Tangible interaction in tabletop games : studying iconic and symbolic play pieces

In this paper, a study is described which investigates differences in game experience between the use of iconic and symbolic tangibles in digital tabletop interaction. To enable this study, a new game together with two sets of play pieces (iconic and symbolic) was developed and used in an experiment with 30 participants. In this experiment, the understanding of the game, the understanding of the play pieces and the fun experience were tested. Both the group who played with iconic play pieces and the group who played with symbolic play pieces were proven to have a comparable fun experience and understanding of the game. However, the understanding of the play pieces was higher in the iconic group and a large majority of both groups preferred to play with iconic play pieces rather then symbolic play pieces