Ethan Wilde: Greetings everybody, welcome to our fourth in an ongoing series of presentations on games brought to you by the SRJC game development program i'm the program coordinator.
Ethan Wilde: Ethan Wilde and I am pleased to welcome folks here tonight, whether you're here live or watching in our recorded form later on, welcome to tonight's presentation! I'm very pleased to have the opportunity, great better, in fact, to introduce.
Ethan Wilde: My colleague at the Center of the junior college Dr Lex Pulos, who is a full time faculty Member in our communication studies department.
Ethan Wilde: lex has taught classes on board game design games in everyday life games and culture and critical play and he's worked through those courses to help students publish games about.
Ethan Wilde: As he says exploding goblins the Multi verses of pop culture and Angelica gem collectors very excited to have lex with us tonight and i'm going to go ahead and stop my.
Ethan Wilde: screen sharing and turn things over to Dr poulos for the duration if anybody has any questions that you want to direct to Dr poulos is a way in the last half hour between seven and 730 we'll have a Q amp a period, please feel free to share any questions during.
Ethan Wilde: The text chat with me i'll do my best to compile those and present them to Dr poulos when our Q amp a time opens up so again welcome everybody and.
Ethan Wilde: it's all yours, Dr Pulos!
Lex Pulos: cool well thanks for having me i'm glad to be here tonight for this.
Ethan Wilde: muted still.
Lex Pulos: Though I am still all right.
Ethan Wilde: No, I do see you there.
Lex Pulos: Okay, with me a thumbs up you hear me, are you got me.
Ethan Wilde: go right ahead.
Lex Pulos: Alright, fair enough cool i'll jump over here for you then.
Lex Pulos: yeah so thanks i'm excited to be here.
Lex Pulos: As even said i'm like school so i'm teaching media sites apartments and pumps to talk to you a little bit about some of my approach to making games.
Lex Pulos: High worked some students in the past to make their own games so 20 a little bit of an orientation towards.
Lex Pulos: How I got into making games at a previous university and some of the projects, I took two students for some of the conventions in Ohio law is there.
Lex Pulos: Talk to you a little bit about this idea of critical gameplay in part, why I frame assignments, or at least four of the assignments i've had students do through this lens of critical play.
Lex Pulos: illustrate some of the games that I created and then talk to you about some of the student outcomes that I had the thing general overview for what I would have talked to you about.
Lex Pulos: And i'll just keep moving through so I previously with a school in Kentucky I never thought I would go to the Midwest, let alone be in Kentucky but I ended up there, and I was in a pretty fun.
Lex Pulos: departments, where I was able to do some media studies work and they started trying to make a game design Program.
Lex Pulos: They didn't have a whole lot going on at the time they wanted to try to generate interest from students and see all kinds of games they wanted to create, and so they did have some modeling and some rigging programs they had a 3D design Program.
Lex Pulos: But they didn't really have any way or transfer that into game mechanics, and so I showed up at a perfect time for this and start talking to them about maybe designing.
Lex Pulos: Early entrance into the game design process which I pitched as this idea of analog game design, which really was board game design time with the rationale.
Lex Pulos: That I would have that as a precursor or a preliminary element in terms of digital game design.
Lex Pulos: So my argument, then was that if you learn how to make games with pen and paper and really for most of the game designers that i've talked to in the game profession, like.
Lex Pulos: programs I have attended, you have to start somewhere and it's just a lot easier to start off with pen and paper and even some dice.
Lex Pulos: it's a simple mechanics to get going with an idea to elaborate and flesh it out and to start to translate that into something else you storyboard a little bit you get it going.
Lex Pulos: You just need something to work with again if you're changing things to editing things in the program give a little daunting, but if you haven't good idea to begin with, that bass can help provide you.
Lex Pulos: With a more engaging game, hopefully, that generates more fun, for your players, so that was my That was my pitch, at the same time just being a nerd been.
Lex Pulos: watching a lot of a tabletop on YouTube there's also a decent amount of game labs that we're developing around the country so there's a couple of.
Lex Pulos: Others want to MIT and Harvard and Yale and usc handsome there was also just in general, like online or game design courses or game design labs are popping up.
Lex Pulos: So I was watching a lot of and talking to and researching a lot of game general design processes trying to get myself acquainted to that, and when I first started.
Lex Pulos: teaching the class.
Lex Pulos: I had a lot of students who were very enthusiastic about making games and they would come in and they'd have really grand big ideas students who wanted to make.
Lex Pulos: Long adventure and D amp D style games tons of mechanics tons of background characters lots of information that they had played a lot of games before which was super an.
Lex Pulos: enthusiastic super encouraging fun to see students creativity kind of go wild but the same time, those projects were.
Lex Pulos: unwieldy, they were all over the place, hard, the main tain any set of coherence, he in terms of the game, making process.
Lex Pulos: And the opposite end of the spectrum had students who were anxious about making games are taking the class for fun to see what it was like.
Lex Pulos: and ended up making a lot of just roll and move so chutes and ladders games and those looked a lot different than these unwieldy games, I really had two spectrums of students that were trying to make games.
Lex Pulos: And neither of them ended up compelling many students in terms of a mid term project so at the same time I started going to some conventions in Ohio.
Lex Pulos: and origins, was one of them and then gen con So these are two of the largest conventions in the United States and even internationally these generate a lot of interest by my game designers game producers, the industry is there and so origins, is a smaller game Convention.
Lex Pulos: And they often have more gameplay tables, you have opportunities to bring games that you've designed and work with some publishers it's a little bit more Community driven.
Lex Pulos: A little bit smaller gen con, on the other hand, is much more of them mass manufactured frameworks, we have a lot of people attending.
Lex Pulos: giant audiences, which is super fun, but it's just not a lot of connection there in terms of trying to like see how games are designed, did you have a much like.
Lex Pulos: San Diego comic con has they do have this internal.
Lex Pulos: organization that helps promote academic research that helps promote young designers and so they have classes, that you can take while you're at the Convention both these conventions have them just kind of cool.
Lex Pulos: But some of the glasses, are going to be like character design like narrative design game mechanics adaptations, so they had some relatable material.
Lex Pulos: Material there, they also had which I was compelled by these game challenges.
Lex Pulos: So what they would do is they would set up for one to two days you'd sign up for this game challenge group.
Lex Pulos: And they would give you a one day, they would give you like a 15 minute challenge, so you had two to three resources, you had to use a couple mechanics and you had to make it just a quick card game.
Lex Pulos: And then they would test that and play test it, and then they would put that up for challenge most everybody else was there.
Lex Pulos: And then we'll give you a prize a reward for like the best game, then the next day, they would give you a larger challenge.
Lex Pulos: And you had the whole day to work on it and complete it, and then the following day, you can play test it with you other people, and they would actually bring in some designers or some.
Lex Pulos: Like publishers from other companies that are at the Convention to test your game, and so, while I was there actually had a couple of students.
Lex Pulos: Who were doing this or taking my design class and ended up taking like third place in that competition, which was really exciting it's pretty cool.
Lex Pulos: And also gave me a great way to understand and think about how I might provide this idea of challenges to students.
Lex Pulos: I might use that as a way to like incorporate that as an assignment, so I had this framework in my head of how do I get students to.
Lex Pulos: move beyond Roland rights make their large exciting ideas that maybe are a little unwieldy, how do I hunt them down in some pragmatic way, so this idea of challenges, was really exciting to me, but then I also came across this game called freedom, the underground railroad.
Lex Pulos: I don't know if anybody here is played this game, or even heard of this game.
Lex Pulos: But it's a game that addresses.
Lex Pulos: Slavery it's a game that addresses the underground railroad and the ways in which the underground railroad developed over time, in particular, you are playing as abolitionists and you were trying to move.
Lex Pulos: slaves from the south and into the North end to free them.
Lex Pulos: And so here's a blow up this image, a little bit here for you.
Lex Pulos: So the game as pretty straightforward you're just moving these blocks around you are three different areas and that you're moving through it's all historically accurate, so you played different character roles trying to generate money.
Lex Pulos: And at first, I was kind of shocked, because I was a little surprised that there'd be a game that was dealing with such a dense content.
Lex Pulos: And the designer of it was actually there and just talking to him a little bit about.
Lex Pulos: Why this was the game, he decided to make or what was the rationale for the design process and ends up he was a teacher and he is a librarian.
Lex Pulos: And just saw kids continually struggling with really grasping the complexity, the depth of the issue, the struggles that were going on with the abolitionist movement, and so we wanted to make a game that represented that's.
