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April ‘09 Round Table – UPDATED 04-30
By Corvus | April 30, 2009
March brought our literary series to a close and I’d like to take a moment to thank everyone who made the first three topics of 2009 such a success. I have another three month topic planned, but when I suggested it to the BoRT Council, they requested we take a one-month break to focus on something a bit more topical. So without further ado, I present to you a real design challenge for the month of April:
April ‘09
Taking Games Seriously, Making Game Seriously: This month’s Round Table challenges you to design a game that deals with a social issue that personally troubles you. The recent months have seen controversy sweep through the video game industry. Whether people are objecting to the use of imagery widely considered to evoke racial stereotypes, or to the gameplay based on violent sexual crimes, or to the fact that anyone would complain about either topic–the discussion has been fierce. This month, contributors to the Round Table are invited to design a game that focuses on racism, rape, domestic violence, cruelty to animals, genocide, or any other serious, and potentially hot-button, topic.IMPORTANT: Because I expect many of these posts will be difficult and/or disturbing for portions of the audience to read, I ask that you consider using a high level of language to describe the contents of your design. I also ask that you both rate your posts and include rating descriptors as laid out by the ESRB (http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp).
If you would like to link to this month’s Round Table, please do not link to this post! Instead, please link to this month’s entry on the Round Table page at: http://corvus.zakelro.com/round-table/#0409.
As always, check out the FAQ to find out how to submit your post to the Round Table and if you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact me. Please don’t submit your posts in the comments, but email links to me (if you already have my address) or use the contact form linked above.
If you would like to be alerted to new Round Table entries without revisiting the site, feel free to follow me on Twitter, my shared feeds on Google Reader, or the Delicious Round Table tag. If you’re a Round Table contributor and Facebook user, I encourage you to add your blog to the NetworkedBlogs application. While you’re there, be sure to become a fan of Man Bytes Blog, friend me, and invite me to become a fan of your blog too.
- Apr. 04 – Mind’s Eye: A love letter to Jack Thompson. Josh goes meta and introduces a game meant to address the question whether video games can train us to kill.
- Apr. 06 – Man Bytes Blog: Cycle of Abuse. Corvus draws upon his own experiences with child abuse in this abstract game where the rules that aren’t clearly explained to the player.
- Apr. 06 – Deirdra Kiai Productions: Privilege, Racism, and One Person’s Story. Deirdra grapples with privilege and explores how the games she’s already designed deal with her own experiences with racism.
- Apr. 09 – Anyway Games: Faces. Aaron provides us with a simple game mechanic with no further explanation. See what you make of it.
- Apr. 11 – The Autumnal City: The Guitar in the CornerTravis explores schizoprenia through a game designed to evoke a deep emotional response.
- Apr. 12 – And thus Spoke Pi: I gotta game for you… Adam explores politics and betrayal in his usual inflammatory style.
- Apr. 20 – Graduate School Gamer: The Wire. Murry takes on the war on drugs.
- Apr. 20 – While !Finished: Brokering Peace with the Fear. Alex addresses rape culture.
- Apr. 21 – Juxtapixel: Reverse Psychology. Diogo examines rape from a difference perspective.
- Apr. 21 – Teknoarcanist: Torture. Brandon describes a game inspired by the recently released CIA memos.
- Apr. 21 – Writing the Game: Taking Games Seriously, Making Games Seriously. Keira takes a look at class privilege with a RPG.
- Apr. 20 – Discount Thoughts: Garden of Eden. Michael takes on ecological sustainability.
- Apr. 20 – TTNN: Autism Simulator. As the title suggests, David puts us in the role of a person suffering from autism.
- Apr. 22 – Groping the Elephant: No Way Out. Justin takes a look at domestic abuse.
- Apr. 30 – Experience Points: Characters With History. Scott explores the interminable characters that inhabit our game spaces and wonders what that say about us as gamers.
- Apr. 30 – Deirdra Kiai Productions: Hasty Genderalisations and Pet Dogmas. Deirdra rejoins us for some thoughts on why she has reservations about designing hot-button issues games.
- Apr. 30 – Vorpal Bunny Ranch: Raining Justice. Denis describes a trial game focused on victims of sexual abuse.
- Apr. 30 – Peanut Butter and Bacon: Civilians in War Zones. Jonathan puts us in the shoes of a non-combatant caught up in a war.
