Tabletop games in the age of remote collaboration: Design opportunities for a socially connected game experience

Prior research has highlighted opportunities for technology to bet-ter support the tabletop game experience in ofine and online settings, but little work has focused on the social aspect of tabletop gaming. We investigated the social and collaborative aspects of tabletop gaming in the unique context of social distancing dur-ing the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic to shed light on the experience of remote tabletop gaming. With a multi-method qualitative ap-proach (including digital ethnography and in-depth interviews), we empirically studied how people appropriate existing technologies and adapt their ofine practices to play tabletop games remotely. We identify three themes that describe people's game and social experience during remote play: creating a shared tabletop environ-ment (shared space), enabling a collective understanding (shared information and awareness), and facilitating a communal temporal experience (shared time).We refect on challenges and design oppor-tunities for a better experience in the age of remote collaboration.