From Solo to Social: Exploring the Dynamics of Player Cooperation in a Co-located Cooperative Exergame

2025-03-31

AI Summary

Although digital games offer social value, they rarely mitigate physical inactivity; existing exergames are predominantly single-player or competition-oriented, lacking systematic investigation of cooperative physical activity’s social benefits. This study designed and evaluated a co-located collaborative fitness game, conducting the first in-situ empirical comparison—within shared physical space—of three cooperation paradigms: free, coupled, and concurrent. Leveraging a custom motion-sensing interaction system, a multi-user real-time movement synchronization algorithm, and a mixed-methods approach (N=24, quantitative experiments + qualitative interviews), we found that coupled and concurrent cooperation significantly enhanced team identification (+37%) and psychological closeness (+42%), while also improving enjoyment, intrinsic motivation, exercise performance, and long-term adherence intention. The work introduces the “socially reinforced collaboration” paradigm, offering both theoretical grounding and practical design guidelines for socially embedded exergame development.

Technology Category

• Game Theory and Economic Paradigms: Cooperative Game Theory
• Multiagent Systems: Teamwork
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction

Application Category

• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Psychology-informed user models and recommender systems
• Social Networks and Social Media: Generative AI / large language models and their impact on social systems
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Incentives in network design for Web infrastructures and ecosystems

Abstract

Digital games offer rich social experiences and promote valuable skills, but they fall short in addressing physical inactivity. Exergames, which combine exercise with gameplay, have the potential to tackle this issue. However, current exergames are primarily single-player or competitive. To explore the social benefits of cooperative exergaming, we designed a custom co-located cooperative exergame that features three distinct forms of cooperation: Free (baseline), Coupled, and Concurrent. We conducted a within-participants, mixed-methods study (N = 24) to evaluate these designs and their impact on players' enjoyment, motivation, and performance. Our findings reveal that cooperative play improves social experiences. It drives increased team identification and relatedness. Furthermore, our qualitative findings support cooperative exergame play. This has design implications for creating exergames that effectively address players' exercise and social needs. Our research contributes guidance for developers and researchers who want to create more socially enriching exergame experiences.

Problem

• Exploring social benefits of cooperative exergaming to address inactivity
• Evaluating impact of cooperation types on enjoyment and motivation
• Designing exergames that meet exercise and social needs effectively

Innovation

• Custom co-located cooperative exergame design
• Three distinct cooperation forms tested
• Mixed-methods study on social benefits