StoryToGo

Exploring storytelling in its many forms in this digital age

Gaming

Representation in Digital Gaming, Media Arts and Tech – Lived Stories

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aka the Elephant in the Room that people may dress up and be sickly sweet to, while they stab behind their back and behind closed doors.

Photo care of Ragn27.

Sorry that might sound harsh, but the fact that some people choose to put others down, be aggressive towards them, treat them of lesser value, and / or abuse them because of the colour of their skin, their ethnicity, their gender, their disabilities, their sexuality … etc really makes my blood boil, and leaves me generally feeling sick. Having said that, Representation and Representational Problems is a conversation we need to have to instigate change, and part of doing that is sharing our stories, despite how uncomfortable that might be. Admittedly, that was not something I realized until I became an adult. I grew up in a blissful world where that equality existed, having grown up in a family that was a mix of the arts and science with people from around the world sharing our holiday dinner table and where my parents saw each other as equals (which of course they were). It never occurred to me that that was not the norm (at least in Canada – I had seen racism and sexism in my travels), and that some people would think themselves better than another because of their skin colour, religion, gender, sexuality, or able-body. Or at least it didn’t until I began working in the media arts and technolgy.

As I set off on a walk with my 17-year-old neighbour this past weekend to talk about her aspirations in the media arts, these were all things we talked about as we explored the challenges along with the rewards of the industry she is setting forth into.

Sharing a picture of Ella here, who joined us on our walk, for a bit of grounding in a heavier post.

Importance of Characters Whom Young People Can Relate to

My neighbour is a visible minority in Canada, and so while we talked about the importance of crafting stories that you are passionate about, we also talked about the importance of increasing representation within those stories.

I told her how when I pitched my first kid’s TV series, a Canadian broadcaster told me we couldn’t do a co-production with another country as Canadian kids would not relate with children that looked and sounded different from them. Having grown up on stories from around the world and loving learning about different cultures through stories, I was at a complete loss that this was a Canadian broadcaster’s believe in a country that is made up of people from around the world. My young neighbour then told me that she’d grown up in Canada never having seen Filipino culture (her ethnic heritage) represented within the stories she consumed.

That’s a problem, as while it is great to learn about different people and cultures through your stories, if you never encounter someone like you, you feel at odds with others and a bit alone. As mentioned in Kateryna Barnes’ article on the game Kisima Innitchuna (Never Alone), stories are also an important way of connecting with your cultural roots and sharing that culture with future generations.

While not a visible minority, I do get that sense of feeling alone and at odds with others from a disability perspective. I am dyslexic, and I can’t help but wonder if I’d met a dyslexic kid in my stories growing up, if that might have helped me with my confidence in embracing how my mind works differently at an earlier age, rather than feeling I was not as academically capable as my peers. Instead, when I was younger and I encountered people with a disability in a story, they were usually negatively depicted, teaching me at the time that this was something I should hide, as media treated disability as though it was something to be embarrassed of.

For all these reasons, I am glad to have conversations like this with my young neighbour, and look forward to seeing how she addresses this in her career. I am also glad to see people like Nicole Kang addressing it on Elementari, an animated storytelling and game development platform targeted to kids and schools. If kids can put characters that they relate to in their stories and games, then they can help to start to demonstrate for others the storyworlds they wish to see.

The Dark and Unwelcoming Alley Out in the Open in the Media Arts, Tech & Game Studios

While lack of representation or representation only as evil, weak, and broken characters is destructive to the psyche and identity, what really makes my blood run cold and what I needed to forewarn my young neighbour about is the very real culture of misogyny and sexual harassment. I did not want to terrify her, but I did want her to be aware of the dangers in the media arts (and particularly game design) in order to keep herself safe.

Illustrated by Naomi Ushiyama; Indypendent / Creative Commons

Trigger Warning

I have been very lucky in that I have never been raped, but I have found myself in dangerous situations and I have found myself in psychologically abusive situations by people I thought were my friends. While I didn’t go into all of this with my young neighbour, before you read on, I should warn you that this will not be a pleasant read and may trigger things, so stop here if you need to.

As much as I hate to term it this way, I was ‘eased’ into this culture of misogyny and sexual harassment by the film industry. In that world as a young writer and actor, I learned never to trust that a business meeting was a business meeting and that a man wanting to partner with me wasn’t just them trying to sleep with me. I’m not saying that egotistically, it was just a reality, and not one that helped build my confidence in myself as a young creative. As an example, a talented director chased me for months for a meeting and when I agree and then accept an invitation to a screening party at his house with his friends, I arrived at the screening party to discover no friends and no screening. That was the night a director tried the ‘casting couch line’ on me. He was a documentary director, so I am not sure what I was to be cast as – a victim? Then there was my producer friend, who I discovered on more than one occasion using me as a lure for unstable, stalker men (I am not embellishing here – these men stalked me for months) he wanted to do business with. One of those men, I made the mistake of working for in a remote ferry-in ferry-out community as a writer and a host, before realizing that he was very unhealthily and dangerously obsessed with me. I will be forever grateful to my friend Tristan for insisting on accompanying me when the producer announced he’d only pay me if I came to pick up my pay cheque. I should add that there are some amazing men in the industry, like Tristan, Cam, and Richard who have always looked out for my safety and well-being, and there are some women that contribute to the problem of the misogyny and sexual harassment. With the latter, I am remembering one film festival when a powerful married man in the film industry was rather inappropriately and boisterously hitting on, which I dealt with by falling on my safety net of turning that into a joke. Meanwhile I learned a number of the women in the room thought I was to blame. A tip of my hat at Richard, Cam, Joanne, and Katrina for standing up for me and telling them otherwise, as well as for helping to safely extract me from the situation.