Lex Pulos: So cool I got got the game to go home with some friends, and it was at first, a pretty straightforward moving these blocks up and down moving things around, there are some those colored.
Lex Pulos: people's that you see those red and blue purple and orange one those are slave catchers and they move around.
Lex Pulos: And what the game evoked out of the out of gameplay was not that it's difficult to get individuals from the South to the north, but at some point you're going to have to let people get caught and at some point you're gonna have to let people are these.
Lex Pulos: cubes.
Lex Pulos: pass away to go to a section of the board, where they represent those that we have lost.
Lex Pulos: During this process, and it was a really like compelling it was emotion compelling was very empathetic experience.
Lex Pulos: to at least try to rationalize or understand what was going on at the time period and so that had a very meaningful impact upon me, so I came away from this conventions with these ideas of how do I get students to engage in multiple ways and how media can I use this like empathy.
Lex Pulos: or this connection in terms of like this critical engagement with a very serious issue.
Lex Pulos: So do a little research have you done sways much critical play has been used previously and so there's all kinds of interesting critical play there was this group of artists.
Lex Pulos: That were in the 60s and 70s and they were they were fluxus there was some abstract artists and they were making games that attended to disrupt society that had no roles they maybe didn't have an outcome.
Lex Pulos: Not quite sure if they were gains in any formal way that you might think about games, but that they were making these installation pieces and trying to use the play.
Lex Pulos: As a way to disrupt what was going on in society to disrupt social relations and to think about history in the historical production of games new ways, so I was compelled by that and I found this game.
Lex Pulos: Was women Brenda Romero turn the volume down it's off anyway, for you all to play here, a little bit.
Lex Pulos: And Brenda Romero was making critical games and she still is making critical gains her daughter came home from school one day and was.
Lex Pulos: Talking about World War Two and didn't quite understand what was going on what was going on with concentration camps and how it worked and wonder her mom to explain it.
Lex Pulos: And so, Dr Romero designed the game she called the train game to represent that.
Lex Pulos: I think was a little more simplistic than this at the time, but she turned it into this installation piece for game players and so.
Lex Pulos: You can see people move in rolling dice seems pretty simple the rules are explained that you're just trying to get as many people.
Lex Pulos: On a train and get them from point A to Point B, you can player who does, that is the winner and there are certain rules that are expressed as the game evolves or as players continue on.
Lex Pulos: So what happens, the end of the game is that towards the very end, one of the last cards you reveal that changes the mechanics are real that players realize what's going on.
Lex Pulos: Is that the players are SS agents and they are moving Jews into concentration camps and it's not revealed until the end because you're trying to win the game.
Lex Pulos: And the idea that that active winning is then suddenly undermined by the reality of the trauma that happened was shocking unsettling very disruptive for some of the players.
Lex Pulos: So I found that installation piece, much like the underground railroad game like compelling it was interesting are taking serious issues and we're transforming them and using them in different ways.
Lex Pulos: So I started trying to think about how can I get maybe students to engage with games at a different level rather than coming in, or rather than trying to make these games with a specific, I want to make a game for fun.
Lex Pulos: How can we change the framework to get us to think about the mechanics, what are we doing with gameplay, what are we doing with interactions, how do we evoke emotions out of players to make a compelling game.
Lex Pulos: which I think translates very well into how we see compelling video games manifest themselves.
Lex Pulos: But I wanted us to think about that compelling elements of play first So these are my challenges that I saw myself facing as I was trying to get students to end myself to engage with a more critical form of play.
Lex Pulos: First games is culture, I think, when I have talked to people about games when I talk to students even about games, at times, the idea that games are fun seems to be the foremost concern and foremost idea.
Lex Pulos: or enjoyment that entertainment I have fun with them certainly weren't aware that it's a profession and there's a lot of money main behind them, but the.
Lex Pulos: idea that they're critical or serious is often dismissed because the assumption is that play as a more frivolous child like thing.
Lex Pulos: So getting students to see the social function of games, a part of culture and history was one challenge I needed to overcome.
Lex Pulos: I also needed to start having you know students having played many games before they had a frame of reference for what games might look like what kinds of ideas they might want to do for making games.
Lex Pulos: But not so much on these critical issues, so I wanted to make another challenge was where do we start thinking about creating critical games and, finally, when we didn't create them.
Lex Pulos: What was the so what what does this teach us how to move beyond that and what's the purpose of making critical game beyond just this may be political these political ideas.
Lex Pulos: So that's kind of where I want to start with these ideas of what is games or games games and culture How does that look what does that relate to.
Lex Pulos: um so I was you know remind students that when we think about play play does a lot of a lot of research, like interesting things about play.
Lex Pulos: And so it composes a lot of our world, we might not often think of it's a context it's the environment around play that evokes the types of interactions that we might have.
Lex Pulos: And so I always football is an interesting example for for games and play most people assume right that football is a American sports.
Lex Pulos: And then it derived out of early America about some of the things that we forget to think about is the history behind football and a lot of the rules, the context that evokes play.
Lex Pulos: come from the ways in which, like Yale and Harvard played against each other, but also the ways in which the Yale and Harvard played against indigenous schools.
Lex Pulos: And so, when you're in the Harvard replaying or the forms of football there was like nine guys on the field and they were like smash up against each other and.
Lex Pulos: They were just hitting the ball, much like it makes you rather be moved around today, and then they would play.
Lex Pulos: kids from indigenous schools and they would like run, they would pass the ball and there were rules for passing at the time, and so they the refs had to change the rules or adapt to the ways in which other teams played the game.
Lex Pulos: I think, is really fascinating it's really interesting boys which history changes the sports in the games that we play.
Lex Pulos: games are also an activity oddity like they're also like to have their own purposes, their own goals and when you're playing football and you're playing a game you're kind of doing your own thing you're in your safe space you've saved world.
Lex Pulos: The creative the last to think about new strategies do different things are certainly pleasurable and a personal because they're connected to us, we want to play them.
Lex Pulos: But games or a complex system they work in many different ways so just trying to you know if you have to think about.
Lex Pulos: How our games are part of society, how what are some of the many ways in which they work and how is play meaningful, how do they change in larger situations, how does politics built into games from early games.
Lex Pulos: Some of the origins of games how might they be embedded with culture and society, so one of the first examples that I have of how games are part of culture or that how culture is built into games.
Lex Pulos: mccullough think I usually ask this question and I see students they're like yeah i've played a call before it's fun to travel games occasion game.
Lex Pulos: The game was also, though, I mean this dates back thousands of years ago and they found like the Games, we carved out and folders and and concrete are not hungry, but in dirt.
Lex Pulos: That has solidified and the game, as it was originally designed was intended to teach people how to save seeds, so how to be agriculturally minded and that you need to save some material.
Lex Pulos: For the next season, and so we separated it into parcels of land, we also separate it into seasons, then kids would play this.
Lex Pulos: And they would learn how to be better managers of the lands and that would be beneficial both for them, but also then for their civilization and their culture, so you know, one of the earliest games that we see is necessitates this need to be aware of.
Lex Pulos: free time we're not necessarily out there working a whole lot, but we have free time to teach our kids something that relates to our society so mccollough Does that also have games that are just strictly built to tell kids theology ways of being the world ethics and morality.
Lex Pulos: and never played this but there's all kinds of games museums are out there that are fun and interesting because they post games you check them out, but this is the mansion.
Lex Pulos: mentions of happiness, and so the object of the game was to be the first player to travel around the spiral track and we're all in right idea and reach the mention of happiness, the Center of this.
Lex Pulos: With the idea that this was based in a puritanical worldview.
Lex Pulos: And so we were trying to teach the game was trying to teach you a very specific way some puritanical elements of the world, and eventually just got changed or updated and the 1800s they reprinted it.
Lex Pulos: They removed vices and labels of immodesty of passion and gratitude, it was a cheat and Labor elements to it, so they tried to remove some of the things that maybe.
Lex Pulos: Encourage kids to think about these ideals, they tried to standardize the game, a bit more, in part, society was shifting so they tried to shift some of the rules and ways in which games worked so.
Lex Pulos: These are just two examples of contextualize in games within a much larger history.
Lex Pulos: Global history my video games i'm just trying to connect this or move it over to video games, as well as starcraft starcraft two, but the original starcraft.
Lex Pulos: I bring this up just to illustrate how games are part of a cultural or historical moments when starcraft came out, so I should say, but before starcraft came out there was a economic crisis that in 1997 that particularly hit Korea.
