“Anyway,”: Two-player Defense Game via Voice Conversation

Abstract

Conversation is a key element in maintaining social relationships. In contrast to soliloquy, conversation with other people gives various social effects to both speaker and listener. Most voice communication in games had been bound to achieving games goal, thus not fully facilitates social effects. Therefore, we tried to deliver the positive effects of the conversation by gamifying turn-taking communication. With “Anyway,” we present a two-player conversational defense game that uses voice conversation as an input. This game aims to encourage wholesome in-game conversation and to expand the boundary of the game’s use of voice interaction in game. In “Anyway,” players have to proceed with their talk to protect their partner from incoming waves. Spoken words from each player are converted to tetrapod breakwaters that only protect their playmate, which leads to a cooperative game experience. We conducted a preliminary user test and observed positive responses, especially in empathy and behavioral involvement.