Curious Games

Pippin Barr 38 Curious Games Abstract EU Abstract ES Bideo jokoak gaur egungo adierazpen Los videojuegos son el más nuevo y excitante modu berriena eta zirraragarriena dira, medio de expresión de nuestro tiempo eta oraingo bideo jokoen joerak ohiko y actualmente tienden hacia estructuras egituretara eta interakzio estetikara jotzen convencionales y una estética de interacción. du. Baliabide horren potentziala bultzatzeko, Los diseñadores y jugadores deben mirar diseinatzaileek eta jokalariek bideo jokoen a la retórica y la filosofía del diseño de diseinuaren erretorika eta filosofia aztertu videojuegos para promover el potencial de behar dute. Artikulu honetan curious este medio. En este artículo, expongo la games kontzeptua azalduko dut bestelako noción de los juegos curiosos como forma bideo jokoak sortzeko aukera moduan. de crear otro tipo de videojuego. En el Ondoren, joko diseinuaren funtsezko alderdi texto se alternan el análisis de aspectos filosofikoez eta nire esperientziaz arituko naiz filosóficos clave del diseño de juegos y mi eta amaitzeko, curious games-ei dagokionez, propia experiencia, para terminar con una nire esperientziaren ezaugarriak azalduko descripción de mi propia experiencia en lo ditut. relativo a los curious games. * Testu honetan curious games esapideak, jokoaz harago * El término curious games utilizado en este texto trasciende doan eremua ere hartzen du, bai diseinatzaileari eta bai en su ámbito de aplicación al propio juego, refiriéndose bere balizko erabiltzaileei dagokien jakin-minezko jarrera a una actitud inquisitiva e interrogativa, aplicada tanto galdetzaile bati ezartzen zaio, eta joko-esperientzia al diseñador del juego como a sus potenciales usuarios y konplexuago egiten duten galderen planteamenduan que funciona a partir del planteamiento de preguntas y oinarritzen da. Testua itzultzeko orduan ingelesezko complejización de la experiencia de juego. A efectos de lokuzioa bere horretan uztea hobetsi da, esanahiaren traducción se ha decidido mantener el término inglés para osotasuna hobe adierazten duelakoan. una correcta acepción del mismo. 38]39 Abstract FR Abstract EN Les jeux vidéo sont le nouveau moyen Video games are the newest and most d’expression attrayant de notre temps exciting expressive medium of our time and et à l’heure actuelle, ils tendent vers des yet the trend in today’s games is toward structures conventionnelles et une esthétique conventional structures and aesthetics of d’interaction. Les concepteurs et les joueurs interaction. In order to live up to the potential doivent se pencher sur la rhétorique et la of this medium, designers and players must philosophie de la conception du jeu afin de turn to the rhetorics and philosophies of promouvoir le potentiel de ce média. Dans video game design. In this article I introduce cet article, j’expose la notion des curious the notion of curious games as one approach games comme une approche dans la création to take to the creation of a different kind d’un autre type de jeu vidéo. J’alternerai of video game. The article proceeds in ensuite l’analyse des aspects philosophiques alternation between examinations of key clés de la conception des jeux et ma propre philosophical aspects of game design and my expérience, en concluant par mon expérience own practice, ending with a characterisation dans le domaine des curious games. of my own practice in terms of curious games. * Le terme curious games utilisé dans ce texte, dont le champ d’application s’étend au-delà du jeu lui-même, fait référence à une attitude inquisitrice et interrogative qui concerne autant le concepteur du jeu que ses utilisateurs potentiels et fonctionne à partir de questionnements et de la complexité de l’expérience de jeu. Pour la traduction, nous avons décidé de garder le terme anglais pour ne pas perdre le sens original. Curious Games ] Pippin Barr 40 \Ancient Greek Punishment . Pippin Barr. 40]41 Introduction operate according to highly conventional standards of morality. As a teacher and critic of game design, I play a lot of games. In critically reflecting on their In constructing this kind of «best practice», design, though, it is easy to be disappointed. we constrict what video games can be. On playing yet another beautifully realised first-person shooter or cleverly tuned So How Do You Make a Game About the platformer, we see that video games, Meaning of Life? especially mainstream video games, are bound by highly conventional understandings I began to make my own video games at the of the interactive and aesthetic potential of beginning of 2011 both as a form of expression the medium. Such conventions are now so and as a critique of these limits. taken for granted that they threaten to define the medium itself. To push against these self- My first game, GuruQuest, presents players defined boundaries, we must not only talk with a world in which they can traverse a about what video games are and can be, but landscape of rolling hills in order to consult