A younger me with my buddy Paul (a wonderful fellow) in our first TV Show.

All of that though was just a warm up act to what I encountered in the tech and peripherally gaming industry in 2007. There I found myself in a world in which the few of us women that were there were treated like sexual play things to use and abuse both for our minds and our bodies. On the surface the parties were fantastic with free food and booze flowing, but then you’d see how the young women were being treated as toys and someone would turn to you and ask you (in all seriousness) for a lap dance. In those early days, the same individual that asked for that lap dance, publicly claimed mine and Megan’s ideas as his own and that Megan and I were ‘working for him’ on an idea of ours that we’d entered into a partnership with his business partner. On one of my calls to their office to try and get some tech answers for that project, after getting nowhere with the lap dance requester, I asked for his business partner’s cell number so I could talk to him, and I was then put on speaker phone to their entire office and told who was I kidding, I had the partner’s number, as I was sleeping with him. I was not sleeping with him, but I am sure there are many in the tech community who still think thats how I got started there. That then lead to an uncomfortable conversation with the business partner, in which he confirmed with those that had been in the office that day that I had indeed been put on speaker phone to the entire office. Despite that, I still had to deal with the lap dance requester on the upcoming project, and when he started aggressively bullying me, the business partner did nothing when I asked him to step in. That was the first time I’ve ever asked for help in such a situation, and as someone who only asks for help when I really need it, I could not believe that no help was given. Another disturbing memory from this time was when a certain large tech company hosted a retreat that began with a drunken and bound to be trouble series of images all hashtagged on the bus ride up, including all the men lined up and peeing at the side of the highway. It was when they reached the camp that things went disturbingly badly. There were only a few women there, and after they reached the camp, one of the men shared one of the woman’s bare breasts on instagram with the trip hashtag. I commented and said that was not cool. The response was something to the effect of “Lighten up, I didn’t share her face.” That didn’t matter, as aside from other reasons, there were so few women there that it didn’t take too much figuring out as to who was in the photo. Thankfully the one female leads at the company stepped in a few minutes later and shut things down, but I still shudder to think what the situation might have been at that retreat for the few women that were there. There was good that came out of all this though, and thanks to few strong women leaders in the industry – I think of Maura Rodgers, Megan Cole, Rebecca Bollwitt, Monica Hamburg, and others, we said enough is enough and began to catalyze change. It wasn’t easy though, and I am sure it still has a long way to go.

Just a few of the strong women who stood up to the misogyny in Vancouver’s social tech industry back in 2007, as photographed by Phillip Jeffrey.
Image care of Alec Perkins, via the Wikimedia.

Just because the misogyny and sexual harassment may be less visible, especially since #MeToo, don’t kid yourselves – the problem is still there. I got a very disturbing reminder of this in the summer of 2018, when I stayed too long at a party of a guy that I trusted and thought was a friend. While that night a married man tried something inappropriate and unasked for with me, it was the friend that disturbed me – attempting to remove my top and that of another woman’s and starting to ask me ‘would I rather’ questions that involved gang rape. The glimmer of hope here was that a young kid, who worked for the two older men stood up for me, and told the aggressor that wasn’t cool.

I extracted myself from the situation in the way I always do, with humour. However, that night has disturbed me ever since, and I’ve found myself avoiding events in that world. Mainly I think, because that was someone I thought was a friend, and the night clued me into just how insidious the aggressor had been for years, doing a number of things to constantly put me down to myself and others. In thinking back, I realize this started with me standing up to him and offering an alternate viewpoint on a panel at a film festival. A disturbing element of realization that I’d been in an insidious and emotionally abusive relationship for years was that he’d been actively putting me down to others through the entirety of my attempting to put my life and career back together following my two accidents that left me learning to live with chronic pain and many new realities. I share this last bit, as the last seven years since the first car accident has opened my eyes up to those that prey on those with disabilities and other vulnerabilities, including this man who I thought was my friend and should have been there to help me back up, rather than further push me down and work to keep me there.

Creating Change

Now, while I didn’t share all of that with my young neighbour, I did share some of it, including the recent story, as I feel if change is going to happen, we need to talk about these things, and for her, I need her to be forewarned and forearmed so that she can stay safe.

Towards the end of our walk we did touch on the fact that she needed to be particularly careful in the game industry. I know for myself, I’d be very wary of entering a mainstream game studio for the reasons shared here and how unhealthy and misogynistic an environment that might be for me. That is part of the problem though, is that if women don’t feel safe in these spaces it makes it difficult to change those ecosystems.

