“Game mechanics” is a frequently referenced yet contested term in game studies. There have been some efforts to define it, of which perhaps the most widely known is Sicart's definition of game mechanics as “methods invoked by agents interacting with the game world.” The term has been explored variously for its tangled relationship to game rules, game narrative, or the player's ability to complete game tasks that involve a non-trivial amount of manual dexterity, among others. Despite its ubiquitous usage, the question of what exactly is a game mechanic persists. Yet rather than attempt to re-define it, this paper proposes that the term has overstayed its welcome and is not productive in the study of games in its current form. Each of the contributing authors offers a position statement in support of this proposal. The concluding discussion establishes the categorial nature of game mechanics and offers some potential solutions for moving beyond it. © 2026 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).

Video games are increasingly recognized for fostering social interaction, yet limited research examines how specific mechanics influence social dynamics during co-located play. This qualitative case study compares It Takes Two and Overcooked! 2 to investigate how game mechanics and design features trigger distinct patterns of player interaction. Through gameplay sessions and video analysis, we found that mechanical asymmetry in It Takes Two fosters balanced participation and light-hearted collaboration within a low-pressure environment, while systemic pressure in Overcooked! 2 encourages strategic coordination and intense teamwork under stress. Both games promote cooperation through different pathways, demonstrating that interdependence structure and pacing fundamentally shape interpersonal dynamics. This research contributes insights for designers to intentionally align mechanics with desired social outcomes, as well as provides a structured approach to gameplay analysis.

This paper explores the ethical, social, political, and philosophical implications of generative AI (GenAI) on human creativity, contributing to the current discussions on the impact of AI. We use speculative and critical design as our approach to avoid abstract guesswork and provide more nuanced and concrete insights into the matter at hand. We conducted five speculative design workshops centered on Infinity Book, a fictional system capable of generating any kind of literary work. Participants used brainwriting, the Future Ripples method, and dialogue-labs to explore potential futures and socio-material impacts of such technology. Reflexive Thematic Analysis was employed to analyze the results from the workshops, and we developed twelve design fictions that illustrate diverse uses and societal implications of GenAI. Based on these results, we formulated three strong concepts, Authenticity, Creative Agency, and Liveness, that link concrete design considerations with broader philosophical discussions. © 2025 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).

Generative AI seems poised to transform a wide range of endeavors once thought to be solely the domain of humans-from journalism to legal practice to creative expression-into collaborative activities involving both human and machine.Poetry is no exception, as even general-purpose language models now routinely generate convincing emulations of poetic form.While researchers have closely examined such machine-generated poetry, few have studied human-AI collaboration in poetry writing from a posthuman perspective.Through semi-structured interviews with ten participants in an AI English poetry contest and an analysis of their dialogs with AIs, we summarize the affordances and challenges of such collaborative practice using posthumanism as a lens.We then expose interesting tensions, for example, between human self-expression and the diminished (or relocated) agency that AI collaboration often entails.This collaborative, yet often adversarial, process provides insights into the nature of the posthuman condition as regards creative collaboration between human and machine.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools are transforming creative practices, yet their role in game poem design remains largely unexplored. Game poems serve as a bridge between interactive artwork and design for engagement. Although game poems themselves are a small genre, they serve as a microcosm for exploring how AI influences minimal, expressive, and human-centric design. This research was based on ten student-made game poems with GenAI tools. Using qualitative analysis, this study explores how student designers navigate, integrate, and revise GenAI in game poem making. Analysis of the ten included student projects demonstrates that the influence of GenAI accelerates technical implementation and ideation scaffolding, but human authorship and emotional intention play a vital role in game poem design. Students simultaneously engaged in iterative prompting, Human Creative Override, and manual curation to negotiate GenAI’s outputs.

Blockchain video games, specifically video games using blockchain technology, are a trending topic in the media, technology community and business world. While blockchain video games are expected to transform the industry, little is known about how they are played and the players accordingly. The article presents a three-stage literature overview study on blockchain video games combining methods of topic modelling, bibliometric analysis, and narrative literature review. In a systematic approach, 1,883 articles are screened. Language models are built on 1,246 articles, and 70 articles directly related to blockchain video games have been analysed. The results indicate that most recent studies focus on blockchain technology and its financial characteristics instead of players. Hence, more play-oriented blockchain video game research is needed. Future studies may focus on different types of blockchain video games, game design and playability, players’ experiences, and critical reviews.

Dreams are a source of inspiration for writers, artists, and creative professionals for generations, but recent Generative AI (GenAI) tools make it possible to use natural language to record details of dreams in image form for creativity support. This workshop invites Creativity and Cognition participants working in creative fields with interest in recording and utilizing their dream materials to use GenAI to support their dream documentation. We aim to highlight the unique contribution of dream experiences to art and design inspiration and how it can be supported by technology. Participants bring their dream sketches or records for sharing, reinterpreting, and applying GenAI for visualization. Participants will use GenAI with partners to transcribe their dreams, then create an original visual story based on their own practice and the dream inspiration. The outcome is a hands-on experience with sharing dream inspiration and applying it to creative work, allowing participants to share their insights and enrich the emerging community of dream-supported creativity in HCI.