Lex Pulos: And the Korean Government shift, a lot of their modes of production and they moved this towards digital technology digital infrastructure, investing in at the time, which was a new medium the Internet.
Lex Pulos: And they were pushing that heavily to try to bounce back or to recover from this crash, one of the things that mapped onto the lived experiences of kids at the time was the development of PCs home computers and then starcraft.
Lex Pulos: And so there was this moment in which this game comes out blizzard realizes that the economy is changing, there is this crash people have time at home they're looking for something different to do.
Lex Pulos: And that matches up really well with the game, industry and so there's this moment in which spurs the game focus for Korea as a consequence.
Lex Pulos: We now see some of the best players of starcraft and the best players of league of legends.
Lex Pulos: And the best players in the world, come out of Korea as a consequence of this investment in the infrastructure of games, but also the passionate interest by players by users by citizens of South Korea.
Lex Pulos: So these three examples for me are just illustrations of how history and games are wrapped together and more complex ways.
Lex Pulos: With the argument being that Games are a system of representation.
Lex Pulos: And that they are imbued with cultural beliefs cultural values, there are a product of history in many ways.
Lex Pulos: And that the cultural dimensions of games reflect the values surrounding its context, so a game is not produced in isolation but it's proof produces a part of something much larger, and so we should work to interpret games.
Lex Pulos: As symbolic objects as artifacts as a part of history, I think if we are lens about how games function.
Lex Pulos: Hopefully we don't just see them as forms of entertainment or as frivolous play, but as serious cultural artifacts that illustrate something about history about culture about society, but the times in which they were made.
Lex Pulos: Much in the same way that we might look at a you know, a painting a classic painting and be able to analyze and deconstruct that that tells us something that only about the type of art, but also the time period in which he was made.
Lex Pulos: So my example of how we can look at or understand games not only being a part of history, but also is evolving over history is chest.
Lex Pulos: House we go this relatively quickly, is that chess develops over a.
Lex Pulos: long period of time and well there's no direct definition or beginning.
Lex Pulos: Of it's like most cultural things that it existed along the Silk Road and multiple cultures cultures played it at different times are very rules, one of the arguments, is that it started in India.
Lex Pulos: That it was developed initially as a war training game had to fight and stay in control, but one of the earliest examples that we have or starts to manifest itself.
Lex Pulos: In a more direct way to how we might see chest today is the game of shorter UNGA which is for armies sort of the original form of chest, in some ways.
Lex Pulos: And then originally this was for opponents fighting against each other.
Lex Pulos: And the development of this board came from a racing idea, it was utilized dice with pieces around the board, and so there was this innate conflict because we're moving our pieces around the board in different ways, and so.
Lex Pulos: It was us originally as a way to help think about conflict and often overcome forms of conflict, so I think a social tool in that way, which is interesting.
Lex Pulos: As history evolves and that's the game evolves chess or shadow rhonda and moves into the Middle East and Persia and so there's this development or adaptation by the society and the mbu the game with their own forms of meaning their own understanding their own cultural values.
Lex Pulos: And those 638 generally, we see the game develop.
Lex Pulos: Models life in some ways it relates to free choice and logic particular to Persia to write and developments of philosophy and thought there's time to think about our actions, the responses to actions.
Lex Pulos: And so, this game was actually used in school to help teach morals and ethics in many ways, and also a pastime.
Lex Pulos: As the game moved.
Lex Pulos: into Europe, it changes in various ways, and so we originally see the game and the game pieces of displayed here, for you have a bit more of a Muslim interpretation to them design.
Lex Pulos: At the same time, we do see chess going in different directions out of India two different ways and so just to highlight.
Lex Pulos: That cultures and view these games with different meaning, these are two examples, one is a Chinese chess was one of the most.
Lex Pulos: played games in the world, and we also have Japanese or Korean chess and so each of these just illustrates generally that cultures are shifting the mechanics they're abusing their own ideas into them.
Lex Pulos: But jump back to European chess here real quick, though, and again as it moves into Europe out of Spain midnight century it's moving out of the Arabic world we're changing the.
Lex Pulos: ponds that we have the bishops abilities shift and change the visitors ability shift, as well as the design of chess starts to look more like the medieval structure that we know of today.
Lex Pulos: Eventually, we start to see the introduction of the Queen, and this was called the mad Queens chess, which is about about 550 years ago there's one of the first steps is to Charlemagne chess sets it's a kind of the first appearance of the Queen that helps the conflict.
Lex Pulos: And so, this the story of the Queen comes out of a Swiss poem that adds to the structure of the roles of Queens and society.
Lex Pulos: So by the 11th century kings were the companion or the companion, which was the vizier change to the Queen.
Lex Pulos: And the pond relationship how the pond could become the Queen changing some of the rules, the rules are changing the addition of the Queen the shifting of the of the ponds.
Lex Pulos: And then we have the official first new version of the chest that we all know, today, about 1470 as developing steals the one that.
Lex Pulos: helps introduce the stronger power of the Queen in Europe, and so the Queen is now able to move as far in all directions and allowed to the budget to move a little bit further, so my point for illustrating all of this, hopefully.
Lex Pulos: And when talking to students about this is simply to illustrate that.
Lex Pulos: games are part of society they're part of culture, their imbued with the ethics, the morals, the context of the society that produce them and then that changes over time.
Lex Pulos: As one game travels across the Middle East and into Europe, it gets imbued and altered and shifted and as a consequence that tells us a little bit about the societies that take the on those Games.
Lex Pulos: And what kinds of ethics that they might have so I moved out of board games out of jess and into video games, a little bit.
Lex Pulos: I two examples of the ways in which this is compelling and interesting to means the ways in which games are part of cultural learning.
Lex Pulos: So I assume, most of us to play grand theft auto or, at least, are aware of the references to grand theft auto.
Lex Pulos: And in this one San Andreas you start off as a black character in a low income area Los Angeles, but the idea behind the game is that you are.
Lex Pulos: Moving through the city, you are working out, you are committing various crimes and you're working your way up the crime ladder.
Lex Pulos: And as you move up the ladder you open up more areas of the game which tend to be higher class higher income areas and then that allows you to have higher income.
Lex Pulos: Like facts and crime etc right.
Lex Pulos: what's interesting again about what's been viewed or culturally imbued into this game is the ways in which food and your access to food works in the game.
Lex Pulos: So it's a particular interests of note for this game in that you have to work out and when you do it changes your abilities in the game, the more you work out the faster, you can run.
Lex Pulos: easier it is to beat people up the last you work out the slower you run and even type of food that you eat changes your body.
Lex Pulos: And that can change your strength levels, it can also a train change your attraction, so you date in the game and cause I way and so, who is appealing to you as a character, or who your character can date is impacted by like the shape of your body and the game.
Lex Pulos: But the very beginning of a game where you don't have a lot of money, the only places in which you can find food to eat for all fast food restaurants.
Lex Pulos: And, in particular the fast food the salad meals, the tend to cost more than the hamburgers or the ghostbusters are some of the more like traditional kind of greasy style foods that aren't as healthy for you.
Lex Pulos: And this, and that plan directly to what happens in a lot of large urban centers is that there are food deserts that are all over the place.
Lex Pulos: And there are very few grocery stores, to allow people to get fresh food fresh produce, and when you do go out to eat those foods tend to cost more.
Lex Pulos: This looks much different in the game, when you go to a higher income area, there is more food options, you have shakes smoothies you have salads now costs are reasonable or similar price to it and so.
Lex Pulos: what's built into this game, the cultural values that are built into this game is this direct relationship to race, ethnicity class and food deserts that we see and many real cities across the United States.
Lex Pulos: My second example of this, too, though, is that the last iteration of the spider man game by insomniac.
Lex Pulos: Not miles Morales one, but this one was first one, Peter Parker your planes Peter Parker and sometimes you go to help married chain.
Lex Pulos: know it may at feast, which is a shelter in the game and you walk around your meeting and you're talking to people.
Lex Pulos: But what's interesting is when you're on the streets you're helping out costs taking pictures you're kind of moving around the city itself actually isn't that like dirty and in most ways, but when you go into the shelter, there is more trash.
Lex Pulos: All of the walls, when you go up some of the walls or the Bolton boards tend to be notifications for drug rehab.
Lex Pulos: or drug related information even some of the books on the shelves that you can look at most of the people talking are talking about their son or their daughter wants them to get a job and how difficult that is and they're actually they want to get a job.
Lex Pulos: There the few tasks that you have as a player in the game in this area is the cleanup like dirt and spills that are inside the feast Center.
