My keynote at the Games: Design & Research conference at Volda, Norway, June 3rd, 2010, discussing the challenges of building bridges between academic game research and game design & development.

1. Ac#onable
vs.
Emancipatory
Game
(Design)
Research
Capturing
Game
Design:
Who
Should
Care?
Aki
Järvinen
Lead
Social
Designer,
Ph.D.
May
31,
2010

2. Aki
Järvinen,
Social
Game
Developer,
Ph.D
Aki Järvinen has a unique mix of experience from:
Mobile game design
Online & Social game design
Online gambling design
Board game design
User experience design
Business development
Academic research & development
Since 2009, focusing on Social Games:
• first doing contract work for startups both in
the US & Scandinavia
• from January 2010, as the Lead Social
Designer at Digital Chocolate Helsinki Studio

3. DChoc:
From
Mobile
to
Social
Games

5. The
Problem
and
puPng
it
into
context

6. Goals
of
the
talk
• The
talk
discusses
the
different
interests
for
knowledge
between
those
researching
game
design,
those
prac#cing
it,
and
those
doing
both.
• What
are
the
key
pragma#c
aspects
of
game
design
in
a
commercial
context
that
o/en
make
it
theory-­‐aversive?
• Can
game
design
ac#vity
be
captured
for
research
purposes,
and
more
importantly
what
domains
of
knowledge
would
that
serve?
• What
is
the
role
of
design
management
in
this?
• The
talks
aims
at
giving
researchers
sensi#vity
towards
the
challenges
game
designers
face
daily,
and
places
game
design
prac#ces
into
the
contexts
of
design
management.

7. Problem
formula#on
• How
can
game
studies/research
produce
results
that
are
ac9onable
for
game
design,
and
who
are
the
stakeholders
in
this?
• Caveat:
Not
all
game-­‐related
research
needs
to
contribute
to
prac#cal
game
design
–
but
be
honest
about
it!
• Yet:
Ac#onable
results
best
emerge
from
the
prac#cal
experience
of
design
within
marketplace
and
management
constraints;
when
academic
problem
formula#on
combines
with
the
tacit
knowledge
of
game
design
prac#ces

8. Contextualiza#on
of
the
problem
• Jürgen
Habermas:
Knowledge
Cons#tu#ve
Interests
• ’Habermas'
basic
claim
is
that
different
forms
of
knowledge
with
different
object
domains
and
standards
of
validity
are
cons#tuted
by
different
interests
that
are
founded
in
dis#nct
forms
of
human
ac9vity.’

9. Design
&
Research
Clarifica#on:
I
do
not
believe
that
only
u#litarian
research
is
useful;
I
do
believe
in
the
tradi#onal
role
of
academia

10. Design
• ‘Every
problem
posed
to
a
designer
demands
that
the
constraints
of
technology,
ergonomics,
produc#on,
and
the
marketplace
be
factored
in
and
a
balance
be
achieved.’
• ‘Design
[...]
is
a
process
of
crea#on
and
decision
making.’
• Design
and
corporate
strategy:
Design
is
a
tool
for
making
strategy
visible
(Borja
de
Mozota:
Design
Management,
2004)

11. Design
management
• ‘Design
management
is
the
planned
implementa#on
of
design
in
a
company
to
help
the
company
achieve
its
objec#ves.’
(ibid.)
• Academically
studied
by,
e.g.,
Brigije
Borja
de
Mozota
in
Paris
• Why
is
this
important?
– because
the
game
designer
reports
to
whomever
is
responsible
for
design/studio
management
– thus
the
knowledge
gained
from,
e.g.
research,
is
subject
to
evalua#on
in
an
organiza#onal
structure

12. Design
as
Process:
The
4
Cs
• Crea.vity
• Complexity
• Compromise
• Choice
• =
Design
is
both
a
crea#ve
and
a
management
process
• Which
of
these
does
your
research
address?

13. Design
Research
• Three
possible
dimensions:
– Research
for
design
– Research
into
design
– Research
as
design
(Lunenfeld
in
Laurel
[ed.]
Design
Research,
2004)
• Q:
In
your
work,
do
you
explicitly
iden#fy
your
work
belonging
into
one
or
more
of
these
dimensions?

