Controlling Your Voice in a Shouting Match: A Preliminary Study on Fostering Self-Moderation among Gamers through Embodied Play

Abstract

Toxicity and harmful conduct in competitive gaming spaces is a prevalent topic in games research as well as investigating coping strategies and tools for gamers to mitigate its negative effects. These investigations include practicing different forms of emotion self-regulation, specifically in the context of team-based eSports. The fighting game community, however, has yet to be explored in current literature regarding toxic behavior and self-regulation. We address this research gap and explore fostering self-regulation practices among fighting game players by introducing Shouting Match, an alternative controller two-player 2D fighting game that uses shout commands as a core game mechanic. We use novel methods of embodied play, utilizing the expressive vocal culture of the fighting game community and having players practice self-regulation through controlling their vocal expressions. For this work-in-progress, we report on a preliminary user study that evaluates usability and intuitiveness of our current, low-fidelity prototype of Shouting Match. We extended the usability evaluation with a focus group to assess attitudes and collect insights regarding the system's enjoyability, playability, and prospects in emotion self-regulation. Lastly, we define three key considerations through our findings that will inform future directions of Shouting Match and give initial insights for researchers interested in embodied play for prosocial impact.