Affective experience in movement-based games
in conjunction with Fun and Games 2012
Promoting an appropriate affective experience is a central aspect of games. Affective factors such as emotion, aesthetics and affective expression are important for games, as they can be a source of engagement and fun. In movement-based games, those that can use the user's body movements as input, the affective experience and the role of movement in constructing meanings has an increased relevance.
Frequently, studies in movement-based games have looked at sports to inspire and inform both the design of games and the way to promote affective experiences. While this has provided a natural initial platform, there are other research areas that have also studied the affective experience and we believe there can be a number of advantages in looking at them. Although not directly related with movement-based games, their findings could complement our understanding of how to conceptualise, promote and evaluate the affective experience in movement-based games. Some of these areas are embodied affect, phenomenology, human-human communication, psychology, aesthetics, performing arts, and product design. This workshop will encourage the submission of works focusing on affective experience in movement-based games that widen the view of the area by taking into account research in other fields. We anticipate that some of those fields could be those mentioned above but remain open to other alternatives that could prove relevant.
The workshop is therefore situated at the intersection of gaming, affective experience and movement-based interaction. It intends to foster an exchange of ideas around the notion of the affective experience in movement-based games and to provide an opportunity to explore and discuss the contribution that areas that have studied the affective experience can make to movement-based interaction gaming.