Designing for the Pleasures of Disputation – or – How to make friends by trying to kick them! by Douglas Wilson Manuscript for Ph.D. dissertation Submitted to the IT University of Copenhagen, March 2012 Successfully defended May 15, 2012 Last edited August 13, 2012 Title: Designing for the Pleasures of Disputation – or – How to make friends by trying to kick them! Author: Douglas Wilson E-mail: [email protected] Supervisors: T.L. Taylor, IT University of Copenhagen Miguel Sicart, IT University of Copenhagen Abstract In this dissertation I explore what it might mean to design games that aim to nurture a spirit of togetherness. My central claim is that games which are intentionally designed to be confrontational, broken, or otherwise “incomplete” can help inspire a decidedly festive, co- dependent, and performative type of play. Appropriating the political theoretical work of Hannah Arendt, I argue that her concepts of “action” and “plurality” provide useful definitions of performance and togetherness as they relate to gameplay. Drawing on theories of embodied interaction, precedents from the contemporary art world, and various folk game movements, I grapple with the messy relationship between designed systems and sociocultural context. I describe how confronting this relationship head on opens up fruitful design opportunities. Taking seriously Dave Hickey’s concept of “the pleasures of disputation,” I explore how we players and designers might transmute the acrimony of conflict into something joyful. Corrections In the Introduction and Chapter 3, I previously referred to Bernie DeKoven as a “self- described ‘funologist’.” Though DeKoven has used the term “funology” it does not seem as if he has ever called himself a “funologist.” In my text, I have removed this descriptor and replaced it with the term “FUNcoach,” which DeKoven has used on his own website. In two places in the Introduction, I previously suggested that Bernie DeKoven’s philosophy “came out of” and was “derived” from the New Games movement. Though DeKoven would indeed go on to serve as a co-director of the New Games Foundation, much of his philosophy was inspired by earlier work with schoolchildren in the late 1960s and early 1970s (see DeKoven’s website: http://www.deepfun.com/bernie, accessed August, 2012). I have corrected my text accordingly. “It’s pitch black. I’m on a derelict barge in a backwater of Copenhagen harbor, and I’m trying to kick a girl. Welcome to Johan[n] Sebastian Joust.” – Chris Charla (2011) Johann Sebastian Joust at the Arcade Boat exhibition, May 2011. (Footage courtesy Johan Bichel Lindegaard). Table of Contents Acknowledgements......................................................................................................................................vii Introduction – Designing for the Pleasures of Disputation..........................................................................1 Chapter 1 – Research “After” Design: Embracing a Purposeful Distancing between Academia and Game Design Practice..........................................................................................................31 Chapter 2 – Dialogic Game Design............................................................................................................41 Chapter 3 – Brutally Unfair Tactics Totally OK Now: On Self-Effacing Games and Unachievements............................................................................................83 Chapter 4 – In Celebration of Low Process Intensity...............................................................................109 Chapter 5 – When Are “Broken Games” Actually Broken? Lessons from Two Conference Game Experiments.........................................................................................................139 Afterward...................................................................................................................................................157 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisors, T.L. Taylor and Miguel Sicart, for their support, patience, and feedback. I am especially grateful to T.L., who played a key role in getting me to IT University of Copenhagen for my Fulbright year, back in 2007. I would also like to express my gratitude to the Danish-American Fulbright Commission, who generously awarded me the research grant for my first year in Denmark. Four and a half years later, much to my surprise, I find myself still here in Copenhagen, finishing up a PhD dissertation. Many thanks to my colleagues at ITU (past and present) for all the feedback, camaraderie, and support: Emma Witkowski, Rilla Khaled, Pippin Barr, Chad Chatterton, Gordon Calleja, Tobias Mahlmann, Paolo Burelli, Sebastian Möring, Olli Leino, Hanna