Theories Behind the Game

In a presentation he gave, well regarded thinker about serious games Rex Brynen listed “Brynen’s Three Objectives of Professional Gaming”:

Game Objectives and Context

  1. What is the OBJECTIVE of the game?
  2. WHO is playing it, WHY, and for HOW LONG?
  3. WHERE or HOW are you playing it?

My answers for WWE would be:

  1. To see if this format works, and to experiment with different ways of playing serious games beyond the methods I commonly hear about.
  2. For this version, at the moment I can only say that those are good questions that I intend to answer.
  3. Where and How will be in the Mechanics section, with some progress reports in the Log section.

To expand on that a little more:

  • To see how people react to the ideas.
  • Inspired by a discussion with Liz Cable, to use the concept of The Mantle of the Expert and assume that your players are, or can become, experts; treat them as such as see where the design goes.
  • Inspired by a separate discussion with Liz Cable, as well as hearing other teachers describe how active their lessons were, to see how this kind of game could fit into concepts around Action Research and “inquiry based learning”. To see what knowledge can be generated by group.
  • To experiment with the viability of using real locations for something serious, but also with a dose of fiction and invention attached. This means that a lot of the world building is done, which also constrains the design but will that make any learning points more applicable than if this was in a mostly invented science fiction environment.
  • The game begins in 2048, far enough away that leaps about world politics and technology can be made - often just to create a useful environment for the game to happen in. None of those decisions should be made advocating for a point of view, or making an absolute prediction about the future - can I or we do that, without players or observers inferring deeper decision making?

Asynchronous games

WWE1, Water Water Everywhere - Game 1 - is part of a cohort of “asynchronous games” I aim to make available this year. But also, I’m pretty sure that sentence is from the first version of this page, that I wrote, but didn’t publish, last year.

Asynchronous games have the following features:

  • Moves are resolved simultaneously
  • Playing, and “down time” is partly or wholly under the control of the players; so the game fits around your life rather than being another plate to spin
  • Being able to let ideas float up from your sub-conscious is key
  • This format allows those with sufficient time to turn this into a “research game”. By that term I mean a game that encourages you to research the area. Personally I find it easier and more interesting to learn about any subject if I have a reason - even something I’m interested in. Needing to look up weaknesses in drone technology because it’s something you ought to know is one thing… but I believe looking up those weaknesses because you’ve got orders to submit before the weekend is a great encouragement to doing the reading, and pulls the issues you cover into focus.

Also this format may support other options. Since hearing about it many years ago I’ve been intrigued by Downdes-Martin’s concept of swarm gaming, although that advocates for repeated play whereas - depending on the type of games and the interfaces available - I think it’s possible to engage with several games in the same scenario simultaneously, which allows you to explore that more effectively.

If “serious games” aka “business games” aka “wargames” aka “riskgames” are going to be a professionally useful tool, we need to break away from traditional playing methods based on recreational games, while also preserving as much engagement as we possibly can from those methods.

Another influence on my interest in this format is having played play-by-mail (PBM) games decades ago, mainly Sopwith and Diplomacy I think, although I’m sure there were others. Whereas PBM existing due to technical limitations, I think the format has modern benefits. We are entertained/assaulted by a wide variety of activities and notifications, and many of the people who would benefit from playing these kinds of games have many other things to do with their time. Asynchronous games enable them to interlace useful games with their other activities.

If “play by mail” doesn’t mean anything to you then this twenty minute video is a good introduction.