Pres. Barack Obama: literacy & empathy

Central Proposition: v3

It got a little bit beefed up..

This research project investigates the communicative power of videogames and gameplay in informing social attitudes. Current debate (Koster, 2005) suggests that most videogames teach primal skills that are largely irrelevant to the contemporary individual. A recent study of the millennial generation (Pew Research Center, 2010) reports that the generation feel they have less respect for others and lower moral values than older generations.  This project aims at address this concern by designing games with mechanics influenced by Kohlberg’s (1970) theories and observations of social development.

"A Tsunami of violent videogames"

An example of views on videogames. I'm optimistic that these closed minded views are of a shrinking minority.

In related news, from Switzerland: "it appears that many expect all video games rated at a mature or adult level will likely be banned." -Link

 

Today I die

It's so poetic it deserves its own post. Today I Die is a cute game about suicide with the aim to turn it around by manipulating the text and figures.
Have a play here (its about 15 minutes): http://www.ludomancy.com/games/today.php

"... best described as a time-killing simulator ...

... [in which] you walk around someones house staring at the contents of the fridge fiddling with the ornaments looking for the action [button] that keeps the plot going or waiting for enough time to pass for someone else to do it"
 -Zeropunctuation on Heavy Rain

A great example of the ability of gamers to see past the fiction, story, art and see the mechanics that control the real game. MECHANICS MATTER!!

Video Games for Army recruitment

The idea has been kicking around for sometime, America's Army is a video game for the purposes of recruitment. This takes it to the next step, and it feels shameful. I feel disappointed the medium is used this way. But, as the blog post I got this from says, if video-games have the power to recruit people to the army, then they have the power to make change for the good too. (Sorry for army = bad thing, but, you know.)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Central Proposition: current draft

After many revisions, here is my current central proposition. It is a little long-winded so needs to be simplified, but has a reasonably good argument at this stage. It's more 'static' that I would like, but as Roy said: "Play their game" ;)

This research project is about the medium of video -games and people. Raph Koster (2005) argues in his book ‘The Theory of Fun’ that games are a powerful, but underutilized tool. Currently, most video-games are about violence and skills that would have best trained cavemen: aiming, timing, hunting, territory, projecting power etc. We need to learn more relevant skills: some of our instinctual behaviours are no longer relevant in contemporary culture and games should therefore evolve towards teaching us more relevant skills.
Kohlberg believes that society should try to achieve the highest stage of moral thought, as defined by his 6 stages of moral judgement. Most people obtain to at least the third stage, but through Kohlberg’s methods of discussion they are able to progress further up the stages. Kohlberg’s methods are heavily based on interactive discussion. Noted game designer Chris Crawford argues, in his ‘dragon speech’ (1997), that games have the power of efficient and effective communication. They are able to provide an interactive framework for ‘discussion’, while working on a mass-producible medium.
This research project will therefore merge Kohlberg’s ideals, using his 6 stages as a tangible device, with games for the purpose of raising the individuals’ moral thought ability.

Latest Tguy - relativism

I was reading Jean Baurillard's "In the shadow of the Silent Majorities", and together with having watched the Dali Lama's teaching in "Our Future" (film) I came up with an idea of relativism in games: What if you are not the most important person in the game? What if the game involves you on the sidelines, with another entity as the protagonist? I came up with a simple 'solution' and applied it to the Tguy game I already had running.
The only real change is that the 'camera' follows a different player than yourself. I also had to add keyboard movement rather than direct mouse control (which was planned from before) because it helps create a sense of 'being in the world' a bit more.
The idea was to make you see from someone else's perspective, and how you effected them, rather than them effecting you.

Result: Well okay it doesn't really work that well, you end up just looking at your self, and frustrated that they move so sluggishly, while also trying to avoid their influence circle..

No youtube video today, they take too long really.. Grab the exe though and have play for yourself.

Moral stages

Piaget's theory of moral judgment is a two-stage approach, expanded upon by Lawrence Kohlverg to a 6 (or 5) stage approach.