14. Who
are
the
actors
in
GDR?
• ‘designer
is
an
entrepreneur,
an
authority
in
aesthe#cs,
and
an
ini#ator
of
change
in
the
society’
• players
–
the
ones
who
want
to
have
fun
• researchers
–
those
who
try
to
observe
and
understand,
from
various
perspec#ves?

15. Game
Design
Researcher’s
posi#on?

16. How
to
be
cuPng
edge?
• E.g.
with
the
metrics-­‐driven
development
in
the
social
games
industry,
it
is
very
difficult
to
do
academic
research
(outside
technology)
that
is
cuPng
edge
• -­‐
from
afar!
• Poten#al
of
methods
such
as
Ac#on
research
and
Ethnography

17. Gallup
part
1
• Q:
How
many
of
you
do
research
with
the
inten#on/belief
that
it
can
contribute
to/
inform
game
design
in
prac#ce?

18. Gallup
part
2
• Q:
How
many
of
you
do
research
with
the
inten#on/belief
that
it
can
contribute
to/
inform
commercial
game
design
in
prac#ce?

19. Ac#onable
or
Emancipatory?
Ask
this
of
your
research;
which
kind
of
knowledge
is
it
targe#ng?

20. The
Ques#on
of
Ac#onable
• How
to
surpass
the
insufficient
‘theory
vs.
prac#ce’
dis#nc#on?
• How
about:
research
that
either
creates
ac#onable
vs.
‘non-­‐ac#onable’
results?
– Ac#onable
implies
immediacy,
applica#on
– Non-­‐ac#onable
implies
reflec#on,
emancipa#on
• Yet
‘non’
is
a
nega#on
with
connota#ons
• Therefore
let’s
call
it
Emancipatory:
– Emancipa.on:
‘set
free,
esp.
from
legal,
social,
or
poli.cal
restric.ons’

21. Habermas’
categories
[reference
(.doc)]
Academic
Game
Research
Commercial
Game
Design

22. Emancipatory
research
results
tend
to
be:
• Descrip9ve
–
rather
than
prescrip#ve
–
in
tone
• ‘Packaged’
into
academic
discourse
• Non-­‐specific
in
terms
of
demographics
• Or,
too
specific
to
the
point
of
being
marginal
• At
best
inspira9onal
for
ac#onable
purposes,
yet
may
demand
an
extra
layer
of
interpreta9on
(i.e.
a
specific
skillset)
in
order
to
be
ac#onable
• Example:
‘Game
layers
of
DJ
Hero‘
-­‐
Games
as
Services
project,
University
of
Tampere,
Finland
hjp://futureplayproject.wordpress.com/resources/

23. Ac#onable
results
tend
to
be:
• such
that
relate
explicitly
to
a
specific
design
domain
&
problem
–
note
the
parallel
to
crea9vity
oren
being
domain-­‐
specific
• prescrip9ve
• tangible
–
repackaged
for
the
design
stakeholders
• such
that
discuss
consequences
for
exis#ng
business/
educa#on/development
models
or
methods
• pragma9c:
Something
you
can
sell
to
your
boss
in
commercial
contexts
• Example:
Gamespace
project
-­‐
hjp://gamelab.uta.fi/gamespacetool/

24. Conclusions
• Claim:
Any
research
that
does
not
aim
at
ac#onable
results
cannot
call
itself
‘design
research’
or
anything
‘design’
for
that
majer
–
even
‘design
theory’
implies
prac#ce!
• If
your
goal
is
to
produce
emancipatory
knowledge,
just
call
your
work
game
studies
or
game
research!
• Whichever
road
you
choose,
in
the
process
you
will
come
to
define
your
primary
audience
• ...and
it
is
them
who
should
care.

25. Thank
you.
http://www.facebook.com/socialgamesbook
Emancipatory
contact:
Ac#onable
contact:
aki@gameswithoutron#ers.net
ajarvinen@digitalchocolate.com