What the face of hope and change look like to me – working with awesome creatives, like Kelly Conlin, who get excited about creating projects with me that share stories of cultural understanding and share the voices of those who should be represented equally.

I think for myself, that is why I finally started building my own teams and finding new ways of creating and producing what is in my imagination, as oppose to waiting for the permission of another to do so. I am not sure whether games will be in that mix for me (although there are a few that have been dancing through my imagination), but certainly there will be more immersive media, in which I hope to continue work with talented and supportive individuals (whether women, men, or those who identify in a different way). I hope that my young neighbour is able to do the same, and who knows, maybe at some point that will involve us creating together.

References

Barnes, K. (2019, July 24). Agniq Suannaktuq and Kisima Innitchuna (Never Alone). First Person Scholar. http://www.firstpersonscholar.com/agniq-suannaktuq-and-kisima-innitchuna-never-alone/

British Dyslexia Association. (2018, February 11). See Dyslexia Differently [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11r7CFlK2sc

Jenson, J. & de Castell, S. (2016) Gamer-Hate and the “Problem” of Women: Feminism in Games. In Kafai, Tynes, & Richard (Eds.) Diversifying Barbie & Mortal Kombat: Intersectional Perspectives and Inclusive Designs in Gaming. Pittsburgh PA: ETC Press.

Innocenceii. (2020, June 8). Why YOU Would ???? at Being a Main Character [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wOEnUtxO7Q

Never Alone – Kisima Ingitchuna. (2014, August 14). Never Alone – Iñupiaq Perspectives – Joseph Sagviyuaq Sage [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK1IsVEjZKE

One Down. (2020, October 1). Filipinos in Entertainment | Breaking The Tabo | Episode 1 | One Down [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jusUSUTfm4

StoryToGo. (2020, March 15). Creating Diversity in Story Characters – a Chat with Elementari’s Nicole Kang [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxmLNc2Q934

Gaming Learning from the Perspective of a Science Educator

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Reflecting on Learning through Games and Constructivism

Image care of Rafael Javier.

Recently, as I read Yasmin Kafai and Quinn Burke’s article Constructionist Gaming: Understanding the Benefits of Making Games for Learning and Kelly Tran’s article “Her story was complex”: A Twine workshop for ten- to twelve-year-old girls, it has had me reflecting on learning through games, constructivism, how I teach, and my own learning styles. With science and science education being central to my development as an individual, storyteller, and teacher, this naturally had me thinking on my years as a science educator, as well as what got me excited about science as a young person, and how that shaped my teaching in other subjects, including media arts. Through these reflections, I recognize that I’ve missed valuable learning experiences to not only create game based learning experiences for my students, but to get them designing the games.

The Predator-Prey Game – a game that taught me a lot both as a kid, and as a teacher when I developed this game for my students. In hindsight, getting my students doing the developing would have been an even richer learning experience. Image care of the Waterloo Nature Club.

The Twine below represents my reflections on Gaming Learning from the Perspective of a Science Educator.

You’ll need to give the Twine below a moment to load, in order for the black box to disappear.

I had another realization while reflecting and exploring project based learning and constructivism through the creation of this Twine, that perhaps this style of learning and education is what we need in order to allow diverse groups of students with different learning styles to succeed. Rather than prescribing how our students should learn and demonstrate their learning, constructivist project based learning allows student to find their own learning path in a way that works for them and allows them to shine. I always knew this is where I excelled as a student, and knew this is what built my confidence in my own academic abilities, and I have seen the same in the students I’ve taught, especially those who like me are considered to have ‘learning disabilities’. It hit me in these reflections that perhaps the reason for this is that when learning in this way, rather than telling others what they can and can’t do, and are and are not capable of, we are giving them the tools, platform, and freedom to create and discover for themselves, in a way that is meaningful for them – allowing them to approach learning and creating in a way that works for their individual needs. We need to make more such learning opportunities available to our young people, so that they too can shine and build their confidence.

Image courtesy of Gordon Johnson.

References

Kafai, Y. & Burke, Q. (2015). Constructionist Gaming: Understanding the Benefits of Making Games for Learning. Educational psychologist, 50, 4, 313-334.

Tran, K. M. (2016). “Her story was complex”: A Twine workshop for ten- to twelve-year-old girls. E-Learning and Digital Media, 13(5–6), 212–226. https://doi.org/10.1177/2042753016689635

Understanding Games and Play from the Mindset of a Tortie Terror (aka my cat)

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Back in my days as a young Biology undergraduate student, I am remember sitting in a behavioural science class and feeling thoroughly frustrated by the ego and rather omnipotent thinking of the professor, who was lecturing us on his believe that non-homo sapien animals don’t play. Rather everything they do was tied in someway to survival. You just have to have well-loved furry or feathery friend in your household to know that is not the case.

Linus nudging Ella into a game.

