last tuesday was a bit of a technical mess, with our projector dying for good. but, the twitterchat still persisted, and i think we had a great conversation about empathy games - particularly SPENT, Bad News, and Syrian Journey. Our group played SPENT, which I also encountered last year in Networked Narratives. I remember doing infinitely better than I did this time around - I ended up with $23 at the end of the month, no more plasma to donate, and rent was due.
SPENT really puts you in the shoes of someone else. i think we can all relate to financial struggles and tough choices, but the curves that SPENT throws at you are pretty hard and fast - but hey, sometimes that is someone's life. empathy games are wonderful means of teaching others, if they have the mindset of wanting to learn - especially when they have correct facts & stats to back up the realistic nature of the game. i mentioned that the ideal formula for an EG is when the game can create a perfect balance of emotional storytelling and objective facts - if the game is solely based on emotion, it might be impossible to suspend our disbelief and immerse ourselves in the story. or, if a game is purely facts and numbers, it can glaze right over people. having a character you can empathize with and go through their story together really drives home the point.
I agree with Stephanie here strongly - it's a wonderful point. A lot of what we consider games are ones that really "don't have a higher meaning" to them. Sure, games can be great because they have strategy, wonderful art, or moral lessons - but EG teach real global/nationa/societal issues, and is an outlet to have an experience you might never have in your own lifetime. introducing EG that are both enjoyable to play to the gamer with an emotional reward to children at young ages could do wonderful things for the personal growth of humanity.
speaking of more empathy games! i checked out Marwan and Hoda from Cairo's Survival Game, which focuses on the daily routine and gender expectations & stereotypes shoved onto Egyptian men and women. i thought they did a great job in telling the experience of gender inequality in both the routine for what is expected of men and of women. however, i felt like there was a lot of depth and storytelling for the woman's path - she felt like a fleshed out character that you could empathize with. for the man, while the stereotypes and inequality was technically there, it was not as masterfully woven into the storytelling like the woman. instead, his choices were abrupt, and consequently either got fired from his job or literally died for defying stereotypes. the woman, however, seemed more realistic - i suggested they try to create that same depth and chance for empathy for the man. then again, i have neither experience that they have, as I am a privileged white woman from America - i find it hard to offer more valid critique about any experience, because it is not mine to tell.
moving on! after our twitterchat, we moved on to a lesson in audacity, which i've worked with before. however, when i did do some audio editing a long time ago, i would use Sony Vegas - the same program I would also edit videos with. i thought this was going to be somewhat painless - i was wrong! it took me at least an hour to figure out why i couldn't move my darned audio bites over... even though the sound was paused/stopped, i had to make sure none of the buttons were clicked. i really couldn't believe it took me that long. oops.
but, i eventually got through it! i want to say that, yes, i might have been hungry when i was looking for inspiration. and no, i never did end up ordering pizza. a tragic day for everyone, if i'm being honest (someone create an empathy game out of that, why don't ya?)
warning: you may want to order food after listening to this. you have been warned.
it's the only story i know how to tell... audio credits!
lastly, as a parting gift, i want to share one of my finest photo manipulation achievements and a culminating statement about games to end the blog. that is all. and i am sorry.
Sometimes no matter what decision you make, even the "right" one, life can come out of nowhere & knock you down. #netnarr— hailey (@stryii) March 20, 2018
I think, like many working poor, one has to heartbreakingly change their definition of success. #netnarr— Katherine Marzinsky (@KMarzinsky) March 20, 2018
SPENT really puts you in the shoes of someone else. i think we can all relate to financial struggles and tough choices, but the curves that SPENT throws at you are pretty hard and fast - but hey, sometimes that is someone's life. empathy games are wonderful means of teaching others, if they have the mindset of wanting to learn - especially when they have correct facts & stats to back up the realistic nature of the game. i mentioned that the ideal formula for an EG is when the game can create a perfect balance of emotional storytelling and objective facts - if the game is solely based on emotion, it might be impossible to suspend our disbelief and immerse ourselves in the story. or, if a game is purely facts and numbers, it can glaze right over people. having a character you can empathize with and go through their story together really drives home the point.