Here is some references:

KOHLBERG'S STAGES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT, from
W.C. Crain. (1985). Theories of Development. Prentice-Hall. pp. 118-136.

An Overview of Moral Development and Moral Education
A summary of Piaget's Theory; Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development and Education; Domain Theory: Distinguishing Morality and Convention; Carol Gilligan and the Morality of Care

Studies in Social and Moral Development and Education: Featured Articles

As for my central proposition, I think the best approach is to flip my current argument from:
Video games > meaningful > what is meaning >create meaning > prosocial

To:
Current social trends > need to support morals > During development of morals > active learning > video games (as natural conclusion :D )

It fits nicely I do believe, which allows me to research more on active learning in video games. 

The Myer-Briggs Type Indicator

Ok well from time-time I will be taking a break from direct game research and will be looking at the application for which is the purpose of my research.

Last year I went along to a Myer-Briggs class out of curiosity. The class not only found our Myer-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), but showed what use it can be in understanding other personality types and ways to deal with it. Over the last few months since, I have found it to be immensity helpful - and I have a feeling that if everyone had a similar understanding of others in this light, then general society would greatly benefit.

Here's a passage from the website:

Psychological Type and Relationships

When you understand personality preferences, you can more readily appreciate differences between you and people closest to you in your life such as partners, children, and friends.
Knowledge of MBTI® type allows you to see ... differences as just those—different ways of seeing things. Instead of labeling a person and putting value judgments on his or her behavior, you can learn to see your partner’s behavior as reflecting personality type, not something designed to offend you. Many couples even learn to see the differences in a humorous light.

Will Wright - Games as Toys

Will Wright created Sim City, The Sims, and Spore. And these are all 'toys'. There is no set 'goal', the player sets their own goal, plays with it, experiments, tries different things. The power of video games that Wright presents and has been working on is the possibility space. Giving the player the ability to easily try things out and see what happens. In Spore you are able to modify the atmosphere, and in a short space of time, the player is able to see the long-term effects of what would occur. The power is that the player can experiment, play around, and learn a whole lot that is totally impossible in the world.

Will Wright - Video Games Lecture in 2007

Here is another great lecture (that I couldn't tame to embed here, linky in title above), I would say that this one is more relevant to my research. Summary: Firstly he introduces the current social state of video games compared with the introduction of other media - Novels/fiction: "Poisoned" the readers minds
The Waltz: "A dance for prostitutes and adulterers"
Film: "godless dissolute lives"
Rock & Roll: "Devil worshippers"
And now video games are just starting to get past this, as those that grew up with games become older.
Then he compares linear media with games: Linear stories are about Empathy, games about Agency.
The lastly he talks about how games create and manipulate mental models. A story becomes an abstraction in the listeners mind, which then forms models to predict and act in the future. Play also does this.

Serious Games pt 2.

Games Beyond Entertainment Week is a series of conferences. Games for Health is one, and here is a couple of other partnerships:

The Able Gamers foundation

This is a charity that helps disabled people have access to video-games. They have community events, and modify game controllers for use.

Games for Change

(G4C) is a non-profit which seeks to harness the extraordinary power of video games to address the most pressing issues of our day, including poverty, education, human rights, global conflict and climate change. G4C acts as a voice for the transformative power of games, bringing together organizations and individuals from the nonprofit sector, government, journalism, academia, industry and the arts, to grow the sector and provide a platform for the exchange of ideas and resources. Through this work, Games for Change promotes new kinds of games that engage contemporary social issues in meaningful ways to foster a more just, equitable and tolerant society.

They have quite an extensive list of games here, let's take a look:

This is Third World Farmer and it is a good example of the type of 'games' that plague Serious Games. There is really not much 'gameness' to it, click a bunch of times placing 'crops', press the play button and see a read out of statistics telling you how your farm is doing and that some disease or another has killed half your stuff. Repeat. The characters do nothing, it is an empty land void of much interest, which is a barrier to it delivering any meaning to the player.

