Category: reading response

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Game Design 2

(2.12) Serious Games

Discussion: Train, Crosser & La Migra, Ludoztil, Oregon Trail, Last Resort

Train (Brenda Romero)

Train is impactful because it keeps its context hidden until the end. The mechanics are straightforward and focus on moving pieces efficiently, but the reveal reframes the entire experience. It demonstrates how games can involve players directly in systems rather than simply explaining them. The lesson is conveyed through participation instead of dialogue, and that discomfort becomes the central learning experience.

Crosser & La Migra

Both games simulate border crossing and the pressures of immigration. What stands out is how procedural rules express vulnerability. Randomness, restricted movement, and pursuit mechanics create tension and stress. Rather than explaining immigration systems abstractly, these games simulate constraint and risk, allowing players to feel instability and fear firsthand.

Ludoztil

Ludoztil critiques the manipulation embedded in gamification systems. By satirizing reward structures, it reveals how points and incentives shape behavior even when players are aware they are being influenced. This connects directly to Bogost’s argument that gamification often prioritizes shallow motivation over meaningful engagement.

Oregon Trail

Oregon Trail remains one of the earliest examples of serious gaming. It teaches through consequence, using disease, weather, and scarcity to illustrate the realities of westward expansion. The learning model relies heavily on repetition and feedback, reinforcing behaviorist learning principles through trial and error.

Last Resort

Last Resort addresses homelessness and economic instability. What makes it effective is the absence of easy solutions. It highlights systemic barriers rather than individual failure, showing how serious games can expose structural issues instead of reinforcing personal blame.

Overall Reflection

Across all of these examples, systems communicate meaning more effectively than lectures. Players learn by experiencing constraint, uncertainty, and moral tension.

Play Reflection: Crossing the Bridge and Observance

Crossing the Bridge

This game centers on ethical decision making. It does not reward efficiency or optimization. Instead, it forces players to confront the consequences of their choices. The discomfort created by those decisions becomes the learning moment. Reflection occurs after action rather than during gameplay optimization.

Observance

Observance relies on ambiguity and environmental interpretation. It encourages attentiveness and emotional awareness rather than traditional goal completion. Without clear objectives, the experience feels less like a challenge and more like an immersive reflection.

Combined Takeaway

Both games demonstrate that serious games prioritize reflection over reward systems. The emotional or intellectual impact often happens after the play session ends.

Prototype Concept: The Last Hunt

Core Concept

The Last Hunt is a survival-focused serious game inspired by Appalachian folklore. A small hunting party becomes stranded after signs of a Wendigo attack during winter. As resources diminish, the main threat becomes fear, mistrust, and the decisions players make to keep the group alive.

Player Role

The player acts as the group’s decision-maker, balancing survival needs with social stability.

Prototype Mechanics (Paper Version)

Players track four core resources:

  • Food
  • Warmth
  • Trust
  • Fear

Each round includes:

  1. Resource Phase — supplies decrease and environmental conditions worsen.
  2. Event Phase — cards introduce challenges such as storms, disappearances, or strange tracks.
  3. Decision Phase — players choose responses like rationing food, holding a campfire talk, hiding bad news, or honoring the dead.
  4. Consequence Phase — decisions create long-term effects on group trust and fear.

Deaths are significant and introduce ethical choices around corpse management, such as burial, abandonment, or using resources for survival. These choices affect morale and trust.

Learning Objectives

The game explores:

  • Group decision making under stress
  • Survival ethics and scarcity
  • Fear and social cohesion
  • How leadership choices shape group dynamics

The Wendigo serves as both a folkloric threat and a symbolic pressure that reflects the group’s psychological state.

The Last Shift
A simulation of emergency room triage focused on ethical resource allocation and time pressure.

Witness Reports
Players analyze conflicting cryptid sightings to explore misinformation, bias, and evidence evaluation.

Signal in the Pines
A narrative game in which players respond to rural distress signals and must decide how to act under uncertainty.

Cryptid Conservation Agency
Players manage environmental preservation efforts for endangered mythical creatures, balancing public perception and ecological sustainability.

Archive of the Unseen
Players curate fading folklore and decide which cultural stories are preserved or forgotten, exploring how history is shaped.

Each concept uses systems to examine themes such as ethics, media literacy, environmental stewardship, and cultural memory.

Reading Responses

Learning Games and Learning Theory

Oregon Trail aligns with behaviorism because players learn through reinforcement and repeated feedback loops of success and failure.

Minecraft Education Edition reflects constructivism since players build, experiment, and discover solutions through exploration.

Collaborative simulation games align with social constructivism because knowledge develops through communication and shared problem solving.

Among these, constructivist approaches feel the most effective because players actively construct understanding instead of responding to rewards.

Is Gamification Bullshit

Bogost argues that gamification reduces games to points, badges, and superficial incentives, stripping away depth and transforming engagement into manipulation.

I partially agree. Gamification can encourage short term behavior, but without meaningful systems it becomes shallow.

Examples outside class include fitness apps that track streaks, corporate training platforms that award badges, and productivity tools that gamify tasks. These systems often lose effectiveness once novelty fades because they lack intrinsic motivation.

What Is a Serious Game and Why It Is Not Chocolate Covered Broccoli

A serious game is designed primarily for learning, awareness, or reflection, using gameplay mechanics to communicate meaning.

Farber argues that serious games are not chocolate covered broccoli because the learning is embedded within the mechanics. Players do not pause the game for instruction. Instead, the interaction itself creates understanding. When designed well, the system becomes the lesson.

Final Reflection

This week reinforced that serious games rely on systems, constraints, and player agency to generate meaningful learning. The strongest examples do not preach. They simulate. My revised prototype, Cryptid Commune, applies this approach by using folklore aesthetics to explore leadership, belief, and social influence through interactive systems.

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Question Set Week 2

  • What advergames have you played? Did they influence a purchase outside of the game? I mean i have played tons of games that ARE advertisements for the games themselves and they have never influenced me to get the game – I have also played games like Pepsi Man for other products and no they generally do not influence me
  • Why do the advergames ”tooth protector” and “escape” work? What makes ”chase the chuckwagon” and “shark bait” fail? According to Bogost, it is how well the game integrates the message of the game into the actual mechanics which make the games run. In the last two games, the gameplay doesn’t have to do with what the product actual is or does so the message falls flat
  • What does volvo’s “drive for life” accomplish? It forces the player to experience Volvo’s motto – instead of speed like most racing/car games, the game mechanics enforce “driving for life” by enforcing safety, safe speeds and awareness. It makes the player live the motto
  • What company used in-advergame advertising: Massive Incorporated
  • What was one of the first home-console advergames and what beverage was it for? Pepsi Invaders – which was for Coca-Cola as a dig at their competitor
  • What makes “the toilet training” game sophisticated and do you agree? It is “sophisticated” because of the values and management skills that are engrained in the rules of the game – it teaches something and allows users to experience a structured, manageable process of parenthood duties. I think I mostly agree – the subject matter makes it slightly less so but I haven’t actually played the game so I would have to see if Bogost’s justification is correct
  • What do advergames and anti-advergames have in common, and what principles do they share? Bogost argues they have quite a lot in common actually. Similar mechanics, which are intended for different purposes, but often act similarly. They also both are trying to persuade people to do, or not do, something. This is a key component and biggest principle they follow to say they have things in common
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Read and ?s