Going beyond our furry and feathered family members, in truly observing wild animals with an open mind you will see that not all they do is about survival. While not a play example, this was something I pondered one day, as I watched the heartbreaking scene of some ground squirrels who didn’t want to leave a fellow ground squirrel who had been hit by a car. Each time they returned to the dead ground squirrel’s body, they were putting their own lives at risk. This wasn’t about survival for these ground squirrels, quite the contrary, they were risking their lives in mourning the death of a member of their community.

It made me smile as I began to read Johan Huizinga’s exploration of play in his chapter on Nature and Significance of Play as a Cultural Phenomenon in The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology that he noted that play is older than culture. Non-homo sapien animals did not wait for humans to teach them to play. They were already playing. As I continued to read Huizinga’s chapter and that of Roger Caillois on The Definition of Play and the Classification of Games, I watched my young cat Ella (aka the Tortie Terror) who throws herself into play with such total abandon, and what I observed echoed so much of what had caused me to question and resist years ago in that behavioural science class. First though, let me introduce you to Ella.

To advance the pages in the story above, click the flashing arrows, and where you encounter an image with a glowing edge, click on those images.

Games and Play from the Mindset of a Cat

Play and the creation of games are paramount in Ella’s life. She plays the regular games of chasing feather wands, catch with toy mice, and fetch with toy springs, but for Ella, the best games are those that she’s invented and taught to me. These include Run, Jump & Startle, Lure & Surprise, and Hide & Go Seek Tag.

Run, Jump & Startle

Run, Jump & Startle is usually started by Ella rampaging past me in a crazy flurry with a little “roo roo” in passing me. This is my queue to more subtly creep in her direction or walk by her and pretend not to see her, and then jump in front of her with my arms out. She then similarly jumps in front of me with her arms out, and usually shows off by parkouring off a wall, at which point we both dash off to hide again and attempt to then non-chalantly creep up on the other to be the jumper.

Lure & Surprise

Lure & Surprise is a relatively new game of Ella’s that is usually played at night in the dark. It involves her finding a way to lure anyone in the house towards her, usually by yowling as though something is wrong. As that creature (this game is played with my Mom’s dog, as well as with me) goes to see what’s wrong, she launches herself at them, and then after startling them goes running off to hide somewhere else in the dark.

Hide & Go Seek Tag

Ella trying to entice her cousins into a game of Hide & Go Seek Tag.

Typically Lure & Surprise then evolves into Hide & Go Seek Tag, which is also played in the light. This is like the children’s game of a similar name, where one hides and the other seeks, but in this case everyone is hiding and seeking at the same time with the goal of being the first to sneak up on the other, making it a much faster paced game.

Characteristics of Play

These games that Ella has constructed follow the fundamental characteristics of play as listed by Roger Caillois and echoed by Johan Huizinga’s in his writing.

  • Free – Elle begins the games with freewill, under no obligation, as do her opponents. If anyone should decide they no longer wish to play, they simply stop or walk away.
  • Separate – These games exist in their own time and space, in which the real world is temporarily suspended.
  • Uncertain – There is never any certainty as to who will prevail as reigning champion. Usually each play results in wins on both sides.
  • Unproductive – Nothing is created over the course of play, rather it is simply a release of joyful energy.
  • Governed by Rules – While the rules are unwritten and created by a cat, all the games have clear and definite rules that have been taught to the other players through demonstration by the feline game creator, who is quite bossy about her expectations of the players.
  • Make Believe – It is clear that within the game each player is entering the realm of make believe, in which in my mind we enter a land of spies and ninjas. As for Ella’s mind, I dearly wish I could see inside her imagination to know, but I do know that within the game I have clearly been transformed into a character of her imagination based on the wild looks looks she gives me mid game.

Imagination Central to Play

A young Ella fancying herself a jungle beast and demolishing the grasses from the garden store.

It is this element of imagination that both Caillois and Huizinga speak of as being such an important component to play that I find most fascinating and amusing as I watch Ella play. She is by far the most active player of any furry family member that I’ve lived with, and that is clearly denoted by a cat with an enormous imagination. When left to her own play, it is not unusual to see her all of a sudden fluff up her fur and start jumping sideways. Is this because she is angry or scared? No, she is simply playing, and something in the imaginative world that she has concocted in her mind is causing this external reaction in her to the amusement of those of us that have been fortunate enough to witness these play acting moments in her life.

Fostering Wellbeing Through Play

Ella’s kitten game of Steal Mom’s Glasses, which she has yet to outgrow, but rather gotten much sneakier at. Always good for a chuckle between us.

For me, Elle has illustrated the importance that play can have on our wellbeing as creatures. She came into my world in a summer in which I was badly concussed after a car accident. It was her imaginative play on her own, and enticing me into the games that she concocted, that got me laughing and moving again, as well as scheming to beat her at the games she laid out before us. It is quite amazing how the simple act of playing can be so incredibly healing.