Wirman, Aki Järvinen, Espen Aarseth, Jessica Enevold, Costantino Oliva, Christos Iosifidis, Lone Malmborg, Dag Svanæs, and Darryl Woodford. Special thanks to Tommy Rousse, who generously gave me valuable feedback on all six chapters. Thanks as well to the PhD office, for all the administrative support. I am forever indebted to Henry Lowood, who not only helped facilitate my 2011 stay at Stanford University, but also got me interested in game studies in the first place, in 2003. If it weren’t for Henry’s “History of Computer Game Design” class, this dissertation most certainly would never have happened. I would also like to thank a number of other scholars around the world for their feedback and wisdom: Lilly Irani, Clara Fernández-Vara, Dan Pinchbeck, Jaakko Stenros, Markus Montola, Carl DiSalvo, Mikael Jakobsson, Fred Turner, Henning Eichberg, Bernie DeKoven, Esther MacCallum-Stewart, Emily Flynn-Jones, and Johannes Grenzfurthner. I am especially grateful to Celia Pearce and Bart Simon, who mentored me during my respective semesters at Georgia Tech and Concordia. Though I do most of my game development work in a social context outside the university, my design practice has significantly influenced the direction and content of this dissertation. As such, I am deeply indebted to all my collaborators, both here in Copenhagen and abroad: Nils Deneken, Christoffer Holmgård, Benedíkte Mikkelsen, Patrick Jarnfelt, Lawrence Johnson, Lau Korsgaard, Simon Nielsen, Sebbe Selvig, Dajana Dimovska, Bernhard Schulenburg, Lars Bojsen-Møller, Tim Garbos, Anna Thomsen, Kennett Wong, Mads Lyngvig, Robin Di Capua, Mike Khamphoukeo, Martin Woo, Nicklas “Nifflas” Nygren, David Kanaga, Thomas Perl, and Adam Henriksson. Over the last three years, a variety of game developers, writers, and curators have inspired me to keep making and thinking about games. At the risk of leaving someone out, I would like to thank a few particular people for their support: Matt Parker, Ramiro Corbetta, Zach Gage, Ed Key, Brandon Boyer, Marie Foulston, Ricky Haggett, Dick Hogg, George Buckenham, Kunal Gupta, Syed Amin Salahuddin, Ida Benedetto, Dan Alongi, Arthur Ward Jr., Joe Salina, and the rest of the Babycastles staff, Jamin Warren, Tom Gregorio, Kaho Abe, Joel Goodwin, Lara Sánchez Coterón, Mathias Nordvall, Erik Kaltman, Bennett Foddy, Mathew Kumar, Heather Kelley and Kokoromi, Derek Ledoux, Owen Deery, and the Dirty Rectangles crew, Johan Bichel Lindegaard, Jeff Lait, Stephanie Barish, Sam Roberts, and the rest of the IndieCade family, Stephen Ascher, Nick Rudzicz, Saleem Dabbous, Manveer Heir, Erik Svedäng, Heather Rasley, Marek Plichta, Andreas Zecher, Zuraida Buter, Lies van Roessel, Rami Ismail, Sarah Elmaleh, Dean Tate, Petri Purho, Martin Jonasson, Christoffer Hedborg, Sarah Brin, Nick Suttner, Greg Rice, Tiff Chow, David Nottingham, William Robinson, Leif Penzendorfer, the entire IGDA Denmark crew, Steffi Degiorgio, Amani Naseem, Ida Toft, and Sidsel Hermansen. vii Thanks to various friends around the world, for all their feedback and support – Mike R, Andrew J, Alissa and Ken, Dave and Melissa, Rolf, John S and Christina, Daniel S, Jon R, Kyra, Peter L-D, Can, Sean, Min Li, Sasha and Vlad, Ida S, Julie H, Christian H, and especially Joanna Gubman, who not only gave me smart feedback on some of my writing, but who also graciously played host to me on numerous occasions during my frequent visits back to San Francisco. Thanks to my parents, Elaine and Terry Wilson, for everything! And last, but certainly not least, I am deeply indebted to Matt Broach, my most “serious” supporter, critic, collaborator, and friend. Many of the ideas in this dissertation – especially those related to contemporary art – were inspired or influenced by ongoing conversations I had with Matt. Thanks, Matt! viii - Introduction - Designing for the Pleasures of Disputation 1 Introduction – Designing for the Pleasures of Disputation “It is critical for digital game designers and theorists to address the creative crisis in mainstream game development by examining the human element of what it means to truly play with other people, perhaps even more so than how to play games.” – Pearce et. al, (2007) From the very beginning, Josh had built a reputation as a loose cannon. A wildcard. Back in my college days, a group of my friends became obsessed with the popular parlor game Mafia (also known as Werewolf).1 Mafia is a non-digital party game about psychology and paranoia. The basic idea is that a few chosen liars (the mafia) secretly work against the collective interests of the other players (the citizens). Players sit in a circle and embark on a witch hunt in which they try to deduce who is on the mafia team. No dice, no cards, no board; just accusations, arguments,