http://meaningfulplay.msu.edu/program.php?session=53
Like the meaningful game play that we strive to create, in Moby Dick, Melville takes the story around themes of loss...and so on.
If you take the themes out of Moby Dick, then it would not have been as lasting as it has been.
Mighty Themes are important to meaningful play.
Games
The majority of people drawn to these games are probably drawn, not becasue it is a game, but because of the topic, and a game was made from it.
Huizinga: All play means something.
heresy of the zone defense gives an excellent discussion on...something the speaker wants us to read about...Urgh!
Gravitation
Braid is a game of love and loss, and time...
The expressive act...Alexander Galloway, Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture
Warren Robinett points out every verb in the dictionary suggests and idea for a simulation.
These create truly touch design challenges, focusing on the radical simplifcation and stylization of the expressive act.
A discussion on the Night Journey.
What is the "mechanic" of enlightenment? How can the aesthetic of a game touch the traditions of spiritual media (enlightened manuscripts and the sort)?
How can we abstract and systematize something that is as intensely personal as spiritual journey?
Conclusions about the mechanic:
- Exploration
- Slowing the player down (the virtual speed of human on foot...very slow) The terrain becomes an obstacle in and of itself.
- Environment is visually complex
- Rewards for looking deeply.
- Reflection and Transformation (The transformation gives an immediate visual reward, and a longterm "leveling up" that is not apparent until you need to use it and you then realize it.
- The cycle of loss and rebirth.
- Eventaully, night will fall--in an elongated period of "loss." (but loss is not always a bad thing, and can be good, transfromational and even happy)
- The player "falls asleep" and "dreams"
- Dreams are procedurally created based on individual exporation and reflection
- After dreaming, the player is dropped back into the environemtn.
Creating "expressive geography"
Fullerton then showed us the game, a little sneak peak. This excited everyone. You would not believe how quiet the ballroom is right now. No one is talking, everyone is fixated on the screen, the visual and audio is very meditative.
New Challenges:
Walden a Game
CPG History and Civics Intiative to teach contstitutional history to HS students
Walden, a game.
Game would encourage players to live simply: work to live, but not live to work, balance between mind, body, and spirit.
envisioned it as a game for short reflective visits, not addictive play. Play periodically in short bursts.
I think I have a new hero. Time to revisit her book and I can't wait to see Walden, A Game and Night Journey.
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