Exploring twitter as a game platform; Strategies and opportunities for microblogging-based games

  • Kieran Hicks
  • , Kathrin Gerling
  • , Ben Kirman
  • , Conor Linehan
  • , Patrick Dickinson

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingsConference proceedingpeer-review

Abstract

Recent years have seen the massive daily engagement of players with games that are integrated with online social networking sites, such as Facebook. However, few games have successfully created engaging experiences through integration with microblogging websites. In this paper, we explore the opportunities and challenges in using Twitter as a platform for playing games, through the case study of the game Hashtag Dungeon, a dungeon-crawling game that uses Twitter for collaborative creation of game content. Two studies were carried out. A quantitative user study with 32 participants demonstrated that players found the game engaging and rewarding. A follow-up qualitative study with 8 participants suggests that Twitter integration in this game is meaningful, but that there are concerns over the impact of the game on players' Twitter profiles. Based on findings from both studies, we propose strategies for the design of Microblogging-based games, and discuss wider implications of social media integration in games.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCHI PLAY 2015 - Proceedings of the 2015 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages151-162
Number of pages12
ISBN (Electronic)9781450334662
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Oct 2015
Event2nd ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, CHI PLAY 2015 - London, United Kingdom
Duration: 5 Oct 20157 Oct 2015

Publication series

NameCHI PLAY 2015 - Proceedings of the 2015 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play

Conference

Conference2nd ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, CHI PLAY 2015
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityLondon
Period5/10/157/10/15

Keywords

  • Commercial
  • Design Guidelines
  • Evaluation
  • Game Design
  • Social network games
  • Twitter

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