Matchmaker: Interpersonal touch in gaming

Abstract

Acts of interpersonal touch - a touch shared between two people - are used by couples to communicate in a simple and emotionally intimate way. In this paper, we argue that the intimacy afforded by acts of interpersonal touch can be used in computer entertainment to support enjoyable and engaging activities for couples. To support this notion, we have developed Matchmaker; a two-player, cooperative tabletop video game based on themes of love and romance. Matchmaker's gameplay is directly controlled by a set of collaborative tabletop interaction techniques, as well as by acts of interpersonal touch between its players. In this paper we present a detailed description of Matchmaker's design and the results of an exploratory user suggesting that Matchmaker is enjoyable to play and that its use of interpersonal touch contributes to players' enjoyment. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.