References

Caillois, R. The Definition of Play and the Classification of Games. In K. Salen and E. Zimmerman (Eds.) The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology (pp. 122-155). Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Huizinga, J. Nature and Significance of Play as a Cultural Phenomenon.In K. Salen and E. Zimmerman (Eds.) The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology (pp. 96-120). Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Learning Through Gaming

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Recently I was asked to engage with two “Big Picture” papers on games and learning, write a short, (6-sentence) summary of each, using the “3-2-1” method,  then write a 2-sentence “bridge” that identifies common ground or linkages, disagreements or differences, between these two sets of ideas. I found this exercise really interesting and a great way to dissect and digest an academic paper, as such, I will be writing a post on this exercise on my speaking site for those who are interested.

The two academic papers I was asked to reflect on were Serious Play by Suzanne De Castell and Jennifer Jenson in the Journal of Curriculum Studies and Video Game Literacy – A Literacy of Expertise by Kurt Squire. Below you can see my process as I dissected and digested these papers.

My 3-2-1 on Serious Play

Descriptive Sentences

  • The primary instrument of our time is digital code, yet schooling is alienating an entire generation from its own language.
  • Educators and educational administrators are predominantly looking at tech to control, surveil, and document, rather than transform curriculum.
  • Commercial game design demonstrates how immersion in play can promote serious learning.

Analytical Sentences

  • The idea of learning through play, while valuable, is not new – we can see many excellent examples of this in alternative schools, individual teachers, and extra curricular programs, as demonstrated in Joseph Cornell’s Sharing the Joy of Nature and Thom Henley’s Rediscovery.
  • What is new here is the form of play in the case of digital games, and the application of technology to learn through the freedom and creativity of play.

Burning Question

  • One sees change and a return to play in small scale examples at alternative schools, with individual teachers, and in extra curricular programs – this is not new – so how do we change this on a broader basis with a system that is designed based on working towards standardization and standardized testing?

My 3-2-1 on Video Game Literacy

Descriptive Sentences

  • Reading competency is at risk.
  • Games present a potential new way of teaching literacy, as they present students with the opportunity to learn, think, and act through game play in a simulated world.
  • Learning through gameplay presents a challenge, in that if this is how gaming generations are learning is their learning style at odds with traditional schooling that works on strict time schedules and with teachers telling students what to do and what they need to know?

Analytical Sentences

  • Curriculum is malleable and a creative instructor can work gaming / experiential media into cross-curricular learning, the battle is changing traditional systems within schools, such as strict schedules, separate subjects, and standardized testing.
  • Rather than pose digital games as quintessential and of greater importance to other forms of digital media or experiential learning, should we not be working together between the silos to change how we teach / learn – looking to examples from old school play / games, outdoor education, experiential media, and digital media (digital games and affinity spaces included).

Burning Question

  • If the education system ignores gaming due to fear, do we run a similar risk as using sex education to recommend abstinence, where by ignoring we do not equip young people with the tools to navigate the more mature elements to games and gaming?

Common Ground

As pointed out in both Serious Play and Video Game Literacy, rather than trivializing games or fearing them, perhaps it is time to both use games as learning tools and as models to study how gamers are learning, and how such principles can be used within our education system and in our classrooms. Such change in education is not easy on a broad scale and require open and creative thinking, as to fully embrace and implement what is ultimately experiential learning, we need to question our framework in traditional schooling of strict schedules, separate subject areas, task oriented teaching, standardization, and preparing students for the test.

I am going to leave the final words on all of this to a teacher that has already embraced game based learning in his classroom, John Spencer …

References

de Castell, S. & Jenson, J. (2003). Serious Play. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 35, 6, 649-666.

John Spencer. (2018, July 22). Seven Reasons to Pilot Game-Based Learning with Your Students [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPFJQqsATOk

Squire, K. (2008). Video-Game Literacy – A Literacy of Expertise. Academia. https://www.academia.edu/1317105/Video_Game_Literacy_A_Literacy_of_Expertise

80 Days, the Digital Game – a Case Study

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Recently as a part of my studies in Digital Games, Learning, and Pedagogy (ETEC 565S) for my Master of Educational Technology, I was tasked with analyzing a digital game of my choosing by creating a series of game logs reflecting on my experiences with the game. The game I chose to analyze and create a case study around was 80 Days.

You will find a link to each of the game logs I created in my analysis of this game below.

Game Logs from my Analysis of 80 Days

Game Log 1 : First Impressions Before Gameplay
Game Log 2 : First Playthrough
Game Log 3 : Watching Gameplay

80 Days, the Video Game

To briefly introduce 80 Days, it is a digital game released by Inkle and written by Meg Jayanth, based on the Jules Verne novel Around the World in 80 Days.

Image courtesy of Sailko.

First Impression and Trepidations with 80 Days

When I first picked 80 Days for my digital game analysis, I did so with the hope that it would be a little like Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, a favourite digital game from my youth. I wanted a game filled with adventure, mystery, and intrigue. Also, given the current pandemic, I’ve been missing travel, so my hope was that 80 Days would provide me with that and give me the opportunity to learn about the history and culture of different areas around the globe.

I had two trepidations in delving into this game.