Lex Pulos: And so it presents houses populations, people who are facing struggle as drug addicted sloppy filthy lazy people.
Lex Pulos: And so again part of this this thing about well what values are built into the games that we play and importantly for making games how might we be able to change or rethink some of those values.
Lex Pulos: So thank you and my last point on this in terms of video games, but we have seen this evolution happen in many ways the past 10 years there has been a lot of evolution in the ways in which games are presented so our avatars that we see.
Lex Pulos: That they're both a subject and an object for something that we play as, but they also represent ourselves so it's a mask to be born.
Lex Pulos: There also a tool to manipulate the world, and so, for a lot of players being able to see ourselves as a representation of ourselves or to try on different roles.
Lex Pulos: The character selection is one way to generally get towards that so whenever a player plays a game it's not merely just immersed within representation, through this process of gameplay.
Lex Pulos: But you're aware of the constructed nature of the character within the larger system of the game which might be able to disrupt or change in some ways.
Lex Pulos: And so early examples from your House, you know from a simple form like choose like a one gender maybe a little bit of air elements to it but there's a whole selection, to perhaps overly complicated.
Lex Pulos: Construction of characters in some ways, but in the game industry, we are seeing a much more complex recognition or awareness of how games have this cultural elements to to them.
Lex Pulos: I think most obvious is as example of Laura croft just the ways in which your character has changed over time.
Lex Pulos: And so, part of this part my framing is my my i'm teaching, this is trying to have students think and reflect on the ways in which issues like gender.
Lex Pulos: Not only reflects society or the game players people around them, but also how did these characters change over time what kinds of morals or ethics change over time and the same game.
Lex Pulos: we've seen that I think in many ways, with that Laura croft series but recently, this is certainly there and anyways there have been all of the reason lawsuits against blizzard which.
Lex Pulos: was just recently purchased but about ramping sexism and retaliation issues and harassment they're inside of them and.
Lex Pulos: blizzard they did a couple years ago try changing stuff in world of warcraft but recently, they were changing some things and which were pictures paintings in world of warcraft to try to address we overcome.
Lex Pulos: The concerns that were happening in the industry at blizzard the production process on the people that are working there are facing this, and so, how do we change that ending.
Lex Pulos: How do we change the system like we show people that were changing we might change and things in the game.
Lex Pulos: They changed a couple of painting this woman became less sexualized there was another woman who was in like qualified bathing suit who became a bowl of fruit and so there's obviously not the best change of representation, but.
Lex Pulos: Just illustrating that as culture and society changes so do the games that we play inside.
Lex Pulos: riot games league of legends we've seen a lot of changes at least attempt to change natural that's actually happened or not, though, but there are changes and attempt, and we also see this in the mechanics.
Lex Pulos: So games have not always been the best for players who are colorblind or who needed like visual assistance or auditory assistance or even controller assistance to be able to play the game that's excluded, a lot of people.
Lex Pulos: The game designers are gaming production processes, often assumed a normative standard of gameplay with Controller and a keyboard keyboard but recently we've seen a lot of changes we're seeing larger doses of mental health of disability.
Lex Pulos: in society, and this is being reflected in the games that we play the last of us actually won a couple of awards for.
Lex Pulos: Accessibility options and some color variation.
Lex Pulos: ratchet and clank it's another illustration of how you can change the color spectrums and the shaders to help make the game or visually.
Lex Pulos: playable for many people, and even in horizon for bed and West, they just started building in naturally ways to see the world to understand what's going on.
Lex Pulos: right if we have if we change persistent access isn't just helpful for players who might need it, but it can be helpful for all players, too, so this kind of universal design idea to help.
Lex Pulos: engage with players so again my point here i'm part of this right is that trying to understand and think about games as a much larger medium.
Lex Pulos: Their artistic their political they have social critique they're naturally built into them they reflect society in many ways, and so, proposing this much larger idea of a cultural issues that are built into the Games, we play.
Lex Pulos: I would argue, and hopefully as this illustrates that games are never just simply a game, I think that idea is fundamentally flawed.
Lex Pulos: they're not only the one of the largest economic industries in the world, but they also tie people together like from a local level, an individual level or the socially and culturally importance.
Lex Pulos: From like attending a sporting event with friends to taking your kids to these games like they.
Lex Pulos: bring us together in many ways they tell us how to beat people in the world, we don't just play a house when we're kids but we play how to be adults when we're playing House so we're taught in gender roles economic roles.
Lex Pulos: The Games, that which we play teach us so many other lessons can kick the can to write even basketball games like on the playground like games are imbued with so many different values.
Lex Pulos: That it's important to be aware of those are to reflect on them.
Lex Pulos: and impart when we design my goal here, then, is to shift the idea, how can we actually use games to call attention to these issues rather than it just being a passive part of us, I can games be subversive happen, they express something more critical I can engage in social issues.
Lex Pulos: So.
Lex Pulos: I started with this idea of how do we design or how might we started designer think about this design process.
Lex Pulos: So, as I told you earlier, I was teaching at northern Kentucky university and I was trying to design this game design classes analog board game design class.
Lex Pulos: And I wanted to help hone the games that kids were creating as soon as we're creating.
Lex Pulos: And I wanted to use this idea from the underground railroad train game from thing about games is is more cultural object, how can I.
Lex Pulos: get us to start trying to create empathetic games, how can I, how can we start to think about using or.
Lex Pulos: Creating a an experience that evokes a specific kind of emotion that gives us to reflect on something.
Lex Pulos: and, hopefully, if we can start to make a design design system or a game that evokes emotion.
Lex Pulos: Out of us that when we come to make games that are fun or more playful more entertaining is that we can still vote compelling interactions we can laugh, you can cry in a fun, can we can do more than just go through.
Lex Pulos: The rules and the mechanics of playing to win, how can we change that system.
Lex Pulos: So I made this challenge, like I said I was based off of the challenges that are happening at origins and gen con and it was like a site specific resistance game challenge.
Lex Pulos: And so the general description was that you until all students I should I should clarify where, at this point in my class they're all working groups of four to five.
Lex Pulos: And so they could choose to work as a one large group and they could break up into small groups of two to three with the idea being that.
Lex Pulos: They have to then work to create games designed for a particular cultural context I want to keep it pretty broad.
Lex Pulos: it's open to you, race, gender class global warming politics or whatever might be you pick a large umbrella and then within that you narrow it down to something more specific that you're interested in.
Lex Pulos: I do this for two reasons, some students come in and they're like some people design, we all design different ways we start off with.
Lex Pulos: Maybe all of the mechanics all of the ideas at once, and we put them all into a hodgepodge I mean narrow down from there just great that's when we start people are totally effective with that so start with a broad idea and then narrow down to something more specific.
Lex Pulos: Other students are the design processes are on the opposite end of that spectrum so.
Lex Pulos: I have a specific idea of what I want to do notebook this kind of emotion now what kinds of mechanics what kinds of themes kind of experiences.
Lex Pulos: Our best maps on to that experience so starting small and they kind of broadening our way out so.
Lex Pulos: Those are the two ways that I generally saw students approaching their project, and so I wanted to emphasize that, with this like specific challenge.
Lex Pulos: You might have something that you're passionate about and that might be houses populations OK cool so that's the first specific idea.
Lex Pulos: not start to think about how we can build that into an experience or what kinds of experience to call attention to is it.
Lex Pulos: Like food assistance finding housing what might that look like, so creating these very specific experiences to help engage an audience with in terms of gameplay.
Lex Pulos: So those are the two ends of the spectrum that students are starting out off and on, and so I wanted the game to both reflect from transform.
Lex Pulos: Our perception a cultural ideology of the of the context right it's a call attention to something you shouldn't perpetuate a problem.
Lex Pulos: Hopefully, should call attention to some of the issues and you know if it has to like solve any of them, but maybe there's a way to think about a resolution to it in some way or to engage with them in a reality, beyond the game.
Lex Pulos: So I may I took this I got this slide quickly, because this is just the design structure that i've adapted from some of the game challenges that I found online.
Lex Pulos: games, you know game timing, how long should be learned to play the game was important to those doing this in the classroom.
Lex Pulos: and accessible to gamers and non gamers so if you're not familiar with complex board games we're not playing a lot of dungeons and dragons or magic the gathering this game.
Lex Pulos: would be easily you can pick it up quickly like five to 10 minutes you should be able to explain the game in a very direct way.
Lex Pulos: My only thing restrictions, this was a large part of the challenges that I saw was that game means to address in theme or mechanic in some way.
