Making Games In A Fucked Up World-Paolo Pedercini
#notesFromPaper Year : Tags : Authors: Paolo Pedercini
We use euphemisms like “social good”, “values”, and other progressive terms so that we don’t offend or scare anyone.
Games are conversations between designer and player, but that’s not enough for games. There’s a delusion that games should go beyond being just another cultural form and should become the embodiment of actual change itself.
We want measurable change. Fuck that. “If you can measure it, then it’s not the change I want to see. By focusing on measurable goals, we narrow our action. We favor individual change, versus systemic and long term change.”
If your game really can facilitate simple and directly measurable change, then that’s terrifying. Your techniques will be coopted by evil in no time.
Progressives have won on social issues, but issues around capital, environment, and generally systemic issues have failed to be changed by large, top down organizations. At best, there has been grassroots, smaller mobilized change. (See Cultivating The Grassroots-Hansen)
Games are expensive, so of course they need to be overblown as a replacement for organization, rather than as mere communication.
Maybe game design is a greater liberating and artistic force than playing games. What if we democratized game design? Would be cheaper that way.
We have to convince the privileged that we are worthy of their charity, but this creates helpless subjects that seem to not be able to speak for themselves.
Agree on the kind of change you want to see, and based on that shared vision, figure out the media and the strategies you need.
From the Allied Media Conference mission statement:
We presume our power, not our powerlessness.
We focus on strategies rather than issues.
The strongest solutions happen through the process, not in a moment at the end of the process.
Holistic and sustainable strategies work in situations of scarce resources.