  1. The Goal of Attempting to Get Around the World in 80 Days – as I am a slow traveller, who likes to take the time to explore the places I visit, that is what I thought I would wish to do in each city visited in the game. While some travellers are missing the transport of travel in the present pandemic, and modes of transit are certain to be an important aspect to 80 Days, as they were in Jules Verne’s novel, for me it is the place and people that I am missing.
  2. The Presentation / Perception of Women and Different Cultures Around the World – this game was after all based on Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in 80 Days, an adventure undertaken by two European men in 1872 at a time when the British Empire saw themselves as the white saviours and women were portrayed as the weaker gender, who were in need of men to look after them.

I discuss these trepidations in my initial game log and my glimmer of hope that possibly the female writer of the game, Meg Jayanth, who while British, was born in India, had found a way to craft a more worldly perspective on a story of two European gentlemen that was set in 1872, rather than disinterest or as Ian Bogart frames it in How to Do Things with Videogames, a disconnect between violence, sexism, racism, classism, and empathy. I just wasn’t quite sure how she was going to do that and maintain historical accuracy. These are all things I discuss in this video on my first impressions of the game.

First Playthrough of 80 Days

How wrong I was in my initial assumptions! While I did get a game filled with adventure, mystery, and intrigue with 80 Days, I got those things in a very different way from what I was expecting.

You see what 80 Days is an interaction fiction game, like a choose your adventure novel, only with multitudes more choices of directions to take in the game that lead to different plots and narratives. I have to admit that a few weeks ago, I did not understand how a choose your own adventure story could be a game. After playing 80 Days, my perspective on this has changed, as this is most certainly a game (and a story, at the same time). The choices you make at the markets on goods to purchase or sell, routes to take, conversations to have, responses to those conversations, all have an impact on the narrative, plots presented, and upon Fogg’s health within the game. There is strategy in the decisions made, and repercussions to the decisions chosen. And ultimately, the unpredictability of those repercussions and the surprising narratives that ensued are what kept me reading and playing.

In playing, my trepidations disappeared, I discovered I enjoyed the race and was not as prone to dilly dally as I thought I might be. I found that the anticipation of a journey, the sound of a steam whistle, and the chug of an engine all left me with a feeling of anticipation and of nostalgia. By blending the story of Around the World in 80 Days with a reimagined steampunk 1872, it gave writer Meg Jayanth the artistic license to craft a new storyworld with an imagined political climate, new characters, and different gender roles and jobs. While this meant that we interacted with many more women in 80 Days the digital game, then Phileas Fogg and Passepartout did in Jules Verne’s novel, this is not to say that the 80 Days video game avoided real issues around politics, sexism, racism, religious intolerance, classism … etc. Quite the opposite, 80 Days addressed these cleverly throughout the stories of the everyday interactions in travel. I know that I myself, playing the role of Passepartout, have already inadvertently made a woman feel unsafe, and learned that she has in some way been assaulted in the past; have helped a woman captain give birth to her new child, so as not to need to present herself to her crew in a vulnerable state; have been rendered unconscious by a nun, in an attempt to gain my aid in political plots at play; had a bomb explode in my soup, after taking a bit of culinary advice; and been pickpocketed by a little girl in a wheelchair that I thought I was enjoying an innocent exchange with. Needless to say, this is a whole new world from Around the World in 80 Days.

In the debate as Bogart puts it in How to Do Things with Videogames, is this a game or art? It is both a game and art, just as it is both a game and a story.

In discovering this, I decided to try my hand at creating my own playthrough broadcast, which is not as easy as it might seem, and involves both strategic decision making and storytelling. Gametubers is a niche that I have watched curiously for years, as a digital video creator and having been invited into a number of discord gamer communities, as a result of sharing my videos on Vidme. While I understood from conversations in the discords that there was the potential for generating revenue through gameplay videos, I did not find gameplay videos particularly engaging and had no idea the revenues could be as lucrative as T.L. Taylor cites in her book, Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming. This however seemed like a good opportunity to experiment in the niche of gameplay videos, so you can see my first take on such a video below:

Which leads me to …

Watching a bit of 80 Days Gameplay

While being somewhat skeptical of this form of entertainment previously, I have to say, 80 Days and Paragon Plays have converted me. In watching Paragon Plays’ Mutiny Aboard the Waterlily | 80 Days [Interactive Novel Gameplay], you will discover from the video below that I become somewhat of a Gameplay Video Convert. When done well, as is the case of Paragon Plays, this is an art form and a story genre, as pointed out by T.L. Taylor in Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming. Having said that – something that is also touched on in Watch Me Play, there is a lot more work that goes into being a financially successful gametuber / streamer than crafting entertaining videos. Gavin of Paragon Plays created wonderfully entertaining videos, yet he never really gained the audience needed to financially benefit from this story niche, which may be why his channel now lies dormant.

Aside from my admiration for Gavin from Paragon Plays’ narration, strategic storytelling in editing his video from both past gameplay and present additions that include backstory to the game, gameplay tips, and story insights from Jules Verne’s Around the Word in 80 Days, I learned a number of things from watching Gavin play that were not expressively told to me. From watching, I observed the benefit in gameplay and broadcast in making quick decisions, I realized that the gameplay and story snippets were richer with familiarity to Jules Verne’s novel, and I gathered that by making bolder choices, the story got that much richer and more suspenseful. In the words of Passepartout in Around the World in 80 Days …

Fortune favours the bold.