Lex Pulos: This idea of social issues, importantly, and I put this into the Rules down here, but that they're in the Rules document all students had to have a production document to it.
Lex Pulos: Is that you had to have resources, so if you're going to be a top if you're going to be talking about income inequality.
Lex Pulos: We need to ground it in some way in resources of what what does that what does that look like and so that just mapped onto the steam restriction, which really.
Lex Pulos: Then just informed by researching some way, so the mechanics three plus emergent gameplay it's not a rolling right we're actually doing something to create.
Lex Pulos: interactive engaged complex gameplay simple rules to the overall assignment can fit in a box plan 20 minutes etc So these are the general design challenges.
Lex Pulos: And I posed these questions to students, I think it's important when you're designing something like this is what are you reflecting on what do you replicating you're promoting so you might promote alternatives, the same ideas.
Lex Pulos: Is it like faithful to a specific interaction, or you abstracting it in some way I had some students who.
Lex Pulos: Were mapping things onto a space theme so we're still dealing with a social issue but it's in space we're just totally fine.
Lex Pulos: What a space, allow us to do that I don't know a farming game wouldn't so just think about what is it you're trying to represent to it also um are you trying to call attention to an issue.
Lex Pulos: You just had to guess the question it or a train to use that against us in some way, I found this particularly appealing said students are asking like can I get you to like sort of realize maybe some of the problematic assumptions that you might have.
Lex Pulos: Specifically, I found a game called Black Blocks for my group of people who are in California, and it was a game that was mapping how to talk about race and racism, and it was trying to in the mechanics have you commit like.
Lex Pulos: I guess you weren't supposed to be aware of it right, so an unintentional like racists structure framework, he was trying to encourage you to perpetuate these things with the idea that we reveal at the end so found that appealing in some ways.
Lex Pulos: And so, these are just some questions, then, can you incorporate culture rhetoric into the experience for game encouraging us to play with me, these things are going of adapting to new ideas okay So these are questions i'll talk to the students with them.
Lex Pulos: And then, how do we specifically do this, though, what are the steps that you do when you're trying to create a game like this well, you can create new whole new experience.
Lex Pulos: You can alter something so I gave since the ability to kind of re skin something essentially.
Lex Pulos: make changes to an existing game overlay on something else I had a student who took settlers of Bhutan and they turned settlers of Bhutan into sort of like a trading like a trade route.
Lex Pulos: triangular trade routes game, and so you were moving around the triangle.
Lex Pulos: triangle trading route and that helped call attention to the slave trade that time so that was an interesting alteration of a current game.
Lex Pulos: juxtaposition is that you're just combining elements that seem to fit together like, why are we adapting.
Lex Pulos: settlers like a tan and the slave trade, and so just the ideas that you might match things together and ways to help call attention to what's happening or reinvention entire game structure but we're going to.
Lex Pulos: different levels which not many students took up, which is totally understandable Okay, so this was the challenge.
Lex Pulos: But then I wanted to show students, I also wanted to do this with them so i'm just going to show you then what I came up with my attempts to replicate this process and how I went through it, what I did.
Lex Pulos: So I made up this game I pronounce you to give about marriage had a lot of people so again, where do where do you start with game design, well, I have a lot of people I was the time.
Lex Pulos: My my partner first seven years, is there a lot of people here to get married when you get married.
Lex Pulos: Lots of marriage conversations we didn't want married, and so I started doing some research into American so my focal point for starting this as I.
Lex Pulos: Tell students is that I start with a very specific issue, it was marriage.
Lex Pulos: I wanted to expose or talk about marriage or complicate our assumptions of marriage and what that what that might look like, so I started with a very specific idea, and then I started trying to think about well how do I map it onto the game well, what do I need to do.
Lex Pulos: And so i'm.
Lex Pulos: So go here because part of teaching talking ideological issues.
Lex Pulos: marriages and ideology it's sort of what I was like trying to do is think about this game in relation to ideologies and talking about critical theory and marriage is one of those ways for you to map onto critical theory, and so the game I created.
Lex Pulos: had better for worse.
Lex Pulos: It ended up having four areas to it so again trying to create again my marriage try to talk about the ideology of marriage what that looks like and i'm trying to disrupt our assumptions of it.
Lex Pulos: So I had four arrows.
Lex Pulos: When I was doing research like I asked my students to do generally perceiving like the structure of marriage to arise out of like BCE to about 700 was the first error that I saw especially is institutionalized form of marriage.
Lex Pulos: Second era was the Middle Ages, which had some changes to it, particularly when I was researching it how like the legal process through the church into the States are to impact marriage.
Lex Pulos: industrial revolution started to implement more marriage industries into it so promotion of the wedding dress and ceremonies changed a lot of what was going on.
Lex Pulos: And then contemporary i'm trying to reflect on what was going down, and so what I saw happening generally was that as.
Lex Pulos: We started off and then in the early errors is that marriage was often utilized as a form of trade of bodily trade and control, not just over like.
Lex Pulos: A woman's body was less about the controller her body was more about an economic exchange, what does one family offer another family.
Lex Pulos: And that's just connected they're bound together by the wife and so often that comes with a dowry or other systems, other things I found that was fascinating to me was that the groomsmen.
Lex Pulos: were originally your best friends, so this is again like for hundreds, they were the ones who would help you steal a woman.
Lex Pulos: and bring her back and then help maintain control over here so she wouldn't run away so like the idea of what a best man was, I totally changed my perception of what a.
Lex Pulos: groomsmen did what they what their role was other things I found that interesting right we have like the honeymoon which would help this derived idea you'd go away for a month the barrel of need.
Lex Pulos: The idea to procreate so there's all kinds of really interesting things I found whole researching this.
Lex Pulos: In the Middle Ages, we see the rise, I said the control over like, especially from religion.
Lex Pulos: And who would get married you had to announce it in very public in specific ways if you didn't then they could deny your marriage license.
Lex Pulos: If, when you did get married that all of the all kinds of things about who then was able to sleep with the bride on the night of, and so there was like controller domain over the woman's body and married direct ways.
Lex Pulos: The industrial revolution, a lot of the ceremonial things we that are helpful, I think, with marriage in many ways.
Lex Pulos: getting people together to exchange gifts and goods and to help the new family start up that starts to become a bit more, I think the capitalist we start to see very specific industries, we see the diamond industry.
Lex Pulos: We see like multiple kinds of wedding dresses they're starting to be developed veils are to become developed in some ways the color of the white dress and having specific materials for it, so it just becomes more materially bound.
Lex Pulos: In terms of having to purchase enough forward the the wedding itself and man marriage.
Lex Pulos: And then obviously who can and who can't get married legally so in the United States, there were all kinds of regulations about interracial marriage is people have cognitive disabilities who were not able to get married or whom denied being.
Lex Pulos: Marriage license if you're an abbreviated you are, you know not being able to get married if you're liberated so they're very specific roles and who could who cannot and contemporary side new seen a lot of us change, but we have seen the ways in which marriage is open up.
Lex Pulos: required communities we've also seen a pretty massive manifestation of this larger marriage industry.
Lex Pulos: I didn't know this until die research this but there's a divorce industry as well we're, not only do you have like a ceremonial night for your marriage, now that are divorced parties they're thrown into the whole industry or endorsed parties.
Lex Pulos: You have like the baby moon and the honeymoon and like i'm then on top of that, there are like the bachelor parties are just go back a little further.
Lex Pulos: brought to all of these things add up to a much, much, much more expensive wedding process, then it should originally had so.
Lex Pulos: I found that fascinating so many more things I could talk about, but any case.
Lex Pulos: I had to adapt this into a game, so I tried to fit into this ways to highlight some of the problems that I felt or that I saw and doing research about.
Lex Pulos: The marriage industry, so I made a card drafting game each arrow each era works, a little bit differently.
Lex Pulos: I explained those areas, because what I wanted to try to do in the game is that I wanted the early era.
Lex Pulos: To express a different emotion than the Middle Ages and I wanted the Middle Ages, to express their emotion, the industrial revolution centers I wanted.
Lex Pulos: card drafting want to play to be able to see the cards and see how the cards changed each round.
Lex Pulos: And, as a consequence, how it would play what's in the first round, really, the goal of the first round is to trade, the bride around and to keep her for as long as possible.
Lex Pulos: This is not explicit in the game kinda like the train game, I want to players to experience this and then realize, and when play testing, I saw players do this like.
Lex Pulos: This feels really messed up but I, my goal is just a trade and games of pride and.
Lex Pulos: that's the sort of the purpose and the Middle Ages it's much more like stacks control heavy where you can do a whole lot and like you feel very limited and.
