Reflections
- The chapter writes about the complications to trying to create empathy in games
- He discusses the idea of the vignette as a way to create a sense of empathy and how little vignettes are used in games
- He writes “one reason might be the relative scarcity of small-form representations of human or natural experiences in the medium” (pg. 22)
- He also writes that “critics might argue that frail situations are not fun” (pg. 23) and I wonder if this might be where my game might get stuck
- I need to think carefully about whether empathy generation is one of the aims of the game and if it is, then are there other strategies other than the vignette?
- If I see the game as an exercise in culture jamming (learning log entry) then I might have more strategies to employ, including humour. This might be avoiding the subject and I might have to test out both options once I start designing the game.
Reference
Bogost, I. (2011) ‘Art’, in How to Do Things with Videogames . Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, pp. 9–17.
