Social Media Integration in Video Games: A Social Overlay for Desktop Games

Simpósio de Informática (INForum 2015), Covilhã, Portugal. Notes: Best paper award nominee.

The ever increasing popularity of social media makes them a promising source for the personalization of gameplay experiences. Furthermore, involving social network friends in a game can greatly enrich the satisfaction of the player and also attract potential novel players to a game. This paper describes a social overlay designed for desktop games. It allows players to easily capture and share on multiple social networks screenshots, videos and even game-related stories. Unlike most social sharing systems our social overlay is designed to interact with the user in a non-intrusive way allowing him/her to be in complete control of what is shared. Our goal is to make players look and ask for social integration. The development of this social overlay will allow players to take full advantage of their social communities to improve their gaming experience.