Of Mice and Pants: Queering the Conventional Gamer Mouse for Cooperative Play Sabine Harrer, Simon Nielsen, Patrick Jarnfelt
CHI '19: ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Session: A Good Day to CHI Hard
Abstract
Withing the fields of HCI and game design, conventional design practices have been criticised for perpetuating the status quo and marginalising users beyond the norm [11], [1], e.g. through genderized assumptions about user interaction [13]. To solve this problem of conservatism in HCI, one recommended strategy has been queering; the use of mischiveous, spaceful, and oblique design principles [13]. This contribution focuses on the conventional computer mouse within videogames as an example for a conventional input device optimised for a limited set of interactions. The article first reviews HCI discourses on the mouse within technology studies, game culture, and queer game studies. In these three domains, the mouse has been consistently reduced to its functionality as high-precision point-and-click device, constructing it as conservative seemingly hard-wired to cater to male-centred pleasures. We then discuss three experimental game design strategies to queer the mouse controller in The Undie Game, a cooperative wearable mouse-based installation game by the Copenhagen Game Collective. The Undie Game speculates about ways to confront and disrupt conventional expectations about gaming by fa''silly''tating interaction for two players who wear a mouse controller in their panties and collectively steer a 3D high definition tongue on screen to achieve a mutual highscore. By creating a social, silly, and potentially daunting play experience, The Undie Game reinterprets the affordances of the computer mouse to bring subjects like consent, failure, and ambiguity into the picture.
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Recorded at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Glasgow, Scotland, May 4 - 9 2019
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