FIERO: Empowering Creative Writing Through Collaborative Game Play

Collaborative creative writing is often hindered by the challenges of reconciling diverse perspectives, managing creative blocks, and navigating the limitations of standard digital tools like shared documents. While these tools allow for synchronous editing, they often lack the social dynamics and structured guidance necessary to foster true creative synergy. The authors argue that in-person collaboration, when supported by the right scaffolding, can significantly enhance the creative process.

FIERO is a web-based multiplayer card game designed to bridge the gap between physical social interaction and digital creative support. The system uses physical cards to provide tangible, rule-based constraints that guide players through three rounds of negotiation and storytelling.

Key features include:

• Tangible Scaffolding: Physical cards representing characters, locations, and items serve as shared narrative anchors, reducing the cognitive load of starting from scratch.
• Generative AI Integration: The digital interface uses AI to synthesize player contributions, generate contextual visuals, and ensure narrative coherence without overriding player agency.
• Structured Negotiation: The game mechanics force players to discuss and agree upon plot trajectories, which helps mitigate the fragmentation often seen in unstructured collaborative writing.

In a comparative study with 60 participants, the researchers found that FIERO significantly outperformed traditional collaborative writing methods. Players reported higher levels of intuitive stimulation and produced stories with greater plot coherence, character fidelity, and overall innovation. The study demonstrates that by combining the social benefits of tabletop gaming with the computational power of generative AI, researchers can create environments that lower the barrier to entry for creative writing while maintaining the fun and engagement of collaborative play.