The Internet of Things Game: Revealing the Complexity of the IoT

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a phenomenon wherein everyday objects are capable of interacting together through the Internet; producing complex interdependencies between human and non-human actants. However, much of this complexity is not legible to users of IoT and can produce concerns relating to areas such as privacy and security, when the independent-but-interdependent motivations and perspectives of the actants are incongruent. To address this issue this paper presents The Internet of Things Board Game, which has been designed such that its procedural rhetoric makes legible these independent-but-interdependent relationships; and reveal how they manifest in the management of our security and privacy within IoT. The results of play-testing the game through multiple iterations highlight the valuable contribution games can play in revealing the ever-increasing complexity of relationships between the digital and the physical, and the human and non-human.