  1. What learning games have you played? can you categorize them by learning theory: behaviorism, constructivism, or social nature? if you played more than one which was the most effective?
    • Learning games can be divided along behaviorist, “drill and practice” models such as Math Blaster or Logical Journey of the Zoombinis; constructivism and constructionism, focusing on construction and creativity in games such as The Incredible Machine or LEGO Mindstorms; and the social dimension of learning, as seen in communities such as MOOSE Crossing. The best learning games are those that avoid “chocolate-dipped broccoli,” or “gamification” of uninteresting activities by embedding them in something else fun, and instead make learning itself inherently engaging by using mechanisms such as decision-making and role-playing. “Shallow gamification” has been dismissed as “exploitationware,” but “Serious Games” such as Nightmare: Malaria are effective because they integrate their message as part of gameplay.
  2. Is gamification bullshit? What is Ian Bogost’s argument, and do you agree? Where have you encountered it outside of class, and what was your experience?
    • Ian Bogost has perhaps crystallized this argument most strongly, stating that gamification is essentially marketing nonsense and referring to it as “exploitationware” since essentially what gamification does is reduce the rich complexity of games into simple, repetitive elements and then proceeds to sell a simple guide on how to do business with such simple techniques. This, of course, is also the concern expressed by most researchers of gamification: an “unwholesome” design described as being “chocolate-covered broccoli” – taking an underlying difficult learning experience and adding a little bit of fun to drown out the process. If we look outside the classroom, we see one end of the spectrum focusing on trivial point systems, while the other end is focused on Serious Games, which have a tangible impact, like Nightmare: Malaria, which incorporates actual decision-making processes, or health-related apps like Zombies, Run! and SuperBetter, which integrate a purposeful goal into the actual game. If we look at the business world, we again see this spectrum, ranging from the recruitment game America’s Army, to team building game Everest Manager.
  3. What is a serious game, and why aren’t they chocolate-covered broccoli?
    • A serious game, on the other hand, is a piece of gaming created to deliver a specific, purposeful message. Serious games are commonly created for learning or training, with K-12 learners, health professionals, and corporate employees as their common audience. They are different from edutainment because they make learners deal with complex rules and accept feedback immediately within a specific setting, such as recruitment missions in America’s Army or STEM exploration in The Radix Endeavor. Thus, a serious game is not akin to a “chocolate-covered broccoli” game, a metaphor for edutainment whose core is boring, as opposed to its entertaining surface. Serious games, rather, make the process of learning enjoyable at its core. While initial edutainment like the first version of Math Blaster offers rewards for learning, such as shooting mini-games, serious games incorporate learning into essential mechanics of choice, problem-solving, role-playing, and others. A good example of this is the game Nightmare: Malaria, where the dark, intense gameplay, such as evading mosquitoes inside a girl’s bloodstream, is actually part of the game’s mechanics for delivering the danger of the disease. Unlike edutainment, a serious game does not try to avoid the core idea of learning but, by avoiding this, it attempts to make learners embrace what is being learned, not merely the reward for it.
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Mason Tosadori Week 4

Observance

  1. What made the experience fun or not?
    • The game was decently fun but there are a few tweaks I would change. The game is very chance based. I believe the americans are really strong and its super easy to catch the people on team MEX. The mex need to reveal themselves to find the churches, which easily gets them caught, and then they have 2 chances to find the green card, if they dont find it they have to send their people to actually stand on the A row and search space by space. If they miss they reveal their location and will easily get caught, so you hav to find it really early on.
  2. What is the motivating factor to get or keep players playing?
    • The factor is to go and find the green card and save all your immigrants, or on the other hand stop all the immigrants from getting into america.
  3. Is the game persuasive, and what is it trying to get you to do outside of the game?
    • The game is trying to get players to look at and understand whats going on at the border. Aliens want to sneak into America to get a better life while Americans are trying to keep the Aliens out. It shows what both parties have to go through, sneaking in and also trying to keep these people out.
  4. What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout?
    • The games metaphor is symbolic of trying to get a better life while others try to keep them away from it. It resembles battle ship in game mechanics but the fact that your pieces directly interact with your opponents pieces is a different mechanic.
  5. How does the gameplay make you feel? Who does the game make you feel empathy for?
    • The game makes me feel empathy for the immigrants trying to get into the country, but I understand how people can also have empathy for the workers who are doing their job and trying to keep people from sneaking into the states instead of coming in legally.
  6. Is the game an activist game? If so what does the game play advocate for?
    • I think the game is an activist game advocating for immagrants trying to get into the US. It shows their struggles and how dangerous and difficult it is just to try and be more successful in life.
  7. Describe the game in 3 sentences or in the form of a haiku
    • Team MEX tries to sneak, the americans catch them, away from better life

LAST RESORT

  1. What made the experience fun or not?
    • The game was fun, its a mix of chess but theres a whole new aspect with the civilians and having multiple ways to win. It gives room for alot of strategy while also having a message about 2 sides of war and how it effects innocent people.
  2. What is the motivating factor to get or keep players playing?
    • The motivation is to beat your opponent in battle while also keeping civilians safe in the crossfire. Its a 1v1 competitive game so that makes the competiton alot more direct compared to group played games.
  3. Is the game persuasive, and what is it trying to get you to do outside of the game?
    • The game is persuasive in the sense of giving the players a deeper perspective of war. It shows how it can effect civilians and how people can get caught in the cross fire. It also gives the perspective of how civilians arent just on the sidelines, but a direct strategy that each side has to take into account.
  4. What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout?
    • The games metaphor is symbolic, almost directly, of the perspective of innocent civilians in wars. The game mechanics focus on this by letting you kill and capture the civilians, giving the game a whole other loop off strategy and ways to win the game involvining civilians insetad of just killing your enemies pieces.
  5. How does the gameplay make you feel? Who does the game make you feel empathy for?
    • I like the gameplay alot, theres alot of strategy and different moves to make, and because there are multiple win conditions you never know what your opponents goal might be. It is empathetic towards people effected by war who arent directly involved. It shows troops moving around them and even taking thei lives, showing the effects war has on people other than troops.
  6. Is the game an activist game? If so what does the game play advocate for?
    • The game seems like an antiwar kind of game. It shows the taking of lives with troops, but also being able to set of smaller bombs and a nuke which can take out most of the board shows the losses and spoils of war.
  7. Describe the game in 3 sentences or in the form of a haiku
    • 2 sides of a war, civilians in the way, decide how you win

What learning games have you played? Which learning theory do they fit? Which worked best?
I have played games like Kahoot and Duolingo. Kahoot and Duolingo mostly use rewards like points and streaks, which fits behaviorism because you get rewarded for correct answers. The games are competitive and have leader boards. Kahoot worked for me because it shows the whole class if you got the answer wrong, making me work harder to not embarss myself.

