Collaboration in co-located collaborative digital games - towards a quadripartite taxonomy

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a taxonomy for the classification of collaborative interaction situations derived from studying a set of co-located collaborative gameplay sessions. The taxonomy builds on the MDA framework and Activity Theory (AT) as top-level attributes, and offers the analytical dimensions WHAT, WHO, WHEN and HOW, each containing a number of sub-categories, for evaluating different levels of collaborative interaction mediated by games. The work is based on a three stage process: design of game instances, data collection, and analysis of play sessions. This taxonomy is an initial step towards capturing the complexity of collaboration mediated by games, and helps in understanding and studying collaboration as a phenomena in game design. Our preliminary work provides a characterization of multiple dimensions of collaborative interaction, providing game designers a starting point for deeper understanding into collaborative interaction mediated by a collocated gameplay.