This article presents an overview of the design of our digital game, Let's Argue. The project is an immanent critique of digital media, particularly the conventions of social and game applications as affording productive discourse between people, groups, and organizations. Focusing upon the concept of dialogue and its importance to society, we employ satire as a style, lampooning “social games” such as FarmVille and Candy Crush Saga. In aping, disrupting, and toying with these applications’ representational and ludic facets, we provoke our users into considering how the medium, far from being neutral, shapes behavior and motivation.
{"title":"Let's Argue! Designing Satire in Digital Games","authors":"Steven Conway;Shaun Britton","doi":"10.1162/desi_a_00716","DOIUrl":"10.1162/desi_a_00716","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents an overview of the design of our digital game, Let's Argue. The project is an immanent critique of digital media, particularly the conventions of social and game applications as affording productive discourse between people, groups, and organizations. Focusing upon the concept of dialogue and its importance to society, we employ satire as a style, lampooning “social games” such as FarmVille and Candy Crush Saga. In aping, disrupting, and toying with these applications’ representational and ludic facets, we provoke our users into considering how the medium, far from being neutral, shapes behavior and motivation.","PeriodicalId":51560,"journal":{"name":"DESIGN ISSUES","volume":"39 2","pages":"41-56"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45422614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The subtitle defines the focus of the book: “Ideas for the city that cares.” The text alternates between discussions of concepts connected to the humane side of city life and reports on initiatives enacted in different parts of the world today. It is in this sense a book about hope, a down-to-earth hope, one that introduces a richer way of looking at the advantages of “the 15-minute city.” Livable Proximity’s arguments are supported by a long list of references that offer rich possibilities for extending the presented ideas. The introduction outlines the program of the book: the idea of a city in which “functional proximity corresponds to relational proximity” (1). This is a city that offers more opportunities to see, support, and take care of each other and the environment; a city that fosters collaboration. Urban design has been recently focused mainly on the practical issues related to proximity, what Manzini calls “functional proximity.” But there is more to this. Proximity allows other possibilities to emerge, possibilities that need not be planned but that arise as a spontaneous side effect of being more “in touch” with other people beyond the world of work and immediate family. He argues that there is a need to “re-establish the social fabric and (re)construct communities” (3). Manzini does not propose a return to a lost past—an impossible enterprise—but to subscribe to the principle that global change cannot and does not start being global: it has to start small. As he had discussed before, initiatives should be small, local, open, and connected.1 I discovered the importance of the principle of starting small one day while driving through Italy. Passing by a small town, I saw a sign that said: “Nuclear power free community.” My first thought was, “So what, if the next community has a nuclear power plant?” But soon I realized that federal governments and even regional governments are too distant from the people; they are practically unreachable and unchangeable in a direct way. The only hope is in activating small communities to move positive ideas forward. But communities need two things to do this: the awareness that something must be done to develop a more humane way of living, and information and models that could help them learn how to do it. Manzini’s book works on both fronts. It does not dwell too much on defending the need to act against the social and natural degradation of human and other forms of life, as it has happened and still happens, but discusses how proximity (in its many forms) can contribute positively to different aspects of what we identify as quality in life. He proposes to go beyond facilitating services and satisfying daily needs into the creation of caring communities, not only in the sense of healthcare but more broadly regarding a collaborating and caring culture. This culture to be based “on a renewed idea of care: care for people, places, and the environment” (20). In addition to the discussion of general co