Is gamification “bullshit”? What is Bogost’s argument? Do you agree? Where have you seen it?
Ian Bogost says gamification is “bullshit” because it just adds points and badges to boring tasks. He thinks this does not make something truly fun or meaningful. It only tries to push people to work harder without changing the task itself. I have seen gamification in fitness apps and store rewards programs. It can be motivating at first, but it usually does not last, so I mostly agree with him.

What is a serious game, and why aren’t they “chocolate-covered broccoli”?
A serious game is a game made to teach or explore real-world topics. It is not just a boring lesson covered up to look fun. Learning happens through playing and making choices. This makes the experience feel more real and engaging.

5 Ideas for a serious game.

1. Student money manager
You play as a student who has to budget money for rent, food, and bills. You learn how to save and avoid debt.

2. Save the earth
You run a city and make choices about pollution and clean energy. Your decisions affect the environment and the people.

3. Fake New
You read news stories and decide if they are true or false. The game teaches how to spot fake news.

4. Stop the Virus
You try to control a disease in a town. You choose rules to keep people safe while keeping businesses open.

5. Life Choices
You play as someone facing challenges like poverty or disability. Your choices show how hard daily life can be.

I choose the game Gamer Girl for the podcast.

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Game Design 2 week 4 Reading homework

  • what learning games have you played? can you categorize them by the theory of learning types: behaviorism, constructivism, constructivism or social nature? if you played more than one which was the most effective? I have played learning games like Duolingo, Kahoot, Quizlet, Animal Jam, and a few others. Most of them I would say is behaviorism like Duolingo, Kahoot , and Quizlet because you get rewarded when a question is right, but punished if an answer is wrong. I would say Animal Jam and Minecraft are more social nature because you kind of make your own decisions , but you aren’t punished you just kind of learn from them. I think the most effective is Kahoot or Duolingo because they incorporate a bunch of fun games in order to learn the topic, and they make it easy to memorize.
  • is gamification bullshit, what is ian bogost’s argument and do you agree? where have you encountered it outside of class and what was your experience?Ian Bogost argues that gamification is a shallow imitation of games. It borrows surface features points, badges, leaderboards, but ignores what makes games meaningful: choice, systems, and consequences. To Bogost, gamification is often: Manipulative, Focused on compliance, not learning A way to make boring systems feel fun without changing them. I agree with him because at first, it feels motivating, but over time it becomes stressful or meaningless. The system hasn’t changed, only the wrapping has.
  • What is a serious game and why aren’t they chocolate covered broccoli? Matthew Farber argues that serious games don’t hide learning inside fun, they make learning the game itself. Their rules and systems express ideas, teach through experience, and let players feel real consequences. They aren’t chocolate-covered broccoli because the mechanics are the message, as seen in games like Papers, Please, This War of Mine, and Darfur is Dying, which teach by placing players inside the system rather than rewarding them for correct answers.

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Week 4 Questions

Observance

What made the experience fun or not?

The experience was fun because if you are the immigrants, you don’t know where your opponents players are and its the mystery of where the green card and the churches are. The game gets a lot easier once you find the green card so you can escape. If you are the boarder patrol, you get to choose where the green card is and the churches. You also have the opportunity to block the immigrants and do search formats that will help sweep them from the board.

What is the motivating factor to get or keep players playing?

The motivating factor for the immigrants is to find the green card to escape. The motivating factor for the search patrol is to find where the immigrants are and wipe them off the board.
Is the game persuasive, and what is it trying to get you to do outside of the game?

Yes the game is persuasive because it is subtly trying to show you what the boarder is like in real life and is trying to influence your beliefs and social understandings.
What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout?

It compares immigration to the game battleship. The mechanic that stands out is the search and hide characteristic of the game that reinforces the cat and mouse dynamic at the boarder.
How does the gameplay make you feel? Who does the game make you feel empathy for?

The gameplay can feel uncomfortable and strategic rather than playful. It often creates empathy for immigrants because they are positioned as vulnerable and constantly under threat of being “found.” Depending on the role you play, it can also make you reflect on the system itself rather than just one side.
Is the game an activist game? If so what does the game play advocate for?

Yes it can be considered an activist or persuasive game. It advocates for critical reflection on U.S. border politics and immigration enforcement by exposing how the system reduces complex human experiences into tactical operations.
Describe the game in 3 sentences or in the form of a haiku.

Observance is a board game modeled after Battleship that explores immigration and border patrol. One player hides as immigrants while the other searches as border enforcement, creating a tense strategy gameplay. Through simple mechanics, the game critiques how border systems treat human movement like a tactical game.

5 new ideas:

  1. Concept:
    A workplace simulation game where players navigate a corporate environment over 10 in-game years.

Gameplay:
Players choose a character (with gender identity affecting how systems respond to them) and make decisions about speaking up in meetings, negotiating salary, reporting harassment, or balancing family expectations. The same choices produce different outcomes depending on the character’s gender.

Serious Purpose:
The game demonstrates wage gaps, bias in performance reviews, emotional labor expectations, and the “double bind” women often face (too assertive vs. not assertive enough).

Core Message:
Sexism is systemic, not just individual.

2. Concept:
A life-simulation game where players are randomly assigned a socioeconomic status at birth.

Gameplay:
Players make decisions about education, healthcare, housing, and employment, but available choices vary depending on starting income. Random events (medical emergencies, job loss, inheritance, networking opportunities) dramatically affect trajectories.

Serious Purpose:
Shows how structural inequality shapes life outcomes beyond “working hard.”

Core Mechanic:
Two players can play side by side and compare how different their opportunities are.

3. Concept:
A narrative-driven decision game about navigating everyday spaces (school, stores, job interviews, police encounters).

Gameplay:
Players experience branching storylines where microaggressions, profiling, or cultural assumptions affect outcomes. Dialogue choices influence trust, safety, and social standing.

Serious Purpose:
Encourages empathy by demonstrating how race shapes daily interactions in subtle and overt ways.

Core Message:
Bias operates both structurally and interpersonally.

4. Concept:
A strategy game where players run for local office in a politically divided town.

Gameplay:
Players must balance campaign promises, donor influence, public opinion, and personal values. Decisions affect approval ratings, media coverage, and policy outcomes.

Twist:
Accepting corporate donations may help you win but limits the policies you can realistically pass.

Serious Purpose:
Explores political compromise, corruption, and voter polarization.

Core Message:
Political systems shape what leaders can actually accomplish.

5. Concept:
A time-management and survival simulation about being a nontraditional adult college student.

Gameplay:
Players juggle coursework, a job, childcare, financial stress, and social isolation. Energy and time are limited resources. Unexpected events (sick child, overtime shifts, tuition hikes) force difficult trade-offs.

Serious Purpose:
Highlights barriers adult learners face that traditional students may not.

Core Message:
Higher education is not equally accessible for everyone.

Reading Questions:

what learning games have you played? can you categorize them by the theory of learning types: behaviorism, constructivism, constructivism or social nature? if you played more than one which was the most effective?

Behaviorism:

Duolingo – Uses streaks, points, levels, and instant feedback to reinforce correct answers.

Constructivism:

Minecraft – Players learn by building, experimenting, and solving spatial or logic problems.

