Digitising Boardgames: Issues and Tensions Melissa J. Rogerson, Martin Gibbs, Wally Smith Microsoft Research Centre for Social Natural User Interfaces The University of Melbourne Parkville, Vic, 3010 +61 3 8344 1394, +61 3 8344 1494
[email protected] ,
[email protected] ,
[email protected] ABSTRACT In this paper, we discuss the different ways in which modern European boardgames (“Eurogames”) are converted for digital play. We review digitised versions of three popular tabletop boardgames: Puerto Rico, Agricola and Ascension. Using these examples, we demonstrate the tension between the interaction metaphor of the original analogue medium and the metaphor of a digital game. We describe the importance of housekeeping chores to gameplay and position them as a form of articulation work, which is typically hidden by digital implementations. Further, we demonstrate the types of information that are created through digital play and discuss how this influences game play of both digital and physical boardgames. Keywords Board games, interaction metaphor, articulation, theorycrafting, informating INTRODUCTION Boardgames, traditionally played in their physical format using boards, cards, dice, playing tokens and the like, are increasingly being translated to digital form for devices such as smartphones, computers, videogame systems and tablets. To date, little attention has been paid to how and the degree to which this digitisation affects or transforms the experience of play. There is growing tension between the desire for digitised boardgames to be true to the interaction metaphor (Sharp et al. 2007, 58-63) of the original medium and the desire to extend the game to explore the potential of the digital medium.