Communication channels and awareness cues in collocated collaborative time-critical gaming

During collaborative gameplay players make use of various methods to become aware of the overall game status, develop strategies, and convey information to other players. Efficient and effective use of these methods is essential, especially during fast-paced time-critical collaborative games such as first-person shooters. This paper presents an observational study aimed to understand the communication channels and awareness cues used by players during gameplay to collaboratively achieve the game objectives. The study revealed that players utilize a variety of unconventional communication channels and awareness cues in both the physical and virtual environments to compensate for the inability to use commonly available collaborative human interaction mechanisms, such as eye gaze and gesturing, during gameplay. Players tended to use only auditory cues from their partner in the physical environment, while relying heavily on interacting with their partner through the virtual environment, using a variety of central and peripheral cues to maintain awareness during gameplay. Implications of these findings are discussed and recommendations for improving the quality of gameplay are provided.