A3:I think the biggest pitfall may be that it is not played. Playing them will force you to consider certain decisions you make as a human being. #netnarr— Steph Jones (@MrsJayJ) March 20, 2018
I agree with Stephanie here strongly - it's a wonderful point. A lot of what we consider games are ones that really "don't have a higher meaning" to them. Sure, games can be great because they have strategy, wonderful art, or moral lessons - but EG teach real global/nationa/societal issues, and is an outlet to have an experience you might never have in your own lifetime. introducing EG that are both enjoyable to play to the gamer with an emotional reward to children at young ages could do wonderful things for the personal growth of humanity.
speaking of more empathy games! i checked out Marwan and Hoda from Cairo's Survival Game, which focuses on the daily routine and gender expectations & stereotypes shoved onto Egyptian men and women. i thought they did a great job in telling the experience of gender inequality in both the routine for what is expected of men and of women. however, i felt like there was a lot of depth and storytelling for the woman's path - she felt like a fleshed out character that you could empathize with. for the man, while the stereotypes and inequality was technically there, it was not as masterfully woven into the storytelling like the woman. instead, his choices were abrupt, and consequently either got fired from his job or literally died for defying stereotypes. the woman, however, seemed more realistic - i suggested they try to create that same depth and chance for empathy for the man. then again, i have neither experience that they have, as I am a privileged white woman from America - i find it hard to offer more valid critique about any experience, because it is not mine to tell.
moving on! after our twitterchat, we moved on to a lesson in audacity, which i've worked with before. however, when i did do some audio editing a long time ago, i would use Sony Vegas - the same program I would also edit videos with. i thought this was going to be somewhat painless - i was wrong! it took me at least an hour to figure out why i couldn't move my darned audio bites over... even though the sound was paused/stopped, i had to make sure none of the buttons were clicked. i really couldn't believe it took me that long. oops.
but, i eventually got through it! i want to say that, yes, i might have been hungry when i was looking for inspiration. and no, i never did end up ordering pizza. a tragic day for everyone, if i'm being honest (someone create an empathy game out of that, why don't ya?)
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| if you couldn't tell, i was a little hungry when i was thinking of a concept... |
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| nothing feels better when your project is rendering! takes me back to my video editing days |
warning: you may want to order food after listening to this. you have been warned.
it's the only story i know how to tell... audio credits!
- https://freesound.org/people/Robotter112/sounds/418987/ soda
- https://freesound.org/people/benjaminharveydesign/sounds/315920/ dialing
- https://freesound.org/people/esperri/sounds/119133/ clinking
- https://freesound.org/people/Sirderf/sounds/332303/ cheering
- https://freesound.org/people/kwahmah_02/sounds/275072/ doorbell
- https://freesound.org/people/Spleencast/sounds/92901/ restaurant
- https://freesound.org/people/XxBirdoxX/sounds/52293/ stomach growl
- https://freesound.org/people/xtrgamr/sounds/259170/ laughing
- https://freesound.org/people/Kodack/sounds/256311/ munching
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxTdYkx2hQQ music
- https://freesound.org/people/djfroyd/sounds/263993/ ringing
lastly, as a parting gift, i want to share one of my finest photo manipulation achievements and a culminating statement about games to end the blog. that is all. and i am sorry.
— hailey (@stryii) March 27, 2018
Tony burped -- your pizza party sound story was so well executed (and documented), it's easy to see, er hear, your audio chops. Based loosely on a true story?
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your discussion of empathy games as a balance of emotional storytelling and facts/truth. One might say that for storytelling in general? To me the game experience gets you ideally more deeply into the character than typically we do when we consume a story by reading/viewing.
And you came out ahead in Spent? Damn, I really am bad at games. I always lose....
Great work this week Hailey, despite projector fail. That cant stop us