Restraints as a Mechanic for Bodily Play

Abstract

This paper presents restraints -directly imposed restrictions on players' bodily movements, as a mechanic for bodily play in HCI.While this is a familiar mechanic in non-digital movement-based games, its potential in designing bodily play experiences in HCI has been scarcely explored. Three types of restraints observed in non-digital movement-based games, are explored here: fixating body parts, excluding body parts and depriving/manipulating bodily senses. Then, we investigate the experiential dynamics of restraints as a bodily play mechanic bridging a phenomenological perspective on bodily movement with theories on play. These investigations form the theoretical framework for the subsequent analysis of five digital body game examples. Building on this analysis and theoretical framework, we formulate five design strategies for implementing restraints as a mechanic for bodily play in HCI. We propose restraints as a generative resource for researchers and designers interested in understanding and designing bodily play experiences in HCI.CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing~Interaction design theory, concepts and paradigms • Humancentered computing~HCI design and evaluation methods

Turning Eight Family Homes Into Interactive, Pervasive Playgrounds During the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown

“…The following sections explain how the elements function as standalone devices, while the minigames define the elements as part of a system. The game system was packed into a suitcase containing the following elements (see Figure 1): 10 light cubes, four laser lines (laser pointer + brightness sensor), two music cubes, a moving robot, three sets of restraint (Matjeka et al, 2021) cards and a camera.…”

“…The restraint cards are based on the restraints (Matjeka et al, 2021) mechanic inferring restrictions on the players' bodily preconditions for action as part of the game's obstacles to overcome (Suits, 1978;Caillois, 2001). There are three types of restraints: exclusions of body parts, fixations of body parts, and deprivations/manipulation of bodily senses.…”

“…The cards are created from combining the three types of restraints with a body part; the two first types are combined with the body parts; legs, arms, feet, forefoot and heel, hands, elbows, shoulders, head, and the latter type is concerned with the bodily senses; vision and hearing. From these combinations, the cards formulate a restraint in combination with a body part for the players to adhere to while playing, e.g., "Your right arm is glued to your back" or "Your right foot is not allowed to touch the ground" (Matjeka et al, 2021). These cards help create the games' bodily challenges as bodily puzzles to solve, e.g., move the robot when your feet cannot touch the ground.…”

“…No one expressed any concern or dislike of this feature, only that they were difficult at times. As such, the continuous change in restraints via the implementation of the restraint cards force continuous bodily challenges as opposed to the non-changing restraints as in sports [e.g., football where the players are not restricted from touching the ball with their hands (Matjeka et al, 2021)] that force refinement in bodily skills and improvements. Thus, it was discovered that the unfamiliarity and shift in bodily challenges players experienced also made them experience each other in different ways and resolve gaps in (bodily) skill levels across generations.…”

Actuating Myself: Designing Hand-Games Incorporating Electrical Muscle Stimulation

“…The Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) game community is interested in designing Movement-based Games [3,12,19,23,29,33,34], partially because they offer mental and physical health benefits [1,4,15,20,28,31,33,38].…”