Groupware and social dynamics: eight challenges for developers
Communications of the ACM
Peer-to-Peer AOI voice chatting for massively multiplayer online games
ICPADS '07 Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Systems - Volume 02
Dynamic voice communication support for multiplayer online games
Proceedings of the 7th ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Network and System Support for Games
Where are you pointing?: the accuracy of deictic pointing in CVEs
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Supporting collaborative real-time strategic planning in multi-player games
Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games
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This paper discusses the social and strategic communication patterns observed during gameplay of the real-time strategy game, StarCraft II. An observational study was conducted over three weeks during which approximately 26 game matches and the social procedures by which players organized themselves and selected game options were observed. Study participants were members of a pre-existing network of friends and had adopted the Skype voice communication tool to support the game client's built-in collaboration and social networking solutions. The players were observed playing in situations of varying levels of collaboration ranging from team matches to free-for-all matches, and many forms of communication, including both strategic and social, were observed. The study findings revealed that players prefer communication tools that provide both robustness and flexibility. Preferred tools increase ease of access to other players, introduce a measure of exception handling to unify the gameplay experience, and make use of the game as a virtual watercooler---a hub which can facilitate much off-topic, yet valued, conversation.