Lex Pulos: how you can marry your if you can marry at all, so the card drafting and the card effects helped me create different feelings structures to the different areas.
Lex Pulos: All games, can you to have a conclusion, there needs to be some enjoyment part to it, so I had a SEC collection idea I have like five different icons iconography.
Lex Pulos: elements of the game so you're collecting a set of cards or a series of cards or a single cards just act as points and so it's just a basic point system to the game, then allow players to be successful, or to win the game of marriage, if you if you will.
Lex Pulos: So thanks about 3045 minutes you can go shorter or longer you can take out an era and you don't have to interpret all of them i'm going 105 guards, there was a rule book and everything.
Lex Pulos: You just some of the cards that I made or that I tended to make.
Lex Pulos: With the different ways in which they might work, so you can see the top there's different icons the iconography for the site collection main points of the bottom, to be very visually clear to players what they were trying to do or kind of points they were trying to earn at that.
Lex Pulos: And then, trying to describe what they were doing mostly I was trying to explain what the card was doing I didn't have a lot of background information on like why early marriage BC why industrial revolution card does this, the father of the bride I didn't explain the history of it.
Lex Pulos: Just just go through some other cards, the diamond ring the philosopher.
Lex Pulos: like this, you know, this is all accurate research, the fourth cancer lateran right how cards are going to be exchanged.
Lex Pulos: um the Rings are the instruction contraception diamond colors the beers their ownership of a lot of this.
Lex Pulos: And so here in the back of the rule book didn't expect my students to do this, but because it was research oriented I tried to create a rationale for all of the cards so if you found this interesting go to the back of the rulebook and you can read about it.
Lex Pulos: Where the research came from what informed this Where does this actually mean as you're playing it for this served as the cause, I like.
Lex Pulos: A cultural meaning and elements behind it and you can learn a little bit more about it wasn't expecting this like disrupt who marriage industry, but really again.
Lex Pulos: My post to answer those questions I was trying to call attention, or to reveal something about our hidden assumptions are generalizations about marriage and for all students.
Lex Pulos: Maybe this was the most useful at the end of it for some students, I guess, a little bit older now but wedding statistics and then I had resources which all students are supposed to play or have.
Lex Pulos: In the back of their books, too, so I started creating and working on this with students to help illustrates the processes, they were doing that.
Lex Pulos: This took longer than like I think students have like maybe a month or a little bit less than mcnair game that's not up to me much longer to do it, but now I have.
Lex Pulos: At least a still in progress illustration of what I might gen or what the general idea might look like here's a game challenge, he was a critical social issues or social issue.
Lex Pulos: here's how you might go about thing about the design process starting small mapping on some of the mechanics that help expose what specifically you want to address and then seeming it in some rural way.
Lex Pulos: So that was my game, I had been doing it interesting because what's the purpose or why, why do this.
Lex Pulos: So, here are some student games.
Lex Pulos: That they made and they had different.
Lex Pulos: elements to it, they all had to do play tested with each other and give each other information feedback on it.
Lex Pulos: A lot of students chose to do environmental effects So what does this global warming look like for the impacts of global warming, what does mining and manufacturing do and how might that map on to it.
Lex Pulos: and students come in from other classes and add a couple of game design companies actually come in both for this project and for some other projects to look at the ways in which other Games were developing.
Lex Pulos: And I have some other ones, on the contrary, here second to but I had ones with students like very artistic students, they made like a tree game where you were harvesting are trying to.
Lex Pulos: curate a tree but you're always facing these different environmental effects from like hot sun and summer and when the facts and plugs.
Lex Pulos: Like my buyers are like beetle plex and so like you have to cultivate a tree wall trying to manage all the other.
Lex Pulos: Environmental issues and one student who made a game, the idea was, I think this goes back to all those points about you might reveal something like sort of a hidden idea behind it is doing the game was that you are a sheep farmer.
Lex Pulos: And all the cards are laid down face and you can't see them the game memory is generally, what the idea was behind it, and so you play it.
Lex Pulos: And then, as you're playing and trying to find all these sheep or find your your lost sheep, I think, was the idea behind it, is that some of the cards suddenly have landmines on them.
Lex Pulos: And one landmine tells you a little bit about how that land mine was.
Lex Pulos: Hidden or buried and then another car does he look more about the history of what was going on, it turns out that he was using this sheep farmer.
Lex Pulos: As a way to talk about all of the mines that were left over after Vietnam.
Lex Pulos: war in Vietnam, and so it was shocking like turning these cards over incentivize that you put but why did I blow up what's going on here.
Lex Pulos: And they use it as a way to talk about all the residual impacts of war in a region and I found that game, particularly compelling so other ones about.
Lex Pulos: And once we needed a game that was about gender in the workplace and So how do asking for a raise and negotiating arrays are working in a work environment how might that shift based on statistics.
Lex Pulos: Like gender disparity in the workplace, so I find that particularly compelling so.
Lex Pulos: ended up hopefully my goal being that the game mechanics this critical idea would evoke a more meaningful form of play, because you're trying to evoke something specific out of your audience out of your game players it isn't just fun.
Lex Pulos: it's culturally related at socially related and because games are part of hopefully clearly society and culture that it's pretty easy to see how that might.
Lex Pulos: manifest itself, so it ended up, but hopefully this they feel the same way.
Lex Pulos: But afterwards I feel like after I did this project this projects, the large and the Semester projects that students made.
Lex Pulos: They felt much more complete they felt more coherence it didn't feel like I was like emotions or my experiences of gameplay felt more directed.
Lex Pulos: Rather than here's a bunch of things they want to accomplish the goals were just simply more clear, after so.
Lex Pulos: after they had done this challenge, and so I think that's the take that for me that was that was the purpose of doing it we create games games for change the compelling on their own, there are many games that.
Lex Pulos: are currently exists, I toast is this one it's a science game about the cell.
Lex Pulos: There are lots of games are addressing more serious issues because games aren't they don't just have to be just frivolous ideas are fun ideas are.
Lex Pulos: Like abstract ideas, but they can address meaningful learning opportunities, so I think in and of itself that's useful that's productive.
Lex Pulos: I think, on top of that, though going through this design process and thinking about an issue that is meaningful to many that helps us generate ideas about how to produce experiences in very specific ways, and so I just show a couple of these I this was.
Lex Pulos: A student game feel fury is it was kind of based on world of warcraft but they had.
Lex Pulos: Like you were fighting a boss, and each boss had different abilities and so you were trying to.
Lex Pulos: go through a one stage of a boss fight, and then the flip over to another stage of the boss by and it would change.
Lex Pulos: But importantly, is when those interactions changed that, like the experience of gameplay changed as well, and so they were trying to they tried to create all of the cards.
Lex Pulos: To have different meaningful experiences evoked out of out of the player and, according to them that this assignment helps them accomplish that this one is the same group right here, right.
Lex Pulos: And they made a game about kind of monsters and dating you're trying to defend an area over here.
Lex Pulos: Lots of cards it's different interactions that you can do, but, again, there are meaning they're always meaningful choices that are a vote on what they are doing, and not just here's one action here's to action.
Lex Pulos: But here's a rationale for the actions that come out of it this game is particularly, I think, important to that, I mean it's pretty straightforward, I mean you're trying to like.
Lex Pulos: find a mall and you're trying to ask question, who is the mall and there are many games they're similar to that, but in trying to make a more meaningful experience.
Lex Pulos: That all of the players, I have a quasi hidden trader elements to it, so that when you ask questions you're trying to think about what implications that might have for fellow players.
Lex Pulos: So for me after this assignments students came more reflective about creating a meaningful experience, rather than just an experience for fun.
Lex Pulos: So that's my in some I guess rationale for this, how do we create games for change when we think about kind of experiences or social issues are important to us.
Lex Pulos: We either start off with a lot of big ideas and narrow it down or start smaller and build it up what's important about that is that we do some research to help ground, the framework.
Lex Pulos: And then we start mapping mechanics onto the experiences we want to evoke out of the game player that's useful, both for creating meaningful critical games that's also a meaningful and critical way to engage game design as well.
Lex Pulos: that's all I got.
Ethan Wilde: wow wonderful Thank you lex that was an amazing journey that you took us on I really thought that was fabulous and thank you so much for putting that together for us.
Ethan Wilde: i've got some questions from from some of the members of the audience that out that i'll share with you.
Ethan Wilde: Let me start off first with a question from Ben.
