What an unfortunate acronym for “Physically Interactive Games.” On the other hand, this dissertation from Tampere (aka the home of much gaming-research goodness) sounds like it takes a thoughtful and thorough look at the topic of games you play with more than your fingers. As a designer, I find the affordances that physical play provides to be really inspiring - and as a player, I’m a dancin’, guitar-playin’, skateboardin’ fool.
The whole dissertation’s available at that link; I’m putting it on my reading list, but if anyone gets to it before me, I’d be curious to hear what you think of it.