Why are so many 'Serious Games' like this? My first thought is that media is generally linear - film, books - but games are non-linear - they allow interaction on a different level than linear media. And these games forget that.

Case in point:

Agianst All Odds

I put together this step-by-step of what happens in this game.

1. "You are living in great danger and must flee your country. Will you survive? Test yourself!" - why? Why am I fleeing? Why should I test myself?

2. Choose a situation. - It can't be all that bad if I can choose what I would like to experience..

3."Who are you" - personalize the game here, put some of yourself into it if you want..

4. Cut scene...

5. "We will give you 10 statements to respond to".

6. A fun little drawing bit. Because everyone likes drawing.

7. Wrong choice response...?

8. See what happens if I doodle over here...

9. I get hit..

So if I doodle on the left side I get told off, if I doodle on the right side, I get 'hit'. Both responses seem to have no real effect as I get given another question right away.

They're trying to hit home some important messages in a very superficial way.
This 'game' is effectively a tickbox, result 1/result2. 

"I give up the right to vote"

Y: No Right to vote, no democracy! Result: Next question

N: Get 'hit' Result: Next question.

Serious Games

Okay well I've always thought they were kinda dry, mixing some arcade game with a different art style to 'inform the player'. BUT. It is a big field similar to what I'm researching so I might as well have a peek.

Games For Heath
This is annual conference with the aims "to improve health and health care." This means not just video games that involve physical activity, but also training health care professionals to better do their job.

This is an early introduction (2006) to the organization. The focus here is on the technology and experience opportunities that video games provide. There is little focus on actual games however. There seems to be a bit of a grey-area around 'video games'. The technology of real time graphics in a interactive world is automatically dubbed a 'video game' weather there is any game or not. It does offer a more rich interaction possibility space, people are able to test things out, train, learn in a different way - but often not as a 'game' - or a very superficial game.

Next on Joel's blog: What is a game and how, or why is it important? Stay tuned in.
Now: Games for Health.




Here's a later video. First part is mixing physical exercise with video games as is. That is physical actions propel an avatar forward, make them dance etc. It seems a bit, superficial but the players apparently really enjoyed it, and had not only the satisfaction of playing a game, but also of exercising.
The second part is about a game called ReMission. It is a third-person type game, but with heavy, information loaded content. It helps those undertaking Chemotherapy understand what's going on, and how to deal with it.

Experiment1: the man who is easy to anger part 2

Some more experiments. This is work on directing the wandering. When one of the guys gets close to another, they become interested in each other and slowly approach.

test5: stop fighting. Using the player as an interference to try and break up fights. Currently only has minor collision code, needs to have influence.
test6: friends. subjects become interested in each other, and try to come closer but cant go past the circle. What results is that they just slowly get closer to each other, and become more relaxed. Eventually touching.
I intended to try a memory system, remembering who angered, who was friendly, and who is new.
test7: friends to enemies. They are attracted, and curious, but this causes them to get too close, and become angry and fight.

to do: hitpoints - each 'hit' during a fight drops a point, and on low points loser is thrown away, or winner becomes uninterested.

It's worth a read >>>

http://picturesforsadchildren.com/index.php?comicID=315

Experiment1: the man who is easy to anger

A man who is quick to anger becomes avoided with those who deal with him. They say "be careful".
-paraphrased from the Dalai Lama's teachings.

Would people be more considerate of others if they understood the real implications of their actions? Someone who is quick to anger becomes avoided, is there a way to communicate that through a play-based, non-linear sort of experience?