Social Nature:

Among Us – Encourages communication, deduction, and social reasoning.

is gamification bullshit, what is ian bogost’s argument and do you agree? where have you encountered it outside of class and what was your experience?

Ian Bogost argues that gamification is “bullshit” because it often reduces games to superficial elements like points, badges, and leaderboards without capturing what actually makes games meaningful. He says companies use gamification as a marketing tool to manipulate behavior rather than create genuine engagement.

I partially agree because many gamified systems feel shallow and rely on extrinsic rewards, which can lose effectiveness over time. However, when thoughtfully designed, gamified systems can motivate participation, and they just shouldn’t replace meaningful design.

Ive encountered it in apps that aren’t game but have a point system like Starbucks or Sheetz.

What is a serious game and why aren’t they chocolate covered broccoli?

A serious game is a game designed primarily for education, training, activism, or social impact rather than pure entertainment. Examples include military simulations, health training games, and persuasive games like Observance. They are not “chocolate covered broccoli” when the gameplay itself meaningfully connects to the message. The phrase suggests disguising boring education with fun elements, but strong serious games integrate learning into the mechanics so that playing the game is the learning and not just sugar on top of a lecture.

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Week 3 Reading Questions

Reading questions:

  • how does mary flanagan’s definition of game differ from chris crawford’s as well as the definition crafted by katie salen and eric zimmerman?
    • She focuses on the idea that games can be a work of art and a piece of constructive content. Games can be used tyo learn something instead of just playing a game.
  • what is an activist game?
    • Games that are used to express social or other ethical issues, not just to play a game. There is more benefit to learning the purpose and reasoning of the game rather then just playing.
  • go and chess are examples of games that feature “perfect information”, what other games share that feature?
    • Uno, Candyland, and Monopoly would count, as all of their info is always available and on the game board.
  • why might chance or gambling games hold spiritual or religious importance to ancient cultures?
    • Life is also a gamble,so having games be a part of that is still a fact of life, or it could be used as a way to express risk and danger without the same issues.
  • when was the earliest battle between government/ religious groups and games? What modern games can you think of that have been banned or demonized?
    • I know Cards Against Humanity has had some issues, but really any game thats considered too vulgar or graphic can get banned
  • what is a fox game, and what would be a modern example?
    • Games that have unequal opponents, D&D can count as this, as one player always has the answers and the other doesnt
  • what was the purpose or intent of the game: Mansion of Happiness?
    • To encourage people to have these good ideas and dewsries in their hearts, which would encourage them to move on both in life and in the game
  • Why do artists from the Fluxus and Surealist movements play games? Why did Surealists believe games might help everyone?
    • They feel that games can help people open their eyes to new ideas and opportunities
  • Changes in what can signal profound changes in games? How were pinball games reskinned during WW2?
    • Changes in life, war, and anything that affects the world can change how games work. Pinball games were made to look like you were shooting and attacking the enemy, with racist images and slurs on it that reflected the US’s opinion during the war
  • What statements did Fluxus artists make by reskinning games like monopoly and ping pong?
    • They commented that world issues can be “played” and made aware of by the people using these games.
  • How are artists like Lilian Ball, Marcel Duchamp, Takako Saito, Yoko Ono, Gabriel Orozco and Ruth Catlowusing war games?
    • They make art that challenges and critiques current events, making their art feel war-like
  • Why is it important for players to have agency in a critical or serious game?
    • Then they can undsertand the game and its purpose, to see how these things are affecting others and how to fix it
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Week 3 Reading ?’s

Chapter 1

  1.  How does Mary Flanagan’s definition of a game differ from Chris Crawford’s and from Salen & Zimmerman’s?
    1. Chris Crawford says games are mostly about goals, rules, and winning; they’re kinda like math problems with competition. Salen & Zimmerman are similar, saying games are systems with rules and conflicts that give measurable results. Flanagan is different because she thinks games can do more than that. They can show culture, make statements, or even challenge people. She thinks games can be art or a way to think about society, not just play or winning.
  2.  What is an activist game?
    1.  An activist game is a game made to make you think about real-world issues. It might show unfairness or challenge the way society works. You don’t just read about a problem, you experience it by playing. The goal is to question things, imagine change, or make people see a different perspective.

Chapter 3

  1.  Go and chess are examples of games with “perfect information.” What other games share that feature?
    1. Perfect information games are ones where everyone can see everything that’s happening. Other examples are checkers, tic-tac-toe, Othello (Reversi), Nim, and Nine Men’s Morris. These games are more about strategy than luck.
  2.  Why might chance or gambling games hold spiritual or religious importance to ancient cultures?
    1. Ancient people thought random games like dice could show what the gods wanted or what fate was planning. It wasn’t just luck, they believed the results had meaning and could guide decisions or rituals.
  3.  When was the earliest battle between government/religious groups and games? What modern games have been banned or demonized?
    1. In ancient and medieval times, people banned games like dice or gambling because they thought they were sinful or bad for society. Today, examples are Dungeons & Dragons during the Satanic Panic, violent games like Mortal Kombat or GTA, gambling/loot boxes, and even online games that get restricted for political reasons.
  4.  What is a fox game, and what is a modern example?
    1. A fox game is one where one player has an advantage over everyone else. Modern examples are games like Dead by Daylight or military simulations where one side has way more resources. Flanagan uses them to show how power differences can be built into a game.
  5.  What was the purpose or intent of The Mansion of Happiness?
    1. It was a board game from the 1800s that taught kids Christian morals. You got rewards for being good and penalties for bad behavior. Basically, it was supposed to teach obedience, temperance, and piety, not just be fun.
  6.  Why do artists from the Fluxus and Surrealist movements play games? Why did Surrealists believe games might help everyone?
    1. Surrealists played games to get creative, break normal thinking, and challenge rules. Fluxus artists played games to turn everyday life into art and make people participate. Surrealists thought games could help everyone by shaking up habits and opening minds.
  7. What changes can signal profound changes in games? How were pinball games reskinned during WWII?
    1. When games change in looks, rules, or stories, it can show culture changing too. During WWII, pinball machines got military themes and patriotic symbols to boost morale.
  8.  What statements did Fluxus artists make by reskinning games like Monopoly and ping-pong?
    1. By changing classic games, they critiqued things like capitalism and competition. They also questioned rules and ownership. It showed that games aren’t neutral, they reflect culture and values.
  9. How are artists like Lilian Ball, Marcel Duchamp, Takako Saito, Yoko Ono, Gabriel Orozco, and Ruth Catlow using war games?
    1. They use war games to show how messed up war and power can be. Instead of teaching you how to win battles, the games make you think about violence, responsibility, and systems of power.
  10. Why is it important for players to have agency in a critical or serious game?
    1. Players need to make real choices, otherwise it’s just like reading a story. When you have agency, you experience consequences yourself, which makes the game more meaningful and teaches lessons in a way you feel.
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Game Design 2 Week 3 Homework

Chapter 1:

  • how does mary flanagan’s definition of game differ from chris crawford’s as well as the definition crafted by katie salen and eric zimmerman? Chris Crawford defines a game as a formal system with rules, conflict, and measurable outcomes, emphasizing structure, competition, and winning or losing. Similarly, Salen and Zimmerman describe a game as a system where players engage in artificial conflict governed by rules that produce a quantifiable outcome, focusing on systems, rules, and results. Mary Flanagan, however, views games as cultural artifacts and tools for expression, critique, and social change, highlighting their meaning, values, politics, and real-world impact. In short, Crawford and Salen and Zimmerman focus on how games function, while Flanagan focuses on what games do in society.
  • what is an activist game? Is a game designed to challenge dominant beliefs, expose injustice, or encourage social change.

