Designing online games for real-life relationships: examining QQ farm in intergenerational play

Intergenerational players are online game players of different generations within an extended family. We investigated intergenerational play between older parents and their adult children in the popular Chinese social networking game QQ Farm. We identified game features that encourage intergenerational play. To do this, we conducted online observations and semi-structured interviews with nine pairs of Chinese parents and their adult children. The results of this study suggest that an online game for intergenerational play needs to consider a range of factors, including social and occupational responsibilities, gaming interests, and gaming expertise among extended family members. The data suggests that intergenerational online games may generally benefit from the following features: (1) low entry barrier, (2) appealing game theme, (3) online interactions that extend real-life relationships, (4) low time commitment, and (5) asynchronous play. We have also found features which may have unique appeal to Chinese intergenerational gamers.

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