Ethan Wilde: he's starting out with a statement, I feel I learned a few World War two facts by playing red alert, even though most of it was way off, I ended up doing more research, because the game made it interesting, what do you think about using games to teach.
Lex Pulos: um so I was awesome I love that I love the idea of teaching games using games to teach from a variety of reasons.
Lex Pulos: I think for myself personally i'm a personal example and maybe a larger rationale, here too, though, is that.
Lex Pulos: I think, prior to the pandemic, I was trying to use games in every way possible to teach their interactive students could sit with each other, we could play like work through these things.
Lex Pulos: Going hits and things change a little bit, so I haven't been able to start to return to that in the same way, but now that we're back in the classroom trying to bring that back in to engage with students, I think one in.
Lex Pulos: From a teaching in the classroom perspective I think games are can be awesome brilliant super useful way to take maybe complex ideas.
Lex Pulos: and get students to engage with them in a more meaningful level I think if you're like going through.
Lex Pulos: anytime you play a game, you have meaningful choices that impact the world that you're in even a Mario brothers or a meaningful choice that impact the world.
Lex Pulos: If that happens in a classroom I think those meaningful choices matt on to the ideas of a lesson, not only have a meaningful impact in the game, but then translate in meaningful ways outside of the classroom.
Lex Pulos: I can talk about that more in many ways, but in a non classroom setting, I would also.
Lex Pulos: agree in a couple of ways that games that teach history.
Lex Pulos: Sometimes, it can be kind of boring so i'm not sure they're always the best way to do it, I grew up playing number munchers, which was a super cheesy math game, but I definitely learned.
Lex Pulos: Some math there was a consequence of it and they're not always accurate, which I think is really the hard part, but I do think more games are becoming accurate assassin's creed odyssey.
Lex Pulos: And there was another assassin's creed have actually been used the.
Lex Pulos: The when they were made a lot of research went into historical accuracy behind them to make them more enjoyable hopefully for players, but there were universities and like.
Lex Pulos: museums that we're starting to use assassin's creed, as a way to explore history and so that was amazing when the there was a fire.
Lex Pulos: In France, and one of the buildings Notre Dame Notre Dom were nerd on burned down the mapping that had been done in assassin's creed was accurate enough that they were using that map.
Lex Pulos: to recreate what had been burned down, so I think that's like I think there's some histories and interesting parts to it.
Lex Pulos: I could just keep ranting about other examples like I think games can teach us a lot, they can like you said they can maybe push us in the wrong direction if they're not done well by the designers.
Lex Pulos: But hopefully that inspires us and you have noted, to do our own research I don't know that answers your question, maybe it doesn't I think they're a great way to learn.
Ethan Wilde: Great get Ben if you have any other questions or if anybody else here has any other questions feel free to share them in the chat i've got a few more that I can share from.
Ethan Wilde: capture earlier, a question from Michael two parts, has the blm movement or the recent recent racial reckoning influence contemporary game design.
Lex Pulos: So on a card game analog game structure there's a couple companies that specialize and like blm games, or like race related especially black related games.
Lex Pulos: Most of them are trying to relate to like, how do you have difficult conversations with a white friends, how do we engage with a larger understanding of like black history, but there are numerous card games, the drill that address some of those issues.
Lex Pulos: I would say in terms of like larger like manufacturer like larger publisher, I guess, I should say, like publisher oriented games.
Lex Pulos: i'm not sure that blm is so made its way into the forefront, I think there's just so much egregious sexual harassment and like anti queer and trans.
Lex Pulos: Homophobia issues they get everything else kind of gets drowned out like the toxicity levels, I think, in most contemporary like video game industries video game environments it gets a bad rap for sure, but there certainly is a lot of that that is currently going on.
Lex Pulos: That i'm not sure blm has made ability to break into that unfortunately I do know, though, that they are creating more character diversity than they have previously.
Lex Pulos: that's mine.
Ethan Wilde: Great let me, let me share the second part of michael's question, I think it fits pretty nicely into the way you've framed your answer so far, he asks is that at odds with the industry's profit motive or mass appeal.
Lex Pulos: um.
Lex Pulos: there.
Lex Pulos: So the video game industry, it does look different that would argue the other media interviews looks and part of that is that it historically has been grounded in a lot of like.
Lex Pulos: masculine frameworks.
Lex Pulos: kind of party frameworks to that there's this kind of boys club games are our boys club that.
Lex Pulos: hasn't always been true, but it does like there are plenty of women and non binary people that play video games and it has changed, there still is this residual.
Lex Pulos: impact in the game industry itself, there is a lot of shifting in relation to that, I think, unfortunately, a lot of the largely outspoken voices that we see from game players, the game audiences there is absolute anger about games changing about having.
Lex Pulos: Anybody of color as a main character, or having you know the option of needing to have an option between male and female Avatar right, so there has been a lot of.
Lex Pulos: I think player outspoken prospect, I had that slide on the need so cheesy and controversy, which is a couple of years ago they're still having a lot of like pushback from audience and game players about representation in video games and so they tried to adapt to that, however, those outspoken.
Lex Pulos: audience Members I think are like drowned out by the actual volume of people playing games and when they are games with more diversity, people are playing those to a larger degree, so the actual financial incentive is to make more diverse games.
Lex Pulos: Some of the games that we see in a large scale like largest games would be this like league of legends or Defense the agents to or something along those lines, like.
Lex Pulos: Those players are playing with mechanics in many ways, and that tends to be I think a more regional contexts, having a better, more accurate more reasonable like Asian like representations some of those Games.
Lex Pulos: In the industry in terms of like making it there's just such problematic issues of Labor relations that are currently going on, like the crunch.
Lex Pulos: As I mean there are several games that come out the past couple years that it's likely that may end large game companies, the consequence of crunch related problems with their gains.
Lex Pulos: And certainly that's really probably gender dynamic, like some of those aren't I don't think it hasn't really mapped on to issues of race and gender and sexuality in the board game industry.
Lex Pulos: is totally different there are like four or five mainstream female game designers I don't know if I can think of any black game designers.
Lex Pulos: There are some games that maybe start to address some issues, but the board game industry is almost ignorantly.
Lex Pulos: Like not even touching or adjusting are aware conversing about those issues.
Ethan Wilde: Interesting you have any perspective on this outside of.
Ethan Wilde: Western cultures, I know you've studied cultures in Asia, you were talking about.
Ethan Wilde: Korea little while ago, is there a different attitude towards diversity and representation in any of those societies.
Lex Pulos: I mean, one of the problems I mean so there's like localization so changing games, as they go from different country different countries, I think, part of most me me me the industry's most proud many video game industries.
Lex Pulos: And because most games are often made and, like Japan, Korea and China.
Lex Pulos: And the localized for the US, you asked as an often do it as well when it goes in different directions, but certainly what happens is that you just see this this orientalism esque blending of things where you have characters that are like samurai speaking Thai.
Lex Pulos: While like from the home country and somewhere in China right like you just blend all of them together, and I know, especially.
Lex Pulos: with Japan and Korea, like Korea doesn't really have consoles because of the historical trauma due to colonization by Japan, and so they resist a lot of Sony material.
Lex Pulos: And so there is a lot of I think conflict a conversation between the two also the like the great firewall of China limits, a lot of access.
Lex Pulos: So world warcraft players who will have like slanderous commentary will get banned from those servers or Chinese players who want to not get banned have to play in different servers, so there is a lot of like tension in age in Asian countries about diversity and access in many ways.
Lex Pulos: In.
Lex Pulos: So I think it was like the types of characters that you're seeing in games.
Lex Pulos: I guess I can't speak really to other than other than as a generalized and offensive representations I can't speak to the ways in which the industry is changing, but I can mostly speak to those the ways in which the Labor is does look different than the United States.
Ethan Wilde: Right yeah I have, I have some more questions to share with you from Ben.
Ethan Wilde: Ben asks what are some examples of games that involve or bring in too much and what do you think are the general don'ts for that.
Lex Pulos: And then, what so what ends audience like who are you appealing to.
Lex Pulos: So see fall was this board game that came out there's new mechanic that was developed, eight years ago I think now i'm.
Lex Pulos: In the mortgage industry which doesn't happen all that often so it was kind of big deal legacy games and the idea is that when you play a game you change the board to cut up cards which feels taboo and a board game, because you want to play it over and over again and.
Lex Pulos: there's a lot going on, like as the Games becomes overwhelming demand of rules that happens to players i've got some like there's a designer such a vital I called his name his blood.
Lex Pulos: And just a ton of rules, and so I think one of the things you want to think about too much is just the overwhelming amount of mechanics that players are going to have to learn to play.
