For this week's reading response, we were assigned to read Chapter 7 of Artful Design, titled "Social Design." I want to reflect on social games I have played and offer some thoughts on designing social experiences.
Growing up, I played a lot of online multiplayer games including social games, MMORPGs, and shooters. Looking back, I never played these games to fulfill any social needs. I played them simply because they were fun. It's more fun to play a shooter game against real humans than against bots, since it's more challenging. For MMORPGs, I played with other people because it made progress faster and there are some quests that required multiple players. For social games, I just loved creating a character that represented me. I never played games to make friends, but to have fun.
However, along the way, I ended up "making friends." I remember playing Wizard101 with my dad, and we had an online buddy who would join us every day. More recently, when I started playing World of Warcraft Classic over the pandemic, I would log on every day for months and the same player would consistenly join and quest with me. But I never thought of them as "friends." I thought of them just as guildmates and as players on my friends list.
Even though I felt that way, I did enjoy playing with people that I met in online games, even if it was just for my fun and benefit. I never played these games for the social aspect, yet I did engage socially. These games had multiplayer components at the core of their mechanics after all. But what if I could design a single-player experience that still has the ability to connect people? Something that doesn't encourage social interaction, yet is impactful enough to discuss over dinner.
One game that comes to mind is Journey. Journey is a single player game with virtually no social mechanic. It is possible to encounter another player, but the only way to communicate with them is through "chirping." The game eliminates the social mechanic to make you focus on your own journey to the top of the mountain, and encountering another traveler just gives a sense of comraderie knowing that you're not the only one trying to make it to the top.
I want to design something that can achieve what Journey did for me. Something that is truly single-player, yet makes you feel connected with other people. I want to design something that people want to share with their friends.