Here's a quick game that I whipped up, I intend to add a few more things, such as indirect control of the player, a reward solution for shrinking the circles, and the ai to tend toward things that 'interests' them.
Tguyb3

From the bedside: Games have meaning

As designers, we all know that everything means something. Every coloured wall, every crossed T has some meaning in it. It is the basis of design.
You can agree then, that games have meaning too. They express something.
My argument is that games have a deeper meaning that is not expressed just in the artwork, story or that kind of top-level design. I argue that the core mechanics, the way you play the game, expresses a lot. The core mechanics shape your decision making within the game world and that is a powerful thing.
See slide #2 from the post below

Chris Crawford and people games

Having worked in the game industry for sometime, Chris Crawford became tired with the stagnation of the games industry, which he described as being too 'deep' and lacking 'breadth'.

People games, as termed by Crawford, are games where the goals are of a social nature and focus on interactions with well-defined characters. They are described in Chris Crawford on Game Design as follows:

“

I dreamed of the day when computer games would be a viable medium of artistic expression — an art form. I dreamed of computer games expressing the full breadth of human experience and emotion. I dreamed of computer games that were tragedies, games about duty and honor, self-sacrifice and patriotism. I dreamed of satirical games and political games; games about the passionate love between a boy and girl, and the serene and mature love of a husband and wife of decades; games about a boy becoming a man, and a man realizing that he is no longer young. I dreamed of games about a man facing truth on a dusty main street at high noon, and a boy and his dog, and a prostitute with a heart of gold. This is a famous 'dragon speech' in which he describes the industry as a dragon, and 'leaves to fight it'

Tilt Factor - Game Design for Social Change

This site runs parallel with my final-year project, it's great to see that I'm not totally confused on the subject of meaningful game design.

"The Tiltfactor Laboratory makes screen based computer games as well as street games and table top games like card games and board games. Unlike typical commercial games, our mission is to focus on “critical play.” We make games for children, for adults, for the public, and for particular communities to raise issues, discussion points, or just innovate play in novel ways.
While our games can be seen as educational, it is important to us that they are fun!
Our software and playful art fosters rewarding, compelling, and socially-responsible interactions, with a focus on inventive game design for social change."

Vexta (shown opposite) is a board game useful for learning game design itself.
"Because game mechanics are one of the principal ways that games communicate, learning to “read” mechanics is a critical skill for developing game literacy."

Grow a game is a great a 'tool' game that they have created also. Online version here.
"Using Grow-A-Game, groups of people brainstorm novel game ideas which prioritize human values"
I would like to experiment with this, it looks like a really great learning tool. The grow a game link has a really great recording of a workshop done at a games conference with it, and there were some really amazing results.
A team got the cards 'scrabble' and 'democracy'. They decided that scrabbles mechanics were quite democratic already: "Some tiles are worth more than others, but there are lots of lesser tiles and they have to work together to win"

P4K Grow A Game

View more presentations from jayGK.

To read: Eight Myths about video games debunked

GWAP - Games With A Purpose

Games being used for a social purpose. This site is from the creators of the ESPgame (aka the Google Image Labeler). If you haven't seen Google's new image search features, check the options in the Google image search - I always wondered how it worked..
The Purpose. The games on this site all have a common purpose: to make computers more intelligent. As you play the games, you are teaching computers things that they don't know yet. Please help them learn!

While a couple of the games aren't games at all (left) some are quite clever (see top right) - this one helps search engines understand words better I think.


Here's the ad for GWAP. It doesn't really say much, and it is quite lame (cute music + kid = cheese). But anywho:

Research points of interest.

There's a couple of things that have caught my eye that I do not want to loose, so I thought I'd post it here.

1. Lecture by Johnathan Blow. In Conflicts in Games Design he talks about the dynamical meaning in games. This lecture narrowed my interest from plain game design to meaningful games. Design Reboot has a couple of thoughts on various things, including social responsibility of designers.
Conflicts in Game Design ; Design Reboot

2. The Marriage by Rod Humble. This game made me realize that I too, can make meaningful games. This game is a bare-bones example of a simple, interpretive game.
Linky
Johnathan Blow also has some good experimental games. Game Prototypes

3. Train by Brenda Brathwaite.
This game is a proof-of-concept that games can have real meaning. It has an ethical dilemma of sorts.