Nisal, Patibanda, Saini, Overdevest et al., CHI PLAY 2023 · Monash Exertion Games Lab · Reading guide prepared 2026-08-18; main text not yet worked through
Monash University, Exertion Games Lab. I chose this over the next paper on my list because it lands directly on an unresolved crack in my claim on meaningful play: its title is, in effect, spectators becoming players.
Why I expect it to be uncomfortable
The finding, as far as I can tell before reading properly: eleven of twelve participants could not distinguish whether they were watching or playing, and the authors conclude that bodily engagement matters more than control for something to feel like play.
If that holds, it does not fill my crack — it challenges the premise underneath it. I had assumed the audience’s body is uninvolved and only watches. This paper says an uninvolved body may not be the relevant category at all.
The question I have already written into the reading guide
Their spectator’s own hand is moved by electrical muscle stimulation. My audience watches someone else being driven by a controller. Are these two kinds of bodily involvement the same thing?
I do not think they are, and the difference may be where my research question actually lives.
Why the lab matters
Exertion Games Lab is currently the largest anchor on my map for this direction — body as play material, limited control as a play design resource, human–computer integration. If the fork resolves toward single-player, this is the community I am writing into.