{"title":"Livable Proximity: Ideas for the City that Cares","authors":"Jorge Frascara","doi":"10.1162/desi_r_00719","DOIUrl":"10.1162/desi_r_00719","url":null,"abstract":"The subtitle defines the focus of the book: “Ideas for the city that cares.” The text alternates between discussions of concepts connected to the humane side of city life and reports on initiatives enacted in different parts of the world today. It is in this sense a book about hope, a down-to-earth hope, one that introduces a richer way of looking at the advantages of “the 15-minute city.” Livable Proximity’s arguments are supported by a long list of references that offer rich possibilities for extending the presented ideas. The introduction outlines the program of the book: the idea of a city in which “functional proximity corresponds to relational proximity” (1). This is a city that offers more opportunities to see, support, and take care of each other and the environment; a city that fosters collaboration. Urban design has been recently focused mainly on the practical issues related to proximity, what Manzini calls “functional proximity.” But there is more to this. Proximity allows other possibilities to emerge, possibilities that need not be planned but that arise as a spontaneous side effect of being more “in touch” with other people beyond the world of work and immediate family. He argues that there is a need to “re-establish the social fabric and (re)construct communities” (3). Manzini does not propose a return to a lost past—an impossible enterprise—but to subscribe to the principle that global change cannot and does not start being global: it has to start small. As he had discussed before, initiatives should be small, local, open, and connected.1 I discovered the importance of the principle of starting small one day while driving through Italy. Passing by a small town, I saw a sign that said: “Nuclear power free community.” My first thought was, “So what, if the next community has a nuclear power plant?” But soon I realized that federal governments and even regional governments are too distant from the people; they are practically unreachable and unchangeable in a direct way. The only hope is in activating small communities to move positive ideas forward. But communities need two things to do this: the awareness that something must be done to develop a more humane way of living, and information and models that could help them learn how to do it. Manzini’s book works on both fronts. It does not dwell too much on defending the need to act against the social and natural degradation of human and other forms of life, as it has happened and still happens, but discusses how proximity (in its many forms) can contribute positively to different aspects of what we identify as quality in life. He proposes to go beyond facilitating services and satisfying daily needs into the creation of caring communities, not only in the sense of healthcare but more broadly regarding a collaborating and caring culture. This culture to be based “on a renewed idea of care: care for people, places, and the environment” (20). In addition to the discussion of general co","PeriodicalId":51560,"journal":{"name":"DESIGN ISSUES","volume":"39 2","pages":"86-87"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43644924","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This special issue addresses the epistemological, institutional, and political challenges of integrating critical games scholarship with game development practices and pedagogy. The featured essays help form a foundation for Critical Game Design and draw from intellectual traditions and debates not only from both game studies and game design, but from the classical design disciplines as well. We aim to build more connective tissue and collaboration between game design and the broader design disciplines, allowing space for research, scholarship, and creative work that drives the underlying epistemological core of the many spaces in which all designers find themselves educated and employed.
{"title":"Introduction: Toward Critical Game Design","authors":"James Malazita;Casey O'Donnell","doi":"10.1162/desi_e_00702","DOIUrl":"10.1162/desi_e_00702","url":null,"abstract":"This special issue addresses the epistemological, institutional, and political challenges of integrating critical games scholarship with game development practices and pedagogy. The featured essays help form a foundation for Critical Game Design and draw from intellectual traditions and debates not only from both game studies and game design, but from the classical design disciplines as well. We aim to build more connective tissue and collaboration between game design and the broader design disciplines, allowing space for research, scholarship, and creative work that drives the underlying epistemological core of the many spaces in which all designers find themselves educated and employed.","PeriodicalId":51560,"journal":{"name":"DESIGN ISSUES","volume":"39 1","pages":"4-13"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42444769","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article details a large-scale curricular design project in creating and implementing an MS/PhD in “Critical Game Design.” Curricular design and critical scholarship in the analysis and design of games are co-constitutive. Institutional structures build individual and institutional capacity, they legitimize scholarship, define boundaries of expertise, and contribute to imaginations of disciplinary purview. We reflect on what is at stake beyond the discipline itself in wider digital culture, particularly the spread of disinformation, related growth of anti-academic sentiment, and testing of the foundations of democracy. We examine our own complicity and articulate the space of the games classroom as a site of potential transformation.
