Some further thoughts on the project as presented by Ville:
I think Ville’s idea has great potential, either as a concrete, playable game or as an approach to base game structures upon – or as a combination of both!
Narrative context as enrichment of the game environment
For a playable game, altruism, competitiveness, status gain and saving real money are nice motivators to play, but they *usually* need some kind of narrative to be received as a game-like base structure for conscious real-world behavior – this does not have to be a fictive narrative, though the distance provided by this may help in reinterpretation of actual behavior. Fairy tales operate the same way, telling stories of princesses and monsters, but referring actually to (children’s) everyday life’s challenges of “moral” behavior and it’s different forms of reward etc.
The concept you presented on Thursday resembles the approach of ranking forum users, according to their posting activity (i.e. granting badges, see an example here: assorted Roblox-Gaming-Forum badges).
In basic/automated configuration, there is a simple rule for the ‘player’ to learn: “the more you post, the higher your rank”, and your actual rank is the direct feedback to your actions, the number of posts you made; there is an implicit goal: “get the highest ranking”; there are indirect competitors, though the resources to beat them are – in principle – indefinite: your time and ideas to write as many posts as possible.
“Playing” – writing a post – is something learned quite quickly, and since the quality or relatedness of posts is of no concern, it’s a ‘game’ easy to play in the background while using the forum: a small incentive to post more.
A more distinguished ‘game’ for example could go for different kind of badges (i.e. “tech trees”), to differentiate and interpret user’s behavior, for example “the supporter”, “the thread opener”, “the linker”, “the relater”, “the troll” etc.; or it could “teach” extended communication possibilities (rewards, an expanded user interface e.g.), all set in the narrative that a blooming forum culture needs skill and motivation; needs specific, conscious and diverse behaviors to complement each other.
A playable game, from my point of view, needs integration of narrative (motivational and interpretative) and regulative (evaluation, ranking, feedback rules) elements.
“Game Interface” – Interpreting the player’s behavior
As a basic game structure, i.e. the potential infrastructure different games can be built upon, it would be important to think about what variables may be necessary or useful for game mechanics – and to possibly prevent ‘gaming the game”, i.e. creative cheating (but maybe this is what we want?).
Energy consumption may stand in the center of attention, but in what form? Mean consumption, median consumption, actual consumption in this minute? Maybe even the patterns of consumption? The only way (yet) for a player to interact with the system and other players is the numeric value of his/her energy consumption: How can this pattern be interpreted so that the outcome for the game to react is as rich as possible or necessary to recognize – or initiate – actual change in the behavior of the player’s consumptional patterns?
Analyzing the user’s possible ‘moves’ and the possible meaningful strategies behind this ‘moves’ – this is his or her already established real world behavior we eventually want to make aware of or influence – may be the base for a host of different game approaches.
Integrated game design
Connecting rules and real life outcomes
Do you have an idea how “Altruism” and “Competitiveness” may be combined in the same game environment? You stated both as motivators in your presentation.
Is it a (ethical) choice made by the player? Or is it that “competition” stays within the game, and “altriusm” – i.e. selflessness, happens outside? This would generate a slight conflict between game mechanics and intented change of behavior: You compete to be the most altruistic. I’ve attached a short paragraph from my thesis related to this problem.
Tan_Thesis_Playing(With)EducationalGames_22-23
Some game definitions
(made by a recent generation of game designer-researchers)
«A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome.»
– Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman (2004), “Rules of Play”
«A game is a form of art in which participants, termed players, make decisions in order to manage resources through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal.»
– Greg Costikyan (1994), “I have no words & I must design”
«A game is a rule-based system with a variable and quantifiable outcome, where different outcomes are assigned different values, the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome, the player feels attached to the outcome and the consequences of the activity are optional and negotiable.»
– Jesper Juul (2005), “Half-Real. Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds”, p.37
“When you strip away the genre differences and the technological complexities, all games share four defining traits: a goal, rules, a feedback system, and voluntary participation.”
– Jane McGonigal (2011), “Reality is Broken”, p. 29
