This was a the presentation for a guest lecture I gave to the DES 3141 class on the intersection of games, user experience design, and my personal experience in the game industry.
I touched briefly on broad definitions and principles of games and play, and used examples from Six Days in Fallujah to talk about designing non-linear and emergent experiences, common patterns and differences between normal UX design and games, and then discussed the unique property of agency and how it creates an important new role alongside other media for understanding and interrogating culture.
Ds 3141 experience design & social inquiry in games
1. Jonathan Lamb
April 21, 2014
DES 3141 Guest Lecture:
Experience Design &
Social Inquiry in Games
Perspectives on play, emergence, and the new role of games
from Six Days in Fallujah
2. Societal Roles of Games
Game & Play
Concepts
Play vs Game
The Magic Circle
Abstraction
Agency
Design
Considerations
Interactive Narrative
Emergence
Open vs Closed System
Wayfinding
Cultural & Ethical
Significance
Gift of Failure
Prototyping the World
Perspective & Empathy
4. Game Definition
“A game is a system in which players engage
in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that
results in a quantifiable outcome”
Rules of Play
Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman
5. Play vs Games
“Play is older than culture, for
culture... presupposes human
society, and animals have not
waited for men to teach them
their playing.”
Homo Ludens
Johan Huizinga
9. Hell House
Set Up: 3rd Platoon, Kilo is clearing a 6-block area west of the company’s firm base,
pushing east to west. 2nd platoon is standing by for backup. Fireteams are spread thin by
this point, clearing by fire with SAWs, Mark 19s, and hand grenades before entering any
structure.
Cpl. Ryan Weemer, Lcpl. Carlisle, and Lcpl. Prentice have difficulty opening one gate
on their lane. Weemer is leaving it for another squad to come by, but Sgt. Pruitt and Sgt.
Eldridge see the fireteam having difficulty and help them break through the gate. Across
the street, Cpl. Sanchez is finishing clearing a house with his fireteam (Lcpl Farmer and
Lpcl Severtsgard). SSgt. Chandler is watching over activity on the street.
Pruitt: “Hey, there’s a main gate to this one over here, let’s go!”
1. After breaking the gate open, the five Marines fan out into the courtyard. An outhouse
is immediately to the left, inside which they notice fresh feces (indicating the presence of
at least one insurgent). The rectangular house is a conventional configuration, five rooms
built around a common living room area, which is lined by a staircase to the roof.
Weemer is a CQB specialist so he leads the fireteam stack on the front door, drawing his
M9 service pistol.
Pruitt: “They’re inside man, they’re inside!”
2. Weemer enters and spots an unprepared insurgent sitting in the corner of the foyer.
He shuffles laterally, firing three rounds with his M9. Carlisle freezes in the doorway,
not expecting the insurgent to be so close. Pruitt yells “GO!” and shoves him inside. The
insurgent is probably already going down from Weemer, but a tightly-wound Carlisle
starts firing with his M16.
Weemer: “Stop! Stop shooting!.”
3. Pruitt and Sgt. Eldridge post as security on the front door. Weemer and Carlisle stack
to take down the next room (commons) while Prentice covers the doorway with his
SAW.
4. Weemer and Carlisle enter directly into the muzzle blast of an AK-47. Weemer
empties his pistol magazine into the shooter while shuffling right/south along the wall.
Carlisle fires at another insurgent in the room to his left (head) who seems to go down.
When Weemer’s pistol runs dry, he and Carlisle shuffle back to the foyer while his target
continues firing with the AK. He was hit several times but will not go down.
5. The insurgent’s rounds miss Weemer and Carlisle, but hit both Pruitt and Eldridge
through the doorway into the foyer. Eldridge is hit multiple times in his arm and
shoulder. Pruitt is hit in the leg and wrist. They both limp out of the house and outside the
Recreation vs Re-enactment
21. Prototyping the World
Strategic Foresight
Disaster & Conflict Scenarios
Epidemiology
Training & Performance Improvement
Urban Simulation
22. Interrogating Culture
Games can pose questions that intimately
explore perspectives, roles, and challenges
to create deeper empathy with each other, and
to build new understanding of the world and
our possible futures.