Meeting Notes Summer 2020

home

2020-7-7 (discussion of operational logics)

• Definitions of "operational logics":
  • How the player makes meaning out of the abstract things going on in the game.
  • The connections you have to make to get a message out of the mechanics of a game. More than just the rules of the game.
  • A combination of different designs & mechanics + the way a user interacts creates an experience that conveys something to the player.
  • The specific procedural rhetorical strategies the designer users to affect the interactive experience of the player in an attempt to convey their message.

• Can operational logics be deployed in a novel (not a choose-your-own-adventure)?

• Maybe in some ways, but maybe not...?

• Maybe there's a continuum between completely-determined stories all the way to games?

• Formatting of a novel, like dates placed throughout the text, can maybe be kind of logic?

• Story build from newspaper clippings & fliers & stuff about activities in a single house, with lots of room to interpret the inner lives of the characters.

2020-6-16 (discussion of procedural rhetoric and newsgames)

• It's maybe problematic if people play a game like Kabul Kaboom to enjoy it.
• Things can go really sideways with the message.
• Depends on the player themselves.
• Going through the motions can be more persuasive than someone telling you something.
• Coming to a conclusion yourself is powerful.
• It can be very easy to miss the point of a game.
• Different mixes of rhetorical strategies.
• Death of the author.
• Talked about Brenda Braithwaite's Train.
• Procedural rhetoric in games you know?
  • Plague Inc. about virus spreads. Added warnings to the game to talk about the current situation.
  • Berlin conference game in European history class. Go split up Africa. Best way to win was by teaming up with other countries and forming an alliance.
  • Peter also played a game in elementary school about colonizing America.
  • Risk is another similar example. Some territories are worth more than others...
    • Resentment + teaming up + a lot of things.
  • Exploding kittens (card game where you draw cards that remove you from the game, and play cards to defuse them).
    • Frustrating + luck-based.
  • Chess: pawns get to upgrade at the end.
  • 2 lions, 20 sheep, lions need to each sheep, while sheep need to avoid isolation and block the lions.
    • If you stay together
• Personal/social growth catalyzed by gameplay...
• Chess meanings:
  • War, pawns as expendable guards
  • Promotion at end of board is a sacrifice on the pawn's side of things.
  • Chinese chess is maybe on step less abstract than normal chess.
  • Players try to distract each other, which is also how things work in the real world.
• Interesting to have to think about accidental implications.
• These readings + conversations give a different perspective on games + the game that we're building as well.
• Why not make the news/rhetoric aspect of the game more obvious?
  • Maybe to convince more subtly?
• More evidence to tell relatives that playing games is beneficial/not a waste of time.

2020-6-16 (high-level goals resolution)

• Goals for this meeting:
• For each team, decide what your high-level goal is.
  • Analyze feasibility.
  • Start breaking that down into subgoals.
• Goals after that: create a design document for your chosen high-level goal: just a short text document (although you can include pictures if you want) briefly describing how the stuff that you're working on will work when it's done.

2020-6-16 (first words game meeting)

• Goals for this meeting:
  1. Brainstorm goals: what are we working on?
  2. Decide on pairs.
  3. Translate goals into Trello tasks.
     • Top level will be at the level of (abstract) mechanics, like "Create a light/shadow mechanic."
     • One or more design subgoals for each mechanic.
     • Break things down into when/then statements (concrete mechanics/rules).
     • Break rules down into data structures, internal algorithms, and response functions.
     • As we work, create new Trello tasks for each sub-goal that comes into view.
  4. Create branches for each feature, and start working towards each goal.
     • Write code for the data structures, internal algorithms, and response function goals.
     • Move Trello tasks towards completion.
• Goals for this week and next: dictated by Trello.

2020-6-8 (overview meeting)

• Plan for the summer:
  • Week 1: Work on Anarchy example .html file.
    • Purpose:
      • Familiarize yourself with JavaScript, (and HTML and CSS) a bit.
      • Familiarize yourself with the Anarchy library.
      • Get up to speed with the various tools that we'll be using this summer: mainly Slack, Trello, and Git.
    • Reading:
      • Read the Anarchy and MDA papers
  • Weeks 2-3 and 4-5: Two two-week development "sprints" working on new features for the Words game.
    • Purpose:
      • Develop new features to make the game more fun.
      • Exploit the Anarchy library to show what can be done.
    • Reading:
      • At some point we'll read the operational logics paper; more TBD.
    • Activities
      • Pair programming
      • Daily "scrum" meetings
      • Weekly code review
      • Trello for organizing and tracking progress
  • Week 6: Wrap-up including poster creation + maybe some paper writing.
    • Purpose:
      • Fulfil deliverables (poster for summer poster session) and contexutalize our work.
    • Activities
      • TBD writing/poster design
• To do for week 1:
  • Build your own demo using Anarchy.
  • Read the Anarchy workshop paper + the MDA framework paper (we'll discuss the MDA paper a bit early next week).
  • Figure out Slack, Trello, and Git.
  • If you want, start learning Vim + command line.
  • Complete responsible conduct of research training by Friday.
  • Fill out the first weekly summer research survey for the Science Center folks.