Passpartout

I now understand why people both make and watch gameplay videos – for the personalities and storytelling, as well as for tips in terms of gameplay. These observations have made me want to dabble more in the creation of gameplay videos myself. I think what I’d like to do in this bent is to create a serialized ‘bedtime story’ from chapters of a full game playthrough of 80 Days. Thinking this might be especially fun to do as a team project with my nieces and nephews. For the first game playthrough, I think I’d like to follow the route of travel from Around the World in 80 Days to see if I stumble upon any similar plot lines to that of the novel.

Exploring Societal Discomfort in 80 Days

One other thing that struck me in watching Gavin play and reflecting on my own gameplay, was that the player seemed to be rewarded with a favourable outcome when making decisions that respected female characters in the game and that respected different cultures and religions, although only after a number of ‘tests’ as to the player’s sincerity. Despite this being my observation, writer Meg Jayanth does discuss in a talk at the 2015 Game Developers Conference the importance to her that the storylines in 80 Days not lead to the notion of the ‘white saviour,’ like they might have with the story of Aouda, the widowed princess in Around the World in 80 Days, whom Fogg and Passepartout save from her husband, the Raja’s, funeral pyre. Meg speaks about this from 23:37 to 24:43 in the video below.

For me, the placing of the player into scenes of discomfort and moral dilemma is what not only makes 80 Days a nuanced piece of storytelling, but a provocative examination of society, our believes, and our actions and inactions within it, all whilst enjoying a bit of gameplay in an imagined world. This is where the learning happens within the gameplay for me, as in this way 80 Days evokes empathy in it’s players towards the ‘other’ in the game, much as Bogart reflects on in Chapter 2 of How to Do Things with Videogames. I’ll be curious to observe how these moments of discomfort and moral dilemmas impact my nieces and nephews as we play and read together, and the discussions that ensue as a result.

References

Bogost, I. (2011). How to Do Things with Videogames (1st ed.). University of Minnesota Press.

GDC. (2015, November 5). 80 Days & Unexpected Stories [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Apa7Klu8Trg

Jayanth, M. (2015). 80 Days [Interactive Game]. Inkle. https://www.inklestudios.com/80days/

Paragon Plays. (2016, May 23). Mutiny Aboard the Waterlily | 80 Days [Interactive Novel Gameplay] [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orOdVFMydjE

Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming

StoryToGo. (2020, August 12). First Impressions of 80 Days [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joSLFXnbkXI

StoryToGo. (2020b, August 21). First Playthrough of 80 Days [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw3WX7_3tV0

StoryToGo. (2020c, August 30). Embarking on 80 Days with Paragon Plays [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUBMl-yWKok

Taylor, T. L. (2018). Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming (Princeton Studies in Culture and Technology). Princeton University Press.

Verne, J. (1873). Around the World in 80 Days. Pierre-Jules Hetzel.

Game Log 3 : 80 Days – Watching Gameplay

by 3 Comments

Continuing with my field notes in analyzing the 80 Days video game, as a part of my studies in Digital Games, Learning, and Pedagogy (ETEC 565S), this game log reflects my observations watching another gamer on their playthrough of 80 Days.

Game Log 1 – First Impressions Before Play
Game Log 2 – First Playthrough

Name of Game: 80 Days

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Date Analyzed:

Friday August 28th, 2020

Session 3: Video Observations

Watch an online video of your game, either via live-streaming (Twitch.tv) or conventional video (YouTube). Get a sense of how an expert plays that game: see how they understand and react to the game and how that differs from YOUR playthrough; see what it is like to watch the game not just as a viewer, but as a mass media spectator. Again, organize your account into three kinds of notes.

The gameplay that I watched was Gavin of Paragon Plays‘ Mutiny Aboard the Waterlily | 80 Days [Interactive Novel Gameplay].

a) Descriptive Notes

Document what the player is doing, paying attention to, ignoring, prioritizing, but also what they are talking about (i.e. what they verbally frame as important during the playthrough). Make notes of what the player is paying attention to, prioritizing, and/or ignoring and if and how that is different from your play.

