.) and non-digital games (e.g., tabletop games, escape rooms, etc.) research work.

There was a wide range of topics presented and discussed at the conference. The full program can be found here. A major overarching theme was understanding and designing for diverse audiences in every sense of the word – diversity from in-game content to player identities to game creators. There were two sessions on “Diversity in Games” as well as sessions on “Gamer Identities,” “Diversifying Games,” “Interdisciplinary Approaches to Games,” “Child’s Play,” and “Regionality in Games” to name a few.

Besides workshops and seminars, there were social events organized every evening - many specifically geared at welcoming new members to the DiGRA community.

My particular favorite was Monday board game night where I got to play an old favorite Mysterium, and a new one New York Slice, which has the most charmingly hilarious pizza box.

Conclusion

As a newcomer, I had an incredible time at DiGRA! I thought the research was innovative and rigorous (both very important metrics for good research) and the community was incredibly positive and welcoming.

At the end of the summer I will be returning for my third year at the CMU and will be continuing to work on getting my PhD in Human-Computer Interaction. My research team and I will be working on using our model of curiosity in the design of our other games and in the design of a digital version of Outbreak.

We will also be compiling a list of case study games for our work on character diversity and hope to submit a paper on the topic to a special edition of the ToDiGRA journal.