Matchmaker: Interpersonal Touch in Gaming

Abstract

Interpersonal touch – a shared touch between two people – is both significant and common in human social interac-tion. In this paper we argue that interpersonal touch should play a role in interaction between people in computer-mediated social activities, such as video games. To support this notion, we have designed Matchmaker; a two-player cooperative tabletop video game themed on the concepts of love and romance. Matchmaker’s gameplay is directly controlled by a set of collaborative tabletop inter-action techniques, as well as by interpersonal touch be-tween its players. In this paper we present the philosophy behind Match-maker’s design and describe in details the game implemen-tation. We also include the results of an exploratory user study designed to gauge players’ responses to Matchmaker and to its unique interpersonal interaction technique. Our results suggest that not only is Matchmaker a highly enjoy-able game, but that its integration of interpersonal touch is a strong contributor to players’ enjoyment.