Chapter 3

  • go and chess are examples of games that feature “perfect information”, what other games share that feature? Checkers, Tic-Tac-Toe, Connect Four, Othello, Nine Men’s Morris
  • why might chance or gambling games hold spiritual or religious importance to ancient cultures? Ancient cultures believed randomness revealed the will of gods or fate.
    Rolling dice or casting lots was seen as divination, not luck.
  • when was the earliest battle between government/ religious groups and games? what modern games can you think of that have been banned or demonized? Medieval Europe: Dice and gambling were banned by the Church. Puritan America: Card and board games were banned for being sinful. Modern Examples include, Dungeons & Dragons , Grand Theft Auto, Manhunt
  • what is a fox game, and what would be a modern example? A fox game is about chasing or trapping a clever target. Historic example: Fox & Geese Modern examples are Among UsDead by Daylight, Hide and Seek style games
  • what was the purpose or intent of the game: Mansion of Happiness? It was a moral training game. Players were rewarded for virtue and punished for sin. It taught Christian values and “proper behavior.”
  • Why do artists from the Fluxus and Surealist movements play games? Why did Surealists believe games might help everyone? They used games too: Break logic Disrupt authority Create chance Encourage collective creativity. Surrealists believed games helped people access the unconscious and escape social rules.
  • Changes in what can signal profound changes in games? How were pinball games reskinned during WW2? Changes in: Technology, Politics, Culture, War. WW2 pinball reskins: Pinball machines were redesigned with:, Military themes, Bomb imagery, Patriotic symbols, Games became propaganda tools.
  • What statements did Fluxus artists make by reskinning games like monopoly and ping pong? They showed: Games are not neutral, Rules reflect power, Play can be political. They turned consumer games into art + protest.
  • How are artists like Lilian Ball, Marcel Duchamp, Takako Saito, Yoko Ono, Gabriel Orozco and Ruth Catlowusing war games? They turn war strategy into critique of violence and power. Why is it important for players to have agency in a critical or serious game? Because: Players don’t just watch they experience systems, Choice reflection. Responsibility, emotional impact. Without agency, it’s just a lecture. With agency, it becomes personal and powerful.

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Week 3 — Games for Change: Sarah Juristy

Thoughts on What We Played in Class

Dumb Ways to Die
This game uses repetition, humor, and fast failure to build awareness through habit formation. Instead of lecturing players about safety, it creates quick cause-and-effect loops that reinforce attention and caution. Its strength is that the message is embedded in player action rather than text or narrative explanation.

Fake It to Make It
This game is effective because it makes the player directly responsible for spreading misinformation. The mechanics demonstrate that harmful systems can grow because they are efficient and rewarding, not necessarily because participants are malicious. The uncomfortable feeling of succeeding through unethical strategies is part of the persuasive design.

Cards Against Calamity
This game works as a social reflection tool. It uses humor to reduce player defensiveness while encouraging discussion about serious topics. Its effectiveness depends on the group dynamic, but it can create opportunities for players to confront difficult realities through conversation and shared reaction.

Cast Your Vote
This game helps players understand civic participation by breaking complex systems into understandable steps. It reduces intimidation around voting by making the process feel manageable and procedural rather than abstract or overwhelming.

Detroit: Become Human
This game builds empathy through branching narrative and consequence visibility. Players see how social systems, prejudice, and power structures influence available choices. The game is most effective when it forces players to live with the results of their decisions rather than offering easy moral victories.

Gris
Gris communicates emotional experiences through visual and mechanical design rather than direct storytelling. It encourages emotional reflection and demonstrates how games can create empathy through mood, pacing, and environmental interaction.

Outer Wilds
Outer Wilds builds empathy through discovery and perspective. Players gradually understand the lives and histories of others through exploration. The game emphasizes curiosity, humility, and acceptance rather than competition or dominance.

Five Game Ideas Around Empathy

Borrowed Minutes
Players have a limited number of daily actions that must be divided between work, health, relationships, and survival tasks. The game builds empathy by showing how limited time resources force difficult life tradeoffs.

Signal Lost
Players cooperate while dealing with incomplete communication. One player has information but limited ways to share it. The game builds empathy for communication barriers and information overload.

The Room Next Door
Players live in a shared building and learn about neighbors through small interactions and environmental storytelling. The game teaches empathy by showing how behavior often has hidden context.

Care Cycle
Players manage community wellbeing using limited support resources. The game demonstrates how systems, not individual choices alone, shape outcomes.

Alternate Reality Game — Kindness Protocol
Players complete real-world empathy challenges delivered through text, QR codes, or hidden messages. The game tracks participation through real-world interactions, encouraging empathy through behavior practice rather than simulation alone.

Rule Set + Prototype Plan (Closed Loop)

Game Concept — Closed Loop

Closed Loop is a systems management game where players run a fully closed city ecosystem. Nothing can leave the system, meaning every product eventually becomes waste that must be processed, stored, or converted into new resources. The goal is to maintain population wellbeing while preventing environmental system collapse.

Objective

Players attempt to maintain population stability and environmental balance over a fixed number of rounds. Winning is based on long-term sustainability rather than short-term growth.

Players / Time

2–4 players
30–45 minutes

Core Resources

Population
Energy
Materials
Waste
Stability (tracks system health)

Turn Structure

Each round represents one operational cycle. Players produce goods, support population needs, and manage waste processing. At the end of each round, waste converts into environmental pressure if not processed.

Core Rules

Every production action generates waste tokens that enter the system on the next round. Waste can be converted into energy or materials, but conversion is inefficient. If waste storage exceeds capacity, system stability decreases. If stability reaches zero, the city collapses.

Players can invest in infrastructure upgrades that increase efficiency, but upgrades require multiple rounds to complete and temporarily reduce available resources.

Prototype Version 1 (Paper Test)

The first prototype will use index cards for buildings and systems, tokens for resources, and a simple stability tracker. The focus of testing will be whether players clearly feel tension between short-term production and long-term sustainability.

Iteration Plan

After the first playtest, adjustments will focus on making long-term consequences more visible. If players ignore sustainability without immediate penalty, delayed consequences will be made stronger or more predictable. If players feel overwhelmed, resource categories will be simplified to maintain decision clarity.

Playtest Goal for 2.19

The goal is to confirm that players experience meaningful tradeoffs between growth and sustainability and understand the closed system concept without needing long rule explanations.

