The paper “Social gaming: A systematic review”, authored by LASIGE’s PhD students David Gonçalves and Pedro Pais, and integrated members Tiago Guerreiro and André Rodrigues has been published in Computers in Human Behavior, a top-ranked journal in the fields of Human-Computer Interaction and Psychology (h-index 226; Scimago Q1). The paper is also co-authored by Kathrin Gerling, a collaborating researcher from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Games are social in different ways: in the motives that lead people to play with others, from simply passing time with others to looking for new relationships; in the way they prompt interactions within and around the experience, and lead to the formation of whole communities around a common interest. The paper contributes with a systematized view of these and other social aspects that permeate gaming experiences while outlining directions and implications for future work. It presents a systematic review, covering 263 publications, with a particular focus on previous definitions (in the image) and approaches, determinants that shape the experience, methodologies, and measurable outcomes. The results of this work uncover several interesting trends — in particular, the strong emphasis on novel technologies, unconventional designs, and collaboration. It also emphasizes the limitations of past research, including a neglect of player diversity and a lack of ecological validity.

The paper is available here.