One of the goals of game designers is to design for an engaging experience and for social interaction. The question is how. We know that games can be engaging and allow for social interaction, but how do we achieve this or even improve on it? This article provides an overview of several scientific approaches that deal with this question. It highlights the idea that the articles in this symposium each have a specific contribution route for answering this question: By means of theory building, user experience, and design research, they aim to increase our understanding of this design question. This guest editorial also highlights the specific aims of each article and the insights we can retrieve from them. Although much more research is needed, taking our cue from these articles, we are able to provide some answers as to how and when engagement and social interaction are established, and to what extent.

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