Reading Questions (Flanagan Chapters 1 and 3)

How does Flanagan’s definition of games differ from Crawford and Salen/Zimmerman?
Flanagan frames games as cultural tools that can challenge norms and create reflection. Crawford focuses on structural properties like interaction and conflict, while Salen and Zimmerman define games as rule-based systems with measurable outcomes. Flanagan expands the purpose of games beyond structure into social and cultural impact.

What is an activist game?
An activist game is designed to influence awareness or behavior around real-world issues. It persuades through systems and player participation rather than direct messaging.

What other games share perfect information?
Tic-Tac-Toe, Checkers, Othello, Connect Four, and Nine Men’s Morris are all perfect information games because all players can see the full game state at all times.

Why did chance games hold spiritual importance?
Chance outcomes were often interpreted as fate or divine will, making gambling or randomization tools part of spiritual or ritual decision-making.

Earliest conflict between religion/government and games + modern examples?
Early conflicts centered on gambling and dice. Later examples include pinball bans and cultural panic around role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons.

What is a fox game? Modern example?
Fox games are asymmetric chase games with one powerful player versus many weaker players. Modern asymmetric multiplayer games follow similar design patterns.

Purpose of Mansion of Happiness?
It was designed to teach moral behavior through gameplay, rewarding virtue and punishing vice.

Why did Surrealists and Fluxus artists play games?
They used games to challenge logic, social norms, and traditional art boundaries while encouraging creative participation.

What signals profound changes in games? WWII pinball reskins?
Changes in rules, goals, and rewards signal deeper meaning changes. WWII pinball machines were reskinned with wartime imagery and messaging.

What statements did Fluxus artists make by reskinning games?
They showed that social and economic systems are built from changeable rules, not fixed realities.

How are artists using war games?
They repurpose conflict systems to critique power, violence, and social structure.

Why is player agency important?
Agency allows players to experience consequences of decisions directly, making critical messages more impactful.

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Week 3 Questions

How does Flanagan’s definition of a game differ from Crawford’s and Salen & Zimmerman’s?
Flanagan emphasizes games as cultural and political systems that can critique society, while Crawford focuses on games as interactive conflict and Salen & Zimmerman define games more structurally as rule-based systems with quantifiable outcomes.

What is an activist game?
An activist game is designed to provoke awareness, critique power structures, or inspire social or political change rather than just entertain.

What other games feature “perfect information”?
Games like checkers, tic-tac-toe, Connect Four, and Othello also use perfect information, since all players can see the entire game state at all times.

Why might chance or gambling games hold spiritual or religious importance to ancient cultures?
Ancient cultures often viewed chance as a way to communicate with gods or fate, making gambling games tools for divination, ritual, or understanding cosmic order.

When was the earliest battle between government/religious groups and games, and what modern games have been banned or demonized?
Conflicts date back to ancient China and medieval Europe, where games were seen as immoral or distracting; modern examples include bans on Dungeons & Dragons, violent video games, and certain online games.

What is a fox game, and what is a modern example?
A fox game is an asymmetric game where one side is outnumbered but more powerful; a modern example is Scotland Yard or multiplayer stealth games like Dead by Daylight.

What was the purpose of The Mansion of Happiness?
The game was designed to teach Christian morality by rewarding virtue and punishing vice, reinforcing 19th-century religious values.

Why do Fluxus and Surrealist artists play games, and why did Surrealists believe games could help everyone?
They used games to disrupt logic, authorship, and control; Surrealists believed games could unlock creativity and access the unconscious for all players.

How can changes in play signal profound changes in games, and how was pinball reskinned during WWII?
Shifts in themes and mechanics reflect cultural priorities; during WWII, pinball machines were reskinned with patriotic and military imagery to support nationalism.

What statements did Fluxus artists make by reskinning Monopoly and ping pong?
They critiqued capitalism, competition, and rigid rules by turning familiar games into absurd, participatory, or anti-commercial experiences.

How are artists like Duchamp, Ono, and Catlow using war games?
They reinterpret war games to critique conflict, power, and strategy, often emphasizing peace, cooperation, or the human cost of war.

Why is player agency important in a critical or serious game?
Agency allows players to meaningfully engage with ideas, reflect on consequences, and internalize the game’s critique rather than passively receiving a message.

Gris

  1. What made the experience fun or not? The metaphors you had to answer along the way to figure out the meaning of the game.
  2. What is the motivating factor to get or keep players playing? I feel like the lack of direction helps because its about the mystery of what will happen next.
  3. Is the game persuasive, and what is it trying to get you to do outside of the game? It is trying to help you experience grief and how to cut yourself some slack.
  4. What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout? The game is a metaphor for moving through stages of grief, with color and sound. Mechanics that standout include the gradual unlocking of movement abilities and the return of color to the world.
  5. How does the gameplay make you feel? Who does the game make you feel empathy for? The game makes me feel broken and gradually gives me strength. The game makes me feel empath for the girl.
  6. Is the game an activist game? If so what does the game play advocate for? Yes it advocates for mental illness and grief.
  7. Describe the game in 3 sentences or in the form of a haiku. A silent world breaks apart as color slowly returns. Movement replaces numbness, and pain becomes progress. Healing is not winning it is continuing.

Dumb Ways to Die

  1. What made the experience fun or not? The easiness of the game and the customization of your character
  2. What is the motivating factor to get or keep players playing? To get a higher score.
  3. Is the game persuasive, and what is it trying to get you to do outside of the game? Yes, the game is trying to prevent you from doing dumb things that will kill you.
  4. What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout? The metaphor is to dont die in a dumb way and the mechanics that standout are the score and attempting to stay alive as the game gets faster.
  5. How does the gameplay make you feel? Who does the game make you feel empathy for? The game gives me a sense of irony because they made a fun game out of ways you could die. The game makes me feel empathy for the three guys when they fall into their grave for every mistake I made.
  6. Is the game an activist game? If so what does the game play advocate for? Yes it advocates for the people who don’t have the common sense skill and end up dying becasue of it.
  7. Describe the game in 3 sentences or in the form of a haiku. do not kill yourself. survive each scenario. increase your high score.

Detroit: Become Human

  1. What made the experience fun or not? The dramatics of the game and the tough decisions you need to make.
  2. What is the motivating factor to get or keep players playing? The game switches through three characters and the suspense keeps you on your toes.
  3. Is the game persuasive, and what is it trying to get you to do outside of the game? Yes the game is trying to show real world issues and how we can have an impact on it.
  4. What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout? The android represents social groups and how they make impacts on the world. Mechanics that stand out is branching narratives, choices, and stories.
  5. How does the gameplay make you feel? Who does the game make you feel empathy for? The gameplay is suspenseful and dramatic. It makes me feel empathy for the androids and side characters who are negatively affected.
  6. Is the game an activist game? If so what does the game play advocate for? Yes it advocated for empathy, equality, and nonviolence.
  7. Describe the game in 3 sentences or in the form of a haiku. The game places the player in control of androids whose survival depends on moral choices. Every decision reshapes the story and forces reflection on power and prejudice. The game asks whether freedom is earned through obedience or resistance.

