Large Scale User Trials - Human-Computer Interaction and Innovation in Handheld, Mobile and Wearable Technologies - page 145

Figure 1. An extract from the events page of the Ego game's online component (events relevant to this
chapter are indicated by the dashed box). Players' actions during the game were made public to every-
one else.

player to hide his activity from those in his team.
Throughout the game, players had the ability to
hide or reveal certain aspects of their profile to
others, and either give or take points to or from
other players. Players' use of these abilities was
displayed on an events page accessible to other
players, making them accountable for their ac-
tions. Figure 1 shows an extract from the events
page below.
Figure 1 shows John being 'unfriendly' to Bob
before he is then 'friendly' to him. Through their
continued awareness of the game the evaluators
noticed this pattern and felt it to be unusual. At
first it was thought that the player did not fully
understand the game mechanics. However, during
the trial a question was added to FlexiFill spe-
cifically for this player, asking about this event.
Explaining his actions in an interview, the player
stated:

Although this reasoning was flawed, it reveals
not only a tactic the player developed, but also
how he viewed the events page: namely that
it offered the potential to present a certain (in
this case, incorrect) impression to others. Taken
in the larger context of the game, this conduct
led the evaluators to question the relationship
between these two players who were, at face
value, friends, which in turn led to insight into
the dynamic behind the whole cohort of players
as a social group. It is extremely difficult to say
whether or not subtle events like this would have
been uncovered and understood through the use
of static diaries, post-trial interviews and reflec-
tive analysis. However, it is possible to say that
with their continual awareness of the happenings
within the game, evaluators were more attuned
to the in-game events and therefore more likely
to investigate what were at times quite nuanced
interactions.

Where it shows you on the side of what happens
it goes in chronological order so the first thing
[John] would have seen was that I joked with him
and then he wouldn't have bothered to check the
fact that I have went absolutely after him.

MASS PARTICIPATION

In the years since these trials, the smartphone
market has increased enormously, with many more