must actively work to create games that move with a guru on the meaning of life. Players the conversation forward. talk to the guru by typing in their questions or thoughts and then reading the response. Best Practice This process is made possible by a modified version of the ELIZA chatbot (Weizenbaum, Without much critical thought, contemporary 1966), which I adjusted to speak like a guru video games have adopted traditional rather than like a psychoanalyst. Players software usability as a central and desirable can therefore discuss any issue they choose feature. This has proved a limitation. with the guru, from the nonsensical to the Usability, characterised by Jakob Nielsen as profound. «a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use» (Nielsen, n.d.), Alternative Games brings with it a focus on making games easily learnable, efficient, memorable, tolerant Numerous designers who work with games of error, and pleasing to use. Games thus have pushed against the «best practice» present us with challenges that are not too tenets of conventional usability and fantasy. challenging, with the tools to succeed ready Dear Esther, for instance, presents us with to hand, and the ability to try again until a navigable first-person world in which a we succeed. Video games also inherit from disjointed narrative is told in voice over. traditional games concerns with fairness, Unlike in traditional first-person games, the balance, and fun. We should have equal player has no gun, just the tools needed to opportunities, the game system should avoid traverse space and to interpret what they extremes, and the experience should be one see and hear. The game Beautiful Escape: that is entertaining. Dungeoneer pushes fantasy in another direction, against conventional propriety to Along with usability, video games have situate the player as a modern day torturer. adopted very conventional representations Subverting traditional usability, Painstation of fantasy. We generally play in a situation makes players physically suffer in the course where we are the most powerful agent of play. None of these games conform to best in the world, with direct control over the practice, but, rather, stretch the boundaries of environment, and a high level of narrative the medium. significance. We are the strongman, not the weakling, the hero, not the villain, and we Curious Games ] Pippin Barr 42 Can Your Own Game Surprise You? workplace: concerns for clarity, efficiency and productivity» (Gaver, 2008, p.2). These My second game was Let There Be Smite!, work-oriented concerns, Gaver suggests, inspired by the game-like image of God can obstruct more aesthetic or «poetic» «resetting» the world with the great flood after possibilities. despairing at the sins of mankind. In the game you take on God’s «day job», monitoring sins In the world of game design specifically, on a computer screen, and deciding who to «abusive game design» (Wilson and Sicart, «smite» and who to «forgive» via a dialog box. 2010) serves as one avenue for evolving a different direction. Douglas Wilson and Miguel At first, when there are few people, this process Sicart critique positioning the player at the is straightforward: you read the sin and then centre of the design process, suggesting this choose. As the population increases, more and leads to a kind of «player narcissism». They more sins are committed, and your interactions advocate a design process focused on creating must change. First you have to read and decide a form of agonistic dialog between designer faster, then when you don’t have time to read and player, with the game as a facilitator. you must decide whether to be a vengeful or a forgiving God by always smiting or always What Can You Say Through and Around forgiving. Finally, sins are committed at such Games? a rate that you have no choice but to blindly click any button close to your cursor. Though My third game, Safety Instructions, helped the game was conceived as a simple jest, the me understand dialogic design better. In this experience of making increasingly compromised speed-typing game you type the «safety moral judgments under time pressure yielded instructions» commonly encountered on an an interesting way to explore moral decision airplane in order to survive a crash. Typos lead making. to immediate (and amusing) death. As part of the game, I created a final, unbeatable Alternative Design Philosophies stage. On release, however, players promptly beat the final stage by cheating and then told The conventionality of designed media is not me: the most basic form of game dialog. In an uncommon concern and there have been response, I created a final final stage. many attempts to counteract it. In industrial design, Anthony Dunne presents a vision In similarly «dialogic» exchanges, I met players of «critical design» as a challenge to the who recorded a voice-over for the game, and conventional aesthetics of designed objects.

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