OuterWorlds

  1. What made the experience fun or not? It critiques unchecked capitalism and corporate control, causing players to question authority, labor exploitation, and profit driven systems in the real world.
  2. What is the motivating factor to get or keep players playing? The humor and meaningful choices make it fun.
  3. Is the game persuasive, and what is it trying to get you to do outside of the game? Player choice and consequence are the main motivators, as decisions visibly affect characters, factions, and the world’s outcome.
  4. What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout? The game is a metaphor for late-stage capitalism in a sci-fi colony, with standout mechanics including branching dialogue, faction reputation, and choice-driven storytelling.
  5. How does the gameplay make you feel? Who does the game make you feel empathy for? The gameplay often feels darkly humorous but morally tense, building empathy for exploited workers, colonists, and individuals crushed by corporate systems.
  6. Is the game an activist game? If so what does the game play advocate for? Yes, it advocates for ethical responsibility, worker dignity, and resistance to dehumanizing corporate power.
  7. Describe the game in 3 sentences or in the form of a haiku. Corporate stars burn bright. Choices cut through profit lies. Freedom costs something

Fake It to Make It

  1. What made the experience fun or not? The game isn’t “fun” in a traditional way, but it’s engaging because it feels fast-paced and tense. The discomfort is intentional and keeps you thinking.
  2. What is the motivating factor to get or keep players playing? The desire to win elections and see how far misinformation can be pushed motivates players. Curiosity about the consequences of your choices keeps you going.
  3. Is the game persuasive, and what is it trying to get you to do outside of the game? Yes, it aims to make players more critical of political media. Outside the game, it encourages skepticism toward news, social media, and political messaging.
  4. What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout? The game is a metaphor for modern political manipulation and “spin culture.” The standout mechanics are creating fake news, targeting voter groups, and watching public opinion shift.
  5. How does the gameplay make you feel? Who does the game make you feel empathy for? The gameplay can feel uncomfortable, guilty, and eye opening. It creates empathy for voters who are easily manipulated by misinformation.
  6. Is the game an activist game? If so what does the game play advocate for? Yes, it’s an activist game. It advocates for media literacy, ethical politics, and awareness of how misinformation undermines democracy.
  7. Describe the game in 3 sentences or in the form of a haiku. This game puts you in the role of a political manipulator spreading misinformation to win elections. The game reveals how easily public opinion can be influenced through targeted media. It ultimately warns players about the real-world dangers of fake news and propaganda.

Cards Against Calamity

  1. What made the experience fun or not? The game is fun because it uses dark humor and absurd card combinations to make heavy topics feel approachable, but it can feel uncomfortable if players aren’t into satire or social critique.
  2. What is the motivating factor to get or keep players playing? Players are motivated by shock value, humor, and social interaction, trying to outdo each other with the most clever or outrageous card combinations.
  3. Is the game persuasive, and what is it trying to get you to do outside of the game? Yes, it’s persuasive in a subtle way. It encourages players to reflect on real-world disasters, systems of power, and social inequalities rather than prompting a specific action like buying something.
  4. What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout? The metaphor is that global crises are often reduced to simplified, absurd narratives. The standout mechanic is card pairing, which exposes how easily complex tragedies can be trivialized or reframed.
  5. How does the gameplay make you feel? Who does the game make you feel empathy for? The game creates a mix of amusement and discomfort, pushing players to laugh while recognizing serious consequences. It fosters empathy for people affected by disasters and systemic failures.
  6. Is the game an activist game? If so what does the game play advocate for? Yes, it functions as an activist game by critiquing media framing, capitalism, and indifference toward suffering, advocating for awareness and critical thinking rather than passive consumption.
  7. Describe the game in 3 sentences or in the form of a haiku. Laughter meets disaster. Cards reveal careless systems. Jokes that leave a mark

Cast Your Vote

  1. What made the experience fun or not? The game is engaging because it’s fast, choice-driven, and immediately shows the consequences of your decisions. It isn’t traditionally fun though, the seriousness and pressure can feel stressful rather than entertaining.
  2. What is the motivating factor to get or keep players playing? Curiosity about outcomes motivates players to keep going, especially seeing how small choices shift public opinion or results. The desire to “do better” in future runs also encourages replay.
  3. Is the game persuasive, and what is it trying to get you to do outside of the game? Yes, the game is persuasive as it encourages players to think critically about voting, political participation, and civic responsibility. Outside the game, it nudges players to be more informed and engaged citizens.
  4. What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout? The game uses voting as a metaphor for power and responsibility in democracy. Its standout mechanics are choice based decision making, limited information, and immediate cause and effect feedback.
  5. How does the gameplay make you feel? Who does the game make you feel empathy for? The gameplay can feel tense and overwhelming, mirroring real political pressure. It builds empathy for voters and marginalized groups affected by political outcomes.
  6. Is the game an activist game? If so what does the game play advocate for? Yes, it is an activist game that advocates for civic engagement, informed voting, and awareness of political systems. It emphasizes that participation has real consequences.
  7. Describe the game in 3 sentences or in the form of a haiku. Choices mark the screen. Democracy feels fragile. Silence still decides.

5 game ideas:

  1. You play as a junior White House policy analyst in a near-future U.S. where climate tech can only save some neighborhoods from collapse. Each briefing forces you to translate raw data into human consequences, families displaced, communities erased, political backlash ignored.
  2. A sci-fi surveillance system predicts “economic failure zones.” You’re assigned to a low-class neighborhood flagged for “controlled decline.” Your job is to decide where to place limited resources, schools, clinics, power nodes, knowing every choice accelerates neglect somewhere else.
  3. A classified AI claims it can prevent future uprisings by quietly relocating certain populations. You work in a White House basement approving or rejecting relocation requests from “undesirable” districts.
  4. A citywide communication blackout hits only low-income districts after a failed experimental energy grid. From inside the White House, you coordinate rescue, but misinformation, political pressure, and limited drones distort reality.
  5. Players uncover a fictional leaked White House initiative called Project Empath, a sci-fi program designed to optimize social stability by testing policies on marginalized neighborhoods first.

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Mason Tosadori Week 3

Gris

  1. What made the experience fun or not?
  2. I wouldn’t say it was fun, mostly cause its not my kind of game. It felt kinda slow and like a regular platformer. There were the classic mechanics of jumping and ground pounding but it didn’t introduce any new mechanics I haven’t seen before. I think this game is more about the story and lesson rather than the gameplay.
  3. What is the motivating factor to get or keep players playing?
  4. I think the factor is to try and get through the puzzles successfully, but more importantly I think the goal is to get through the story to learn more about the character and what shes going through.
  5. Is the game persuasive, and what is it trying to get you to do outside of the game?
  6. I didn’t feel exactly pursuaded in anyway. I think the game is trying to create empathy for people who are having a rough time. I didn’t play the game long enough to really learn about what she was going through but I believe she was sad and lost something.
  7. What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout?
  8. I think the metaphor is going through sadness and slowly improving and becoming heathier and happier. The mechanics didn’t really standout, but rather the lack of. All you could do is jump walk and ground pound while collecting stars and solving puzzles. The lack of mechanics comes in the form of simplicity with no eneimies, which are usually a staple to platformers. It takes away the competitive part of the game and rather creates a more relaxing environment for the player to understand the character.
  9. How does the gameplay make you feel? Who does the game make you feel empathy for?
  10. The gameplay was kind of boring because it was simple puzzles, but I assume the puzzles get a little trickier later into the game. I honestly didn’t understand the story but I kinda felt empathy for the character because she lost her voice.
  11. Is the game an activist game? If so what does the game play advocate for?
  12. I don’t think its an activist game but rather a persuasive game to try and get players to feel more empathy for others in the real life. It tries to show that alot of people go through hard times.
  13. Describe the game in 3 sentences or in the form of a haiku.
  14. a colorful land, jumping up and finding stars, to the next color

