Taking Games Seriously, Making Games Seriously

Keira Peney

Posted on Tue 21 Apr 2009 by Keira Peney under Community , Design .
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This month’s Round Table challenges you to design a game that deals with a social issue that personally troubles you. The recent months have seen controversy sweep through the video game industry. Whether people are objecting to the use of imagery widely considered to evoke racial stereotypes, or to the gameplay based on violent sexual crimes, or to the fact that anyone would complain about either topic–the discussion has been fierce. This month, contributors to the Round Table are invited to design a game that focuses on racism, rape, domestic violence, cruelty to animals, genocide, or any other serious, and potentially hot-button, topic.

I spent a lot of time thinking about this BORT entry. It was very difficult for me to get away from relying on the ’shock’ factor of excessive violence/misery to drive a point home, but my general feeling is that this isn’t the best way to approach grown-up story-telling.

The game idea I came up with is fairly standard in execution. It is set in generic modern city, and you control the stories of two characters as they progress from childhood to adulthood. The game opens with them playing together, and you take over the first character when he returns home for the night.

Each character is given quests, by parents, other children, and other adults. Some of these quests conflict, for example - one quest may be to get an A in an exam by studying for 4 hours, whilst a conflicting quest may be to reinforce social bonds by playing with a ball in the street for 4 hours. There are four main ’stats’ - Intelligence, Popularity, Wealth, and Respect. Different quests boost specific stats. Quests can be mini-games, puzzles, or simple ‘fetch and bring’.

The first character is relatively middle-class, and his main quests center around the academic world, dating, and getting the highest paying job possible. The second character is working class, and his quests center around the street gangs in his neighborhood, helping his single, working mother, and raising money.

Having done a quest with one character, you discover you can perform the same actions with the second. For example, the working-class character is never offered an academic success quest - nobody requests that he study or get an A. The middle-class character is never offered a raising money quest. Performing the same actions generates less XP, and no other positive reinforcements. The motivation should be very strong for character A to do well at school, date someone exclusively during college, and find a high-paying job. Eventually they produce a child of their own. The motivation should be very strong for the second character to spend most of their time generating wealth, boosting their standing with the street gang, and eventually producing a child of their own. After a point, however, the second characters options - if they have followed their own quest tree - will dwindle and dwindle until they are effectively trapped by low income and age.

IF the player chooses to do the ‘other characters’ quests without the early positive reinforcement, it opens an entirely different quest tree - one that eventually leads to a much higher level for both characters, and a much more upbeat and rewarding ending. In addition, it unlocks a fifth stat - Happiness.

What’s the point of the game?

On the surface, I want it to be a pretty simple puzzle/RPG. In essence, I’m trying to tackle the nature of class privilege - both characters are strongly pushed towards a particular lifestyle. They are rewarded for choices that create that lifestyle, and eventually trapped into that same lifestyle. Choosing the less rewarding path, however, eventually pays off massive dividends and opens up the entire game.

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2 Responses to “Taking Games Seriously, Making Games Seriously

April ‘09 Round Table - UPDATED 04-22 : Man Bytes Blog Says:
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:20 am

[...] 21 - Writing the Game: Taking Games Seriously, Making Games Seriously. Keira takes a look at class privilege with a [...]

Incest. Says:
September 18th, 2009 at 7:27 am

Incest….

Incest….

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