Snag´em: Creating Community Connections through Games

It is difficult for new community members to make the connections that would be most beneficial to them - connections with seasoned members of the community, or members of other groups. To address this problem, we have created Snag´em, a web-based social networking game that helps people create, monitor, and strengthen connections with one another. In contrast to existing social games, Snag´em facilitates offline interaction to create an online social network. This paper discusses the design of Snag´em, the use of game mechanics to engage academic community members in social interaction, and the results of two preliminary studies along with the design implications of each.