Conventional methods of assessing attitudes towards climate change are limited in capturing authentic opinions, primarily stemming from a lack of context-specific assessment strategies and an overreliance on simplistic surveys. Game-based Assessments (GBA) have demonstrated the ability to overcome these issues by immersing participants in engaging gameplay within carefully crafted, scenario-based environments. Concurrently, advancements in AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP) show promise in enhancing the gamified testing environment, achieving this by generating context-aware, human-like dialogues that contribute to a more natural and effective assessment. Our study introduces a new technique for probing climate change attitudes by actualizing a GPT-driven chatbot system in harmony with a game design depicting a futuristic climate scenario. The correlation analysis reveals an assimilation effect, where players’ post-game climate awareness tends to align with their in-game perceptions. Key predictors of pro-climate attitudes are identified as traits like ’Openness’ and ’Agreeableness’, and a preference for democratic values.

Movement-based video games can provide engaging play experiences, and also have the potential to encourage physical activity. However, existing design guidelines for such games overwhelmingly focus on non-disabled players. Here, we explore wheelchair users’ perspectives on movement-based games as an enjoyable play activity. We created eight game concepts as discussion points for semi-structured interviews (N=6) with wheelchair users, and used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to understand their perspectives on physical activity and play. Themes focus on independent access, challenges in social settings, and the need for comprehensive adaptation. We also conducted an online survey (N=21) using the same game concepts, and thematic analysis highlighted the importance of adequate challenge, and considerations around multiplayer experiences. Based on these findings, we re-contextualize and expand guidelines for movement-based games previously established by Mueller and Isbister to include disabled players, and suggest design strategies that take into account their perspectives on play.

Modern mobile phones are equipped with many sensors, which can increasingly be used to sense various environmental phenomena. In particular, mobile sensing has enabled crowdsourced data collection at an unprecedented scale. However, as laypersons are involved in this, concerns regarding the data quality arise. This work explores the gamification of smartphone-based measurement processes in practice by embedding a sensing task into a mobile minigame. The underlying idea is – rather than to educate the user on how to correctly perform a measurement task – to opportunistically execute the measurement in the background once the smartphone is in a suitable context. To this end, this paper presents the design and evaluation of SpaceMaze, a smartphone game with the goal of minimising user error by introducing appropriate game mechanics to influence the phone context, using the example of mobile noise level monitoring. A large user study that compares SpaceMaze to two non-gamified apps for noise level monitoring (N = 360 in total) shows that SpaceMaze can successfully reduce user errors when compared to simple non-gamified ambient noise level monitoring applications and that the minigame is generally perceived as being enjoyable. Solutions for remaining problems, such as noise generated by the players, are discussed.

AutoJam is an interactive music listening experience played on an inactive steering wheel of an autonomous car. By designing AutoJam, our aim was to make in-car music interactive and align music creation with the progression of the traffic situation. Besides being a fun and creative activity for frustrating stop-and-go traffic, AutoJam helps to understand the building blocks of in-car performances. In order to explore the impact of AutoJam, we conducted an in-situ user study with 14 participants. From the findings, we constructed a map of experiential dimensions of AutoJam and found that player's experience, constitute itself through a continuous shifting between those dimensions. Reflecting on this process, we discuss four building blocks of in-car performances. Ultimately, this work aims to frame autonomous driving in difficult traffic as a creative and playful activity promoting situational awareness and musical expression.

Participatory Sensing, i.e. collaboratively taking sensor measurements with mobile devices in a Citizen Science fashion, has become increasingly popular. Because such scenarios often require a critical mass of users, applying gamification to different areas in order to increase user engagement has been proposed. However, existing attempts often default to the standard points, badges, and leaderboards and fail to recognize the potential of exploiting game design elements beyond creating user engagement. We propose not to think of Gamified Participatory Sensing when designing such systems, but rather of Sensified Gaming. To this end, this work presents a collection of design patterns and game mechanics that can be used to identify or design suitable games, into which participatory sensing tasks can be embedded. We identified four core tasks from participatory environmental sensing and sensor networks research, reviewed hundreds of design patterns and map each of the 63 selected patterns to the core tasks.

In this article we present findings from a design experiment of MurMur Moderators, talking playful seats facilitating playful atmosphere and creativity at office environments. The article describes the design and technological composition of our two prototypes, and our experiences exposing the concept to audiences at science fairs and an office environment. This research has served as an exploratory design study, directing our focus to the seats as primary and secondary play objects with a distinct narrative. Our goal with the initial exposure was to first investigate preliminary audience reactions for the high level concept and how people interact with the prototype. This was then supplemented by testing the concept in an office environment. The data we have collected gives us insight on the seats as primary and secondary play objects and how users touch, discover and socialize.

We explore shared collocated interactions with mobile phones and public displays in an indoor public place. We introduce MobiComics, an application that allows a group of collocated persons to flexibly create and edit comic strip panels using their mobile phones. The prototype supports ad hoc sharing of comic strip panels between people and onto two public displays by taking the spatial arrangement of people into account, measured with a radio tracking technology integrated in their mobile phones. MobiComics also includes game-like elements to foster social interaction between participants. Our evaluations show that people enjoyed creating panels collaboratively and sharing content using the proposed interaction techniques. The included game-like features positively influenced social interaction.

In this paper we explore shared collocated interactions with mobile phones. We introduce a phone-based application that allows a small group of collocated people to share photos using the metaphor of passing paper photos around. The prototype encourages people to share their devices and use them interchangeably while discussing photos face-to-face. The prototype supports ad-hoc photo sharing in different contexts by taking into account the spatial arrangement of users around a table, measured with sensors embedded in their mobile phones. Our evaluations show that people are willing to share and connect their mobile phones to engage in collaborative interactions. Participants were able to easily share their collections of photos using our proposed interaction techniques.

This workshop, following one with the same name held at Mobile HCI 2010, aims at further exploring different approaches and challenges in studying playfulness as a mode of interacting with mobile technology.