Musical embrace: facilitating engaging play experiences through social awkwardness

Abstract

Socially awkward experiences are often looked upon as something to be avoided. However, examples from the traditional games domain suggest that social awkwardness can facilitate engaging experiences. Yet so far, there has been little research into social awkwardness and digital games. In acknowledgement of this, we present Musical Embrace, a digital game that promotes close physical contact between two strangers, through the use of a novel pillow-like controller, in order to navigate a virtual soundscape. Through our observations from demonstrating Musical Embrace at a number of events, we have procured a set of strategies intend on engaging players by "facilitating" social awkwardness, allowing players to "transform" while also letting players take "control" of social awkwardness. With our work we hope to inspire game designers to consider the potential of social awkwardness and guide them when using it for engaging playful experiences.