Detroit Become Human

  1. What made the experience fun or not?
  2. I enjoyed the expereince, its a good story telling game that gives the player alot of interactivity. It follows atleast 2 different androids that I know of who have different jobs in the world. It explores their relationships with others and allows the player to learn more as the game moves on, I’d like to play this game in my own time.
  3. What is the motivating factor to get or keep players playing?
  4. The motiviating factor is to get through the story and develop relationships with different characters, good or bad. It has an engaging story that makes the player want to keep playing.
  5. Is the game persuasive, and what is it trying to get you to do outside of the game?
  6. I think the game is perusasive in the sense its trying to teach about discrimination. The robots are treated poorly by their human creators and its a metaphor for racismm in real life. It wants to show the players how people might feel when being treated differently for something they cant control.
  7. What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout?
  8. The game is a metaphor for racism and trying to get players to understand that. The games mechanics stand out because even in a story it gives the player interacivity as well as the choices to develop relationships with different characters.
  9. How does the gameplay make you feel? Who does the game make you feel empathy for?
  10. I really like the game play, it makes me feel like im watching a movie but I am part of that movie. It tests your memory with some puzzles as well and its super entertaining. I felt some empathy for the androids because they are treated poorly because of how they were made, even if they are a good “person”.
  11. Is the game an activist game? If so what does the game play advocate for?
  12. The game can be considered an activist game. It advocates for minorities and people who are discriminated against. It shows this by giving instances of racist between the humans and the androids.
  13. Describe the game in 3 sentences or in the form of a haiku.
  14. a created bot, learning about the world and, becoming human

Outer Wilds

  1. What made the experience fun or not?
  2. It was decent, I’m not a fan of the movement in space which is a big part of the game, it get’s a little frustrating. It’s very exploratority and im not a big fan of those games. When I say explore its like walking around taking pictures, I don’t think you can collect materials which is whats missing for me.
  3. What is the motivating factor to get or keep players playing?
  4. The motivating factor is to explore other planets and find the truth about this other alien race. I only played the game for a bit and forget what the intro to the game told us so it’s a little confusing. I just know the goal is to explore and learn about other species.
  5. Is the game persuasive, and what is it trying to get you to do outside of the game?
  6. I don’t think its persuasive. Its pretty exploratory and the point is to learn about planets and other aliens. Maybe the point is to learn more about other parts of the world and explore different cultures.
  7. What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout?
  8. The games metaphor is to keep trying even after you fail, and after every failure you learn something new that can help you for next time!
  9. How does the gameplay make you feel? Who does the game make you feel empathy for?
  10. The gameplay can make me a little frustrated because the movement in space is pretty difficult because theres no friction. Theres also alot that can kill you, for example I followed a path and found myself in a blackhole. The point is though, next time I go to that planet I know not to go down that path. I don’t really feel empathy for anyone in this game. Its about exploring!
  11. Is the game an activist game? If so what does the game play advocate for?
  12. It could be? I can see people taking it as exploring other countries and cultures and trying to learn about other people. Maybe it says be kind and respect other’s cultures while you learn about them, no matter how different they are.
  13. Describe the game in 3 sentences or in the form of a haiku.
  14. fly a ship around, there is no friction in space, die and try again.

5 Games that revolve around empathy.

  1. It’s a bit political, but with the big movements of ICE there can be a game where youre taken and put back into somewhere you don’t know. Maybe you live on a planet and you’re taken to a different one, and you have to leanr to get back on your feet.
  2. There can be one about living in a lower class part of America. You start slow and its very difficult but you have to find different ways in order to become more successful and survive.
  3. There can be a game about being homeless. Maybe you play as an alien who’s world is slowly collapsing and your house is destroyed. Then you have to go around collecting resources and trying to rebuild and survive.
  4. Going back to about being homeless, we can add about wildlife preservaition too. You can play as an animal who gets his home destroyed and you have to find food to survive and make friends with other animals to protect yourself from predators. You could also find evolutions that make you stronger to help gather resoruces and protect yourself.
  5. For the AR game, you can be a manager at a corrupt company. You have to go though books and look at what the company is doing to people and decide who to save and who to sacrafice in order to keep your job while also trying to reduce he damage on your innocent customers.

GAME IDEA AND RULES WILL BE POSTED SEPERATE

How does Mary Flanagan’s definition of a game differ from Crawford’s and Salen & Zimmerman’s?
Mary Flanagan sees games as tools that can share ideas and challenge society. Chris Crawford focuses more on games having goals and conflict. Salen and Zimmerman define games as systems with rules and outcomes. Flanagan’s definition is broader because it looks at meaning, not just structure.

What is an activist game?
An activist game is made to bring attention to social or political problems. It is meant to make players think, not just have fun. These games try to inspire change or awareness.

What other games have “perfect information” like Go and chess?
Perfect-information games show everything to all players. Games like checkers, tic-tac-toe, and Othello work this way. There is no hidden information in these games.

Why did chance or gambling games matter to ancient cultures?
Ancient people believed chance came from gods or fate. Random results were seen as messages, not accidents. These games were often used in religious activities.

When did conflicts between games and authorities begin, and what modern games have been criticized?
Conflicts over games started long ago, especially with gambling. Religious and government groups often worried games were harmful. Modern games like Dungeons & Dragons and Grand Theft Auto have faced criticism.

What is a fox game, and what is a modern example?
A fox game puts a weaker player against a stronger opponent. The weaker player must use smart thinking instead of strength. A modern example is Metal Gear Solid

What was the purpose of The Mansion of Happiness?
The game was made to teach good behavior. Players moved forward by making good choices. It was meant to teach moral and religious values.

Why did Fluxus and Surrealist artists play games, and why did Surrealists think games could help people?
They used games to break rules and think differently. Surrealists believed games helped people use their imagination. They saw play as a way to challenge normal thinking.

What changes show big changes in games, and how were pinball games changed during WWII?
Changes in images and themes show changes in society. During WWII, pinball games used war images. This helped support patriotism.

What were Fluxus artists saying by changing games like Monopoly and Ping-Pong?
They wanted people to question money, competition, and rules. Changing games made players think differently about play. The games became messages, not just entertainment.

How are artists like Duchamp and Yoko Ono using war games?
They change war games to question violence and power. Their work shows war in a critical way. This helps players think instead of just enjoy conflict.

Why is player choice important in serious or critical games?
Player choice helps people learn by doing. Making decisions shows real consequences. This makes the message of the game stronger and easier to understand.