Reading Response 6
Reading Response #6 to Artful Design
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Author: Neha Rajagopalan
Date: November 5th, 2023
Course: CS 476A
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Chapter 6: Game Design
Chapter 6 had a lot of learning opportunities, not only from the perspective of principles for game design, but also philosophical experiences that nurture the thought process of game design.
The games "Save the Date" and "That Dragon, Cancer" had a strong impact on me both in terms of the narrative of the games and the philosophical implications of actions and emotions. Although the games are touching,
I wonder if its necessary to post a user discretion message since one can get thoroughly involved in the game to the extent that they experience sadness and depression.
As a child, I was discouraged from pursuing video games by the adults who either advertised their qualities such as being addictive, time waste with no useful results, etc., in a negative context or quoted examples of people being distracted by them. It was very enriching to see the same qualities being used to describe fun and as a necessity for gaming.
For example, when Pokemon Go was popular, I was told about news articles describing accidents due to kids being engrossed in the game. However, it never occurred to anybody around me that it actually enforced people to be out in the open.
I would like to reflect upon Principle 6.6: Reflections: Games as mirrors of our humanness.
Principle 6.6: Reflections: Games as mirrors of our humanness.
"Save the Date" reminds me of Reinforcement learning. Although there is no reward value associated with every move, there is reflection and modification (cost) in choice of option (behaviour in the case of "Save the Date") based on past mistakes during every iteration of the game. I once observed customers participate in a Virtual Reality game in a mall arcade.
In the game, the customer had to save a kitten stuck in the middle of an iron plank suspended 20 feet above the ground in a construction site. This meant that the participant also had to walk across the plank to rescue the kitten. The visuals induced a fear for heights in the participant despite the scenario being purely simulated. However, the participants could not stop themselves from saving the kitten due to the empathy they felt.
Both of these were possible only because the game felt real and relatable. When the game is relatable, we truly put ourselves in the game and follow Principle 6.8 : All games are played in Hyper 1st person. We live in the game's world but as ourselves. When the game is real, we reflect on our decisions like how we would make action-consequence decisions in the real world. We feel emotions like our human selves even in a virtual world.
Hence it is necessary to design games (either as checks or throughout the mechanics) that allow us to reflect on our actions at every point in the game to feel completely grounded with our feelings. Through the sereneity, immitation of a real scenario touching the empathetic side of humans, and abstract figures of humans, That Dragon, Cancer is the greatest example for the extent to which reality in the game can lead to reflection and keeping us in check of our emotions and reactions to situations.