Concept
Collaborative control gameplay refers to the game type that allows many players to control a single entity in a game. To understand this concept it is important to first differentiate it from a common multiplayer, or massively multiplayer gameplay. The difference being that in a conventional multiplayer game, each player has at least one entity that only they control. When a player controls a single entity, this entity is generally called an avatar. The manner or methods of control is irrelevant for our definition, as long as it is only one player making the control decisions for the entity.
A collaboratively-controlled game requires that there be multiple players controlling a single entity. In such a game, players must work simultaneously and in concert in order to achieve their desired goals. A large audience (100 persons or more) participating in an electronic game is an interesting context. Because of the number of people in an audience, a shared interactive experience will be chaotic (at best) if it is not collaboratively-controlled.
I am introducing this term "collaborative control" to refer to this category of video games including especially the case of a games played by an audience (or any other large number of collocated people). Previous research studies have referred to this concept with phrases such as, "Large Audience Participation", "Interactive Audience Participation", "Spectator Experience", or "Large Group Interaction". Although these titles do apply, they lack eloquence and they can be easily confused to have other meanings.
The first implementation of a collaborative control system at a large scale is Cinematrix Interactive Entertainment Systems® created by Rachel and Loren Carpenter and presented at SIGGRAPH in 1991. This system utilized panels with opposing red and green sides that audience members held in front of them to cast a red or green vote as input. There have been surprisingly few original implementations of this concept since its presentation over 17 years ago.
The most relevant prior work for this study is the research of Dan Maynes-Aminzade, Randy Pausch, and Steve Seitz. Together they implemented three different input methods for collaboratively-control games and then compiled the results and lessons learned from their trials. The three implemented methods allowed audience members to give gameplay input by (1) leaning left and right, (2) batting a beach ball into the air and using its shadow on the screen as an input point, and (3) pointing a laser pointer dot at the projected game screen.