- Apr. 30 – The Game Critique: Torture. Eric adds another perspective on torture.
Tagged:Blogs of the Round Table. | 13 Comments »
April 2nd, 2009 at 3:27 pm
I’m having a somewhat hard time coming up with a topic that I particularly want to write about. I’m almost thinking that I need some sort of collaboration partner for this month’s round table…
April 2nd, 2009 at 10:40 pm
You are totally mean, Corvus! Your sharing of the “Bone White, Blood Red is dead” post exactly hits upon my fears, mentioned above, for touching upon any of the topics I can think of to write upon: what I do know about the topic? What can I contribute and not seem “not sensitive enough” or, worse, “falsely or insincerely sensitive”?
I’m just a young, middle-class, straight white male. My biggest personal hot button issue that I have social issues with is that I’m an atheist, and on the scale of things listed in your prompt above its much more lukewarm than hot. (Also it’s something that I’ve touched upon in February’s round table post and I’m not keen to repeat myself.)
I could take something not all that controversial like “environmentalism”, but I’m worried about selecting a topic not to avoid controversy/debate (I not-so-secretly relish controversy/debate), but to avoid (perceived) insult or injury (blame my liberal upbringing of “political correctness”). I guess I could try for a design extremely abstract and see if anyone can figure it out, or at least come up with their own interpretation of it, but that’s hard and I don’t have any ideas yet.
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:39 am
Max is referring to the following post that Darius shared with us on IRC: Bone White, Blood Red is Dead.
I encourage you to read that post and think about how you could approach similar topics in a meaningful way, without appropriating the experiences of other cultures.
April 3rd, 2009 at 10:56 am
And by the way, I think environmentalism can be plenty controversial and very much a hot button topic. Particularly regarding issues that relate to environmentalism and industry.
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Another interesting post to read is I Didn’t Dream of Dragons, along with the accompanying White people, its not all about you, but for this post it is.
FWIW, I’m brown and I’m female, but that doesn’t mean I’m not pretty damn privileged myself. I’ve experienced racism and sexism to somewhat minor degrees, but I’ve never been raped (though admittedly, being raped is a very realistic fear of mine), nor have I been systematically prevented from having the kind of life and career I strive for (though this could very well change as I get older and more experienced at what I do). I also come from a family that’s very well off financially, despite being immigrants. So basically, what I’m saying is that I’m still learning, and I don’t always get things right, and I worry about not being able to do certain topics justice myself.
April 4th, 2009 at 11:17 am
Isn’t part of the problem with issues around racism that we tend to use high-level language and social gamesmanship to obscure the core of the issue? I’d prefer to write a game design that takes it to the heart of what we’re talking about rather than dancing around it politely.
Just my $0.02. But yeah – count me in for this month’s BoRT!
April 4th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
That’s an interesting point, Chris. I’m not sure I fully agree, but I also trust your instincts as they apply to your own input.
I am, however, mostly concerned with the language surrounding the topics of abuse, whether sexual or violent.
April 15th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Good sir! I take umbrage, umbrage I say, at your insinuation that I am in any way, shape or form inflammatory! My monocle has broken at the mere suggestion!
I feel that racism, at least the ‘institutionalized’ form that is so prevalent in our day, is an issue all but perfect for our medium. Institutional racism can’t be fought or described well by a narrative. The best way to introduce someone to this concept is through a systematic approach, whereby one lays out the workings of the system in question. Since an incredibly useful way of thinking about video games is as systems in which an agent(s) has a goal, this seems uniquely suited to at the very least, illustrating institutional racism.
Prescribing a fix however, seems to be a mite bit harder.
April 15th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Indeed. In fact, my March BoRT entry dealt with slavery in much the same way.
And as far as inflammatory goes… well, you did mention fire. (-.0)
April 16th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Ooooooooooooohh. ._.;
I c wat u did thar. Well played Corvus. Well played.
April 21st, 2009 at 7:45 am
Just dropping a line to thank you for your patronage, Corvus. It’s an honor to be featured on the list again
April 21st, 2009 at 8:55 am
Thanks for the feature
I’d be interested to hear what everyone thinks.
April 22nd, 2009 at 2:01 am
I think I have to give up on contributing to this one… I really thought I would have time, but I’ve only managed one game post recently and it’s going to have to be split into two parts which means I’ll miss the deadline for April.
It’s a shame, but needs must…
Hope all is well!