{"title":"Critical Disciplinary Thinking and Curricular Design in Games","authors":"Rebecca Rouse;James Malazita","doi":"10.1162/desi_a_00708","DOIUrl":"10.1162/desi_a_00708","url":null,"abstract":"This article details a large-scale curricular design project in creating and implementing an MS/PhD in “Critical Game Design.” Curricular design and critical scholarship in the analysis and design of games are co-constitutive. Institutional structures build individual and institutional capacity, they legitimize scholarship, define boundaries of expertise, and contribute to imaginations of disciplinary purview. We reflect on what is at stake beyond the discipline itself in wider digital culture, particularly the spread of disinformation, related growth of anti-academic sentiment, and testing of the foundations of democracy. We examine our own complicity and articulate the space of the games classroom as a site of potential transformation.","PeriodicalId":51560,"journal":{"name":"DESIGN ISSUES","volume":"39 1","pages":"88-104"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43541562","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article proposes a design framework called Reparative Game Creation, a process of creating interactive media focused on healing, emotional acceptance, and accessibility for the psychosocially disabled. It is informed by disability studies, affect theory, anti-capitalist thought, and artist-scholarship on research creation and/or critical practice. Though much of game design and game studies focus on the end product or the player experience, this article instead focuses on the process of game design, and as such does not analyze particular games but instead proposes new ways of creating games informed by psychosocial disability.
{"title":"Reparative Game Creation: Designing For and With Psychosocial Disability","authors":"Kara Stone","doi":"10.1162/desi_a_00703","DOIUrl":"10.1162/desi_a_00703","url":null,"abstract":"This article proposes a design framework called Reparative Game Creation, a process of creating interactive media focused on healing, emotional acceptance, and accessibility for the psychosocially disabled. It is informed by disability studies, affect theory, anti-capitalist thought, and artist-scholarship on research creation and/or critical practice. Though much of game design and game studies focus on the end product or the player experience, this article instead focuses on the process of game design, and as such does not analyze particular games but instead proposes new ways of creating games informed by psychosocial disability.","PeriodicalId":51560,"journal":{"name":"DESIGN ISSUES","volume":"39 1","pages":"14-26"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42481611","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Game design has been a field largely dominated by white, male voices, to the exclusion of others. The lack of diversity among game developers results in a lack of diversity in the games themselves. This article presents one way forward, merging indigenous thought from the Nahua of Mexico and the Chicano movement with game design principles. Further, it presents a series of exercises to challenge the way designers think about games.
{"title":"Gaming Xiuhpohualli: A (Chicano) Theory of Game Design","authors":"Joshua Wood","doi":"10.1162/desi_a_00705","DOIUrl":"10.1162/desi_a_00705","url":null,"abstract":"Game design has been a field largely dominated by white, male voices, to the exclusion of others. The lack of diversity among game developers results in a lack of diversity in the games themselves. This article presents one way forward, merging indigenous thought from the Nahua of Mexico and the Chicano movement with game design principles. Further, it presents a series of exercises to challenge the way designers think about games.","PeriodicalId":51560,"journal":{"name":"DESIGN ISSUES","volume":"39 1","pages":"42-54"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45356325","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article explores the value of science fiction narratives in games for citizen science. Focusing on the protein-folding game Foldit, it describes the process of modifying and redesigning the game to feature a framing narrative and other alterations to the main tutorial campaign. The campaign narrative, Foldit: First Contact, situates the practices of citizen science in an expanded context of meanings and ethical implications, promoting critical self-reflection on the relations of science and civic values. A study of player responses to Foldit: First Contact suggests the significance of science fiction and critical game design for attuning citizen scientists to the collective responsibilities of experimentation and innovation, drawing attention to the intersecting social, technical, and environmental domains in which gamers may contribute to scientific research.
