This presentation was delivered on October 20, 2022 at the Transformative Play Initiative Seminar 2022: Role-playing, Culture, and Heritage.
Description:
Many of us occupy multiple conflicting roles in society—both conforming to and challenging the social structures we inhabit. For example, educators challenge the idea of standardized testing while also preparing students for them (Ladson-Billings, 1995). Similarly, designers often aim to make more inclusive products while working within exclusive norms of their companies (Wong, 2021). Some of these efforts from the “belly of the beast” do succeed (Auyero, Hernandez, and Stitt, 2019), yet many also flounder. Role-playing games can help players explore such roles and how they co-evolve with the problem-situation. However, while there have been many analog and digital games where players learn to resolve conflicts between different people (Powers and Kirkpatrick, 2012), there are few where players simultaneously assume multiple conflicting roles themselves. Consequently, this paper asks: “”Can play/games enable us to explore multiple conflicting roles in support of social change? If so, how?” Drawing on Flanagans’ (2009) critical play and Haraway’s (2016) “”staying with the trouble””, this paper examines the above questions through the design of a digital single-player role-playing game about labor in the electronics industry. The game explores conflicting roles by placing players in the dual role of a manager of an electronics manufacturing company and a leading representative of a local labor movement. As a manager, the player must ensure the factory has a high turnover of phones to maximize profit. At the same time, as a representative of the labor movement, the player must simultaneously ensure that the workers are not exploited or oppressed. Through interactions with corporate officers, local workers, and families, the game invites players to explore the sociopolitical tensions that arise from inhabiting such conflicting roles while advocating for social change. In doing so, it aims to illustrate the promises and challenges of designing conflicting roles for play and games.
Bio:
Aditya Anupam is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech. He works on Ethics, Technology, and Education as part of the Design and Social Justice Studio led by Dr. Nassim Parvin. He received his Ph.D. in Digital Media in December 2021 from the same department. His research is situated at the confluence of science, media, and learning. Anchored in feminist, STS, and pragmatist scholarship, he explores digital media––particularly games, simulations, and interactive visualizations––as environments to foster the learning of science/engineering as a situated practice.
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This seminar is hosted by the Transformative Play Initiative in the Games & Society Lab at the Department of Game Design, Uppsala University Campus Gotland. This seminar is made possible by financial support from the Sustainable Heritage Research Forum (SuHRF). The Transformative Play Initiative explores the use of analog role-playing games as vehicles for lasting personal and social change.
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Graphic Design by Liliia Chorna. Music by Elias Faltin. Video edited by Rezmo (Mohammad Mohammad Rezaie).