  • Gavin was well read on Jules Verne’s novel, Around the World in 80 Days, and as such had an idea in playing, the sort of character that Passepartout is, and what sort of daring decisions he might make in parts – taking risks. I have to say, this lead to some fun suspense in the gameplay. As Passepartout says as they approached Bombay in Around the World in 80 Days, “Fortune favours the bold.”
  • I also gained some insights into the character of Phileas Fogg and how he might react to Passepartout’s decisions (based on Jules Verne’s writing of his character) from kebzero‘s gameplay, Let’s Play 80 Days – Around the World We Go! – Episode 01. It is important in maintaining character health and good relations with Phileas Fogg to think what an English gentleman might decide in a public interaction.
  • Gavin pointed out the importance of having conversations with passengers and crew members during transport, in order to quickly find travel routes and save time in each location.
  • So as not to waste time and to keep to story flowing, Gavin makes decisions quickly – this is definitely an area that I need to take note and tighten up in my gameplay.
  • Definitely important to keep a deck of cards to play whist, as that’s Phileas Fogg’s game of choice.
  • Somethings are not as they seem, like the ship the Waterlily transforming into a submarine. These hidden details are only shared if you engage others in conversation, and ultimately are only revealed based on the decisions that you choose to make and how your character is perceived.
  • Many other players are terming 80 Days ‘fan fiction’ or ‘further fiction’, which has encouraged me to reread Jules Verne’s novel, Around the World in 80 Days, so that I might enjoy some of the easter eggs and insider jokes in the game to the original novel, like meeting characters from the novel and the jokes around crossing the International Date Line.
  • Apparently you can even travel to the North Pole and shave several days (even weeks) off your journey.
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  • Even if you don’t use certain routes or knowledge in one game, your character retains them for future games.

b) Affective Notes

What affective responses did you observe the streamer having while playing? What evidence did you have of their affective response/s? What did they choose to focus on? How were they different from responses and focus/foci you had? Pay specific attention to instances where you were surprised by something the video streamer said or did. And if possible, reflect on how affective responses impacted the ‘learning’ or ‘engagement’ you think can be recognized and documented from this observed play session.

  • Excitement – over the game, the adventure, and the invitation into a new world of stories started by Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days.
  • Accomplishment – over the route Gavin accomplished in making it around the world in 71 days, on his 3rd attempt at the game – after 2 previously failed attempts of play.
  • Anticipation – over visiting all the cities on the globe that Gavin has not visited yet, and the adventures that might unfold from there with encountering new characters and trade routes.
  • Relishing – in the fun story bites, and some of the choices Gavin made that garnered his character alliances.
  • A Note of Pride – at understanding the insider joke with regards to the dateline.
  • Frustration – at having to stop in Honolulu.
  • Disappointment – over first attempt of mutiny not working.
  • Hope – that there would be another opportunity for mutiny.
  • Amusement – at the graphics for the submarine and reading the voices of different characters.
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  • Pride – at speedy travel by the submarine.
  • Pleasure – at words of praise from Phileas Fogg.
  • Excitement – at the idea of following the route of the book.
Gavin’s Focus

Gavin chose to focus on one small story within his journey, that he enjoyed, to share his gameplay from. I thought this was smart, as it kept his audience’s attention and left us wanting more. This had not been his original goal, which had been to share a full game from start to finish, but was a smart choice of circumstance, when his recording cut off.

In terms of play and choices within the game, Gavin leaned towards risky choses, mixed with humour, and camaraderie. This definitely lead to excitement, and has encouraged me to be a little bolder on my next playthrough.

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I really loved Gavin’s narration and storytelling. This has inspired a desire in me to film routes of travel and city visits in the game in short chunks in sequence to act as a serialized / chaptered bedtime story that I could share chapter by chapter to our StoryToGo YouTube Channel.

c) Analytic Notes

Review your descriptive notes and consider the problems the player encountered and the strategies/solutions that they enacted. Furthermore, consider how the player navigated/commented on issues/structures of race, gender, class, and violence. What did you notice about the game when you watched, as opposed to when you played? Any quick connections to make here to either Bogost or Taylor? Hold off on making any big conclusions for now.

  • Many of Gavin’s choices in the game had him fraternizing with the crew of the ship he was sailing on, which lead to stories in the game about friction between religions, and allowed for Gavin to use those to instigate change within the game, accompanied by a certain amount of expected violence inherent in the ensuing mutiny.
  • As Gavin chose to treat the female characters in the game with respect and as equals, this won him alliances that ultimately helped him in his gameplay. I noticed the same thing in some of the choices I made. I suspect much of this comes from having a strong female writer on the game, and wonder if the female characters in the game would be different, weaker or not in roles of authority if a man had been the writer of the game? That said, in beginning to reread Jules Verne’s novel, he too treated the women they encountered with a great deal of respect. However, sticking with the time, there were not as many women in their travels or in as strong roles. I am also curious how the game plays out differently, if one were not to treat those female characters with respect?
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  • The main strategies I gleaned from Gavin are to be daring, make quick decisions, fraternize with the other characters within the game every chance you get, and familiarize yourself with the story of Around the World in 80 Days.
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  • I am also gathering that it behooves one to make decisions within the game that show respect for other religions and female characters, which I have to say makes me smile.

Fieldnote Summary Session 3

At the end of your fieldnotes for session three, craft one or two sentences (no more) that, for you, summarize your observations of a more skilled player playing this game. Include one image that supports your conclusions.

I had a lot of fun watching Gavin of Paragon Plays’ gameplay of 80 Days. He drew me into the story with his wonderful narration and infectious excitement and sense of anticipation, encouraging me to make some bolder choices when I next play, quickly, and with an eye out for gaining understanding of other characters within the game’s circumstance and if I am able to catalyze positive change in that circumstance, whilst approaching my own task at hand.

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