Lex Pulos: In a board game, at least, I think that as a deterrent for your audience unless you're heavy into like large scale euro games which becomes like not only our board games for have a niche audience generally.
Lex Pulos: Then you're talking about like euro games which is like another niche audience and top of that, and then like large scale complex.
Lex Pulos: Like that's a very small audience that you're thinking about, so I think too much then tends to be I think a mental mechanics are things that players have to do.
Lex Pulos: I think that's probably one of the biggest hurdles in the board game industry.
Lex Pulos: yeah.
Ethan Wilde: yeah easy to learn hard to master um.
Ethan Wilde: here's a specific question from band about a particular game, do you think risk is too long, of the game, or do you like it.
Lex Pulos: Okay, so um.
Lex Pulos: it's the very person like um I my brother was dating this woman Anna and she had a brother who was autistic and he knew a lot about war and him and my brother and his girlfriend went on a camping trip and and his brother babies at me and for like 16 hours we played risk.
Lex Pulos: And I think I made like eight moves the entire game, because every time I move was made, I learned like I gotta go to our history lesson on the wars that had all occurred in that same area what was going on, or like.
Lex Pulos: So he was mapping in the game on to real history.
Lex Pulos: i've never played risk sense.
Lex Pulos: So I had to that question because i'm such a very specific experience um.
Lex Pulos: yeah.
Lex Pulos: I think if I were to play it now I don't think that I would think it's too long, I mean, I have some gains that take 12 hours to play and i'm fine with that as a board game, so I guess, I guess, now, my position is probably changed.
Ethan Wilde: Great great story thanks for sharing that.
Ethan Wilde: Now I think that's everybody's questions.
Ethan Wilde: I i'll throw one in, though.
Ethan Wilde: to ask you about your disposition to this movement notice transformational games, how do you see critical play fitting into this idea of games that change people.
Lex Pulos: i'm.
Ethan Wilde: familiar with that phrase of transformational games.
Lex Pulos: I mean, like in like a Jane mcgonigal sense of like that games evoke new experiences that can change our world, and how we treat people.
Ethan Wilde: yeah that's one that's one facet of it, I think, also the idea that i'll give you a quote from from a text on transformational games from.
Ethan Wilde: Sabrina cobija the transformational framework she says transformational games are those Games developed with the intention of changing players in a specific way that transfers and persist beyond the game.
Lex Pulos: So the gtc a couple years ago, and then a couple of 2018 2019 attended a couple game conferences, one of the biggest I don't like to have the ones I went to the biggest conversation was empathy.
Lex Pulos: And every person that spoke was like we need more empathetic games, we need empathy and games and their example they kept pointing to with.
Lex Pulos: god of war at the time and there's a scene in which the father's trying to connect to a son and he reaches out the idea of empathy.
Lex Pulos: And many ways So how do we make games that are more empathetic I found a compelling apart because maybe the problem with some of the games industry is that we're not building empathy into it.
Lex Pulos: And then I played with a two brothers.
Lex Pulos: It was a game and which you left analog stick control one brother and the right analogues that controlled another brother you play two hours game wasn't too long and something happens because I don't want to ruin it for me it's fine to ruin it.
Lex Pulos: That changed my relationship to the brothers and as a consequence to change my relationship in a very emotional way to the game and then make me call my brother.
Lex Pulos: And I was very I was emotionally impacted by that.
Lex Pulos: And a compelling and I think and useful a journey, I think, is another example of like wanting to connect into a line with people.
Lex Pulos: outside of the game, I think, film does this all the time, I think, film changes our relationship to people we explored understand the world new ways.
Lex Pulos: mean like I think film is a very evocative medium in so many ways, television, to a certain extent, I think, does this as well, I think novels absolutely do this in some ways, and I do think the Games do do this now is that a good thing, or is that a bad thing, maybe as part of the question.
Lex Pulos: which really depends on I guess of the designers of that game, but I think there are people who are trying to make the critical games that transform us and create.
Lex Pulos: A better world no I mentioned your name Jim I gotta go like ideas that the amount of time we spend playing video games.
Lex Pulos: And if we change that or harness that energy that passionate enthusiasm we can do a lot for the world.
Lex Pulos: She has a game cruel to be kind we're like the idea is you're kind of playing in a social space and I.
Lex Pulos: just go out and I make people laugh, and you get points are good people hugs and you get points or talk to somebody you're trying to create a new sense of self a new presence in the world, using game mechanics to do that um, and so I think that's a good thing.
Lex Pulos: I can certainly see how it slips though into like a dangerous territory that might be a little like simplistic of game players have audiences that use them.
Lex Pulos: Video games make violence.
Lex Pulos: turned up think of the argument here, but I do think that that because video games are somewhat a medium of contemporary society.
Lex Pulos: Much like the Internet, it does a bunch of different things we don't necessarily interact with it the same way, what games function and ways to bring people together they're interconnected their experiential.
Lex Pulos: Their cross cultural or intercultural like they're one of the best mediums that highlight how the 21st century is different than the 21st century, my opinion.
Lex Pulos: And so I think, as a consequence of that they provide an opportunity to evoke change in people in in positive ways and maybe i'm idealistic and i've answered your question or constituent.
Ethan Wilde: But that was great Thank you and you think that that theme of.
Ethan Wilde: Of empathy is part of what affects people through film so powerfully.
Lex Pulos: I mean, I think, for many reasons, yeah I mean we see ourselves in these characters are we can do these characters are they tell stories that relate to us and they connect to us in some ways.
Lex Pulos: But phil does it also like in a visual way in an oral and auditory way right like it creates an experienced this heightened as a consequence of that.
Lex Pulos: So yeah I definitely think empathy House I think of like awareness like because we see people on screen going through an emotion or going through zoom that might not relate to us, it does give us the opportunity to like.
Lex Pulos: reflect on being in somebody else's shoes shoes so.
Lex Pulos: I do you think that absolutely empathy is a part of the film viewing experience.
Ethan Wilde: Great well, thank you lex is there anything else you'd like to add, before we wrap up for the night, I think we have exhausted all the questions from our audience.
Lex Pulos: yeah no I mean, I know that I, you know went through some history stuff partially because I wanted to like illustrate that games are this will be interesting complex medium.
Lex Pulos: I think my under my favorite historical coaches like things that helped so civilization occur was the development of games, because we had free time and we weren't fearing for our lives and beer.
Lex Pulos: Because we had things that weren't like fermenting in areas that everything you know board games we're kind of a fun thing to think about it that's what society.
Lex Pulos: is built off of but also that, as a consequence that games are fundamentally part of civilization and that there's so much more meaning and history to that idea of games as a part of the civilizing.
Lex Pulos: I guess then like educational evolving process of humanity.
Lex Pulos: So i'm compelled by the Games are coming out the ways in which games are changing, and I hope that when we think about designing games that we designed for empathy if we designed for experience first.
Lex Pulos: That fun will come after it's really hard to design for fun, because that looks so different for everybody else, but if you can design for experience first and use mechanics that elicit kinds of experience.
Lex Pulos: For me that's I think was one of the most important lessons about like making and teaching game design.
Ethan Wilde: Wonderful well, thank you, Dr poulos it's been a pleasure to hear from you and i'll be very excited to share this recording up on the game to us page.
Ethan Wilde: And look forward to to further contact with you as we travel through the Santa Rosa junior college experience together.
Lex Pulos: For sure, thank you, and thanks everybody for being here and staying with it.
Ethan Wilde: Great have a wonderful evening everybody before we sign off i'm just going to give a quick.
Ethan Wilde: pitch for our very last session, which will be about a month from now, the last Thursday of May.
Ethan Wilde: May 26 that's the Thursday during final exam week, of all things so hopefully everybody will want a little break but it's also time to pretty nicely, I think, because we come to the end of the school year and it's a forward looking chance to hear from.
Ethan Wilde: A alumna.
Ethan Wilde: of our game development program here at sjc Gregor Gonzalez who graduated from.
Ethan Wilde: The JC a few years ago, went on to pursue a four year game development degree at university of utah and he is just graduated.
Ethan Wilde: And he's coming back to sonoma county and he'll be joining us here for our closing.
Ethan Wilde: Talk on may 26 to share his experiences of going through our program here at the JC and then moving on to a four year degree and he can also talk about how he's approaching.
Ethan Wilde: real life outside of school as he's graduating and now heading into the field of game development so hope to see folks there next month, again, thank you, Dr poulos and until then have a great time everybody see you all soon bye bye.