Curriculum developed by Journeys in Film and provided by the developers of Walden, A Game
Serious games present an opportunity for players to explore ideas interactively; it is essential to play critically in order to understand the meanings embedded in the game mechanics as well as in the game world and story.
Serious game designers use many techniques to communicate ideas through gameplay, including system design, characters, story, quests and world building.
How does a game create meaning?
How can players learn to interpret the meaning of their game experiences?
Serious games are an innovative and exciting way to learn about a number of subjects. When you play any game, you first learn the rules of the game and then you try to master the challenges presented by the game. In a serious game, the challenges may be more than just winning. They may also include understanding the meaning of the rules themselves and what they represent.
The first question a deliberate player should ask is, “What do the rules of the game mean? What do the game “mechanics” represent?” Game rules are often abstractions of real world systems – the real estate market, warfare, physics simulations, etc. When serious game designers decide on the rules of their games, they are communicating ideas about what is important to know to play.
It’s important to understand that the process of designing game rules is a kind of authorship. Just as writers or filmmakers have a point of view about the subject of their work, so too does a game designer. Becoming aware of the intentional or unintentional ideas that are communicated through the design of a game requires the deliberate focus of an attentive player. Passive playing – not thinking about the meaning of a game – does not lead to the kind of deliberate play we should be trying to develop.
We call the source of the game mechanics the “game designer.” In practice, this might be the producer, the developer, the writer, the distributor—that is, whoever most controls and influences the game’s meaning. Most of the time, it is the game designer who makes these decisions.
In addition to the rules of the game, there are other aspects of the design that communicate meaning. There may be characters in the game, just as in a film or novel, whose motivations and backstory give context to their actions. There may also be a world design, art direction, or musical score that communicates how we are meant to feel about the activity in the game.
Ask yourself as you play, “What is my character trying to do? Why? What does it mean if my character does or does not succeed?” As you explore a game world, ask yourself, “Why is this area or object here? What does it communicate about the game’s theme or story?”
Often, when we think about games, we want to judge them on a single metric: how much “fun” they are. But what is fun? It can be many things to many different people. When we practice playing deliberately, we begin to understand that there are much deeper ways to judge games. We can learn to critique them based on the ideas they represent rather than just the momentary exhilaration they give us.
When you play deliberately, you will ask yourself, “What kinds of activities have I done within this game? Why did I make the choices that I did in the game? What was the meaning of those choices in the context of the game? What was the game designer trying to communicate by putting these kinds of choices in the game?”