Understanding a Socially Awkward Digital Play Journey

This paper examines how socially awkward experiences can serve as a source of engagement in digital games, using a physical multiplayer game called Musical Embrace as its case study. The authors argue that social awkwardness, typically viewed as something to avoid, can produce novel and stimulating play when it arises from close physical proximity and whole-body interaction between players. Motivated by the observation that digital games have rarely explored this territory, the work aims to encourage designers to consider awkwardness as a deliberate design component rather than a flaw.

The game requires two players to apply collaborative pressure to a suspended, padded controller using only their torsos and arms, which in turn moves their viewpoint through a low-fidelity virtual environment. The authors observed 130 participants at an open house, a game design industry conference, and several research conferences, with at least two and often four researchers present. Session observations were supplemented by paired player interviews, and key themes were identified through affinity diagramming among the research team. Because participants were largely drawn from game design and related fields, the sample reflects a particular audience rather than the general population.

The central finding is that awkwardness does not persist at a constant level but rises and falls across the play experience. Adapting Freytag's five-act dramatic structure, the authors map this arc onto exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement. Curiosity and mild embarrassment peak during initial partner pairing and exploration, then give way to focused cooperation once players grasp the mechanics. Factors such as the screen, which offered players a "social sanctuary" and external justification for unusual behavior, helped sustain engagement, while collaborative flow and shifting social roles often turned strangers into allies.

The paper concludes that designers should plan for the temporal shape of awkwardness across a play session, and it proposes future directions including applications in team-building, rehearsal warm-ups, and conflict resolution, alongside questions about whether such games can help players overcome social discomfort more broadly.