Trine University

Playing Apart with Mission Realms: Exploring Shared Leisure Across Distance Through Location-Based Play

Playing Apart with Mission Realms: Exploring Shared Leisure Across Distance Through Location-Based Play DEREK HAQQ, Virginia Tech, USA WEI-LU WANG, Virginia Tech, USA ZEREN YAN, Trine University, USA XIAN ZHENG, Trine University, USA MORVA SAATY, Virginia Tech, USA D. SCOTT MCCRICKARD, Virginia Tech, USA Sharing in outdoor…

• Meaningful social connection in remote-outdoor play is achieved when game design mandates interdependence, ensuring that both the outdoor and remote players possess unique, necessary information or capabilities to progress.
• Remote players report feeling redundant and disengaged when game mechanics allow the outdoor player to solve missions independently, highlighting that 'narrator' roles fail to foster a sense of agency or contribution.
• The concept of 'connection through disconnection' suggests that physical and informational gaps should be leveraged as collaborative resources rather than treated as deficits to be overcome by high-fidelity technology.