From this week’s reading, I want to respond to Principle 2.7 in Artful Design which states: ‘Design to LOWER INHIBITION’.strong> Here, I believe inhibition means the people’s rejection of expressing themselves due to shyness or self-denial. In music, it is common for a normal person to come up with some melodic humming, rhythm pattern, or poetic lyric. However due to the lack of tools and music training, we could rarely transform these ideas into music pieces. Similar problems exist in the field of drawing, writing, dancing, etc. Now with the help of generative deep learning models like DALLE-2, we could design tools for people to visualize or sonify their ideas into actual drawings or musical clips. Instead of considering AI-generated art a threat to traditional artist, we could make them incubator of art creation for ordinary people.
Also, another interpretation of Principle 2.7 could be: ‘when designing a product, we should also enable user to modify it as freely as possible’. This is the spirit of open-source software, but I think a game product also exemplify the idea. It is the map editor of Warcraft 3 by Blizzard, from which thousands of games including Dota has been developed. The editor provided tools for a ordinary gamer to create games of their own likings, and truly made the RPG gaming community flourish.
I could resonate with Ge's impression on his journey in Aaru, since I've also lost the concept of time in the field of reeds. I felt peaceful, However, the peaceful scene becomes terrifying and suffocating when I realized an alternative explanation of the 'freeze of time' Aaru. When all the rituals, activities and even happiness are repeated and extended to infinity, does feeling still mean anything to the people 'living' in the place? When life is no longer short, then what need to be cherished? Then I realized that I should not place myself in the position of the Aaru people. The sublime feeling about Aaru arises only because we live in a chaotic reality, which contrasts with the peacefulness in the fields of reeds. The role of the gamer is and only is the obersver of the world. Only in such way, we could glide through multiple worlds with ease, without being trapped in frustration. By the way, the new Assasin's Creed Mirage has just been launched. A new journey of observing a new piece of history awaits.