本文探讨了科幻叙事在公民科学游戏中的价值。以蛋白质折叠游戏《Foldit》为例，它描述了修改和重新设计游戏的过程，以突出框架叙述和对主要教程活动的其他更改。活动的叙述，Foldit:第一次接触，将公民科学的实践置于意义和伦理影响的扩展背景下，促进对科学与公民价值观关系的批判性自我反思。一项关于玩家对《Foldit: First Contact》的反应的研究表明，科幻小说和批判性游戏设计对于协调公民科学家对实验和创新的集体责任的重要性，引起人们对玩家可能为科学研究做出贡献的交叉社会，技术和环境领域的关注。
{"title":"Join the Fold: Video Games, Science Fiction, and the Refolding of Citizen Science","authors":"Colin Milburn;Katherine Buse;Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal;Melissa Wills;Raida Aldosari;Patrick Camarador;Josh Aaron Miller;Justin Siegel","doi":"10.1162/desi_a_00707","DOIUrl":"10.1162/desi_a_00707","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the value of science fiction narratives in games for citizen science. Focusing on the protein-folding game Foldit, it describes the process of modifying and redesigning the game to feature a framing narrative and other alterations to the main tutorial campaign. The campaign narrative, Foldit: First Contact, situates the practices of citizen science in an expanded context of meanings and ethical implications, promoting critical self-reflection on the relations of science and civic values. A study of player responses to Foldit: First Contact suggests the significance of science fiction and critical game design for attuning citizen scientists to the collective responsibilities of experimentation and innovation, drawing attention to the intersecting social, technical, and environmental domains in which gamers may contribute to scientific research.","PeriodicalId":51560,"journal":{"name":"DESIGN ISSUES","volume":"39 1","pages":"70-87"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46949147","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this article, the authors tease out meritocracy from level design by comparing “passing” game levels with “passing” as performances for survival by marginalized peoples. We use HIV to demonstrate passing as a response from the intersections of queerness, race, and disability to inform heuristics for level design that tease out meritocratic design practices. We finish by illustrating our heuristics in action through Roxy's Got Balls, an online drag queen bingo event.
{"title":"Undetectable Starting Points: Rethinking “Passing” in Level Design through Queerness, Disability, and Roxy's Got Balls","authors":"Michael Anthony DeAnda;Gracie Lu Straznickas","doi":"10.1162/desi_a_00704","DOIUrl":"10.1162/desi_a_00704","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, the authors tease out meritocracy from level design by comparing “passing” game levels with “passing” as performances for survival by marginalized peoples. We use HIV to demonstrate passing as a response from the intersections of queerness, race, and disability to inform heuristics for level design that tease out meritocratic design practices. We finish by illustrating our heuristics in action through Roxy's Got Balls, an online drag queen bingo event.","PeriodicalId":51560,"journal":{"name":"DESIGN ISSUES","volume":"39 1","pages":"27-41"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44258835","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Game design research is caught between epistemologies and disciplines, leading to a lack of grounded methodologies. Without such methodological approaches, we cannot support evidence-based claims about game design. The Method for Design Materialization (MDM) is a methodological approach to capturing game design via software version control. By embracing a time-sliced representation of a game throughout its development and pairing it with explicit materializations of design thinking through reflective writing, we believe significant progress can be made in understanding and extrapolating from the design process.
游戏设计研究被夹在认识论和学科之间，导致缺乏基础方法。没有这种方法论方法，我们就无法支持基于证据的游戏设计主张。设计物质化方法(Method for Design Materialization，简称MDM)是一种通过软件版本控制捕获游戏设计的方法。通过在整个游戏开发过程中采用时间切片表示，并通过反思性写作将其与设计思维的明确物化相结合，我们相信可以在理解和推断设计过程方面取得重大进展。
{"title":"Generative Logics and Conceptual Clicks: A Case Study of the Method for Design Materialization","authors":"Rilla Khaled;Pippin Barr","doi":"10.1162/desi_a_00706","DOIUrl":"10.1162/desi_a_00706","url":null,"abstract":"Game design research is caught between epistemologies and disciplines, leading to a lack of grounded methodologies. Without such methodological approaches, we cannot support evidence-based claims about game design. The Method for Design Materialization (MDM) is a methodological approach to capturing game design via software version control. By embracing a time-sliced representation of a game throughout its development and pairing it with explicit materializations of design thinking through reflective writing, we believe significant progress can be made in understanding and extrapolating from the design process.","PeriodicalId":51560,"journal":{"name":"DESIGN ISSUES","volume":"39 1","pages":"55-69"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48908978","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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