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Empathy Engines: Design Games That Are Personal, Political, and Profound
In this guide, Elizabeth Sampat teaches designers to reach out to others by reaching through themselves. Drawing on influences as varied as history, politics, psychology and theater, EMPATHY ENGINES sketches a complex network of interaction and community, and shows that system design is at its beating heart. With thorough breakdowns of a multitude of games (blockbuster and indie) and thought-provoking exercises at the end of each chapter, EMPATHY ENGINES will make any game designer think more closely about how to wield systems with intention.
Chapter List:
Introduction
Systems Make Statements
Extinguishing Neutrality
Minimalism & Autobiography
Cognitive & Emotional Empathy
Real-World Emulation
Games Are Broken; Reality's Fine
Designing For Cognitive Empathy
The Problem With Winnability
Afterword
Chapter List:
Introduction
Systems Make Statements
Extinguishing Neutrality
Minimalism & Autobiography
Cognitive & Emotional Empathy
Real-World Emulation
Games Are Broken; Reality's Fine
Designing For Cognitive Empathy
The Problem With Winnability
Afterword
109 pages, ebook
Published January 1, 2017
1 person is currently reading
108 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 1, 2024
The exercises alone are worth the five stars. This is brilliant and mind-expanding for game designers.
But my favorite part of the book was the section on gamification and why that benefits the creator of the system, not the target of the system.
But my favorite part of the book was the section on gamification and why that benefits the creator of the system, not the target of the system.
April 26, 2020
1) "Exercise One: A More Faithful Simulation
The challenge: create a city simulation that makes the practice of redlining its focus— whether it's a board game, a card game, a digital game, or simply a game design document. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you begin the design process:
• Is this a single-player game or a multi-player game?
• Who do players play as— Black homeowners? White neighbors? The predatory lenders? The FHA?
• If it is a multiplayer game, is it competitive or cooperative?
• What is the game's win condition?
• Is the win condition designed to be achievable?
• How should a player feel while playing your game?
• How should a player feel after playing your game?
• What are the fundamental assumptions you are making about the world, and about the practice of redlining in particular?"
2) "Exercise Two: Trading Places
The challenge: create a game about a facet of yourself, as if designed by someone whose background or beliefs are fundamentally different from your own. This person could be from a different race, religion, socio-economic class, or political party. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you begin the design process:
• Which potential cognitive biases would the designer have in relation to your life?
• What aspect of your life do you think the designer would find most interesting, unique, or repellant?
• How would the designer portray this aspect mechanically?
• How do you think the designer would want the players to feel while playing the game?
• Or after completing the game?"
3) "Exercise Four: Sympathy & Empathy
The challenge: think of something difficult that has happened to you, and the ways in which you have processed that event. Design a system to create sympathy, and then re-design it for empathy. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you begin the design process:
• How have I processed this event?
• Am I still processing it?
• What are the consequences of this event that have made it so difficult?
• Beyond the event itself?
• What other experiences, in gameplay and otherwise, have evoked similar emotions in me?
• What lessons can I learn from the sympathy system, and how can I apply those lessons when designing for empathy?"
4) "Exercise Five: Found Systems
The world is full of systems, designed well and designed poorly— and being able to deconstruct and synthesize those systems is an important part of thinking mechanically.
The challenge: make a 'bad game' by systemizing a frustration you experience on a regular basis. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you begin the design process:
• What is the actual, intended goal of the system you're abstracting?
• Does it differ from the stated or implied goal?
• Where does the frustration come from?
• Does the system exploit or ignore a player's existing cognitive biases?
• If so, how?"
5) "When futurists talk about a world in which everyone is happy and fulfilled because everyone is earning points and engaging in daring fictional challenges, they're missing a core tenet of games: consent. Consenting to play leads to a suspension of disbelief, which leads to those wonderful feelings of joy and accomplishment. In short, the reason that games feel so good is because we know they aren't reality, and we enjoy pretending that they are. What enjoyment is to be gained from pretending that reality is fake?
[...]
Gamification happens when one person (or company or team) wants to change the behavior of another person (or company or group). The problem with gamification, then, is that it often comes from the solipsistic approach of the 'Text or Tip' project: it tries to solve the problems of the people who want behavior changed, and not the problems of the people who are the target of the proposed system. Gamification asks 'What's bothering me?' while corrective design asks 'What's bothering them?'"
6) "Exercise Seven: Corrective Design
The challenge: create a game to help you correct or bypass a personal fear or flaw. The first step is to establish what part of you will be in the game. Are you making something that emulates something that happened or that currently exists, or are you creating something as a response to something that happened or currently exists? If you're not sure which you're going for, ask yourself some questions:
• Do I want to explore how something affected me, or do I want to explore what would have happened if it had gone differently?
• Do I want to immerse players in a narrative based on my reality, or do I want to make a statement or take a stand?
• Am I talking about how things are, or how I wish they would be?
Once you've established that, you can then start assembling the raw materials that will inspire your mechanics. If you're making an emulation, you need clay that you can shape and add to— explore your emotions and the key results of your experiences, so that you can start making mechanics that lead to those same results. Ask yourself: what has affected me the most? Why did it affect me? How did the parts of my experience connect together, and how can I create those connections in abstract?
If you're making a response, you need a block of marble— start looking for all of the things you want to chip away, and remove everything that keeps you from getting at your desired goal. So ask yourself: What do I regret? What would I change? What would the ramifications of those changes actually be, and am I prepared to face them?
These are two different ways of getting at the fruitful void— the negative space created by the systems you make. That negative space is where emotion lives, and it's the heart of what makes games into empathy engines. Ultimately, system design isn't about designing rules; it's about knowing the space you want players to exist within, and designing the borders of that space to ensure they know where they're going."
The challenge: create a city simulation that makes the practice of redlining its focus— whether it's a board game, a card game, a digital game, or simply a game design document. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you begin the design process:
• Is this a single-player game or a multi-player game?
• Who do players play as— Black homeowners? White neighbors? The predatory lenders? The FHA?
• If it is a multiplayer game, is it competitive or cooperative?
• What is the game's win condition?
• Is the win condition designed to be achievable?
• How should a player feel while playing your game?
• How should a player feel after playing your game?
• What are the fundamental assumptions you are making about the world, and about the practice of redlining in particular?"
2) "Exercise Two: Trading Places
The challenge: create a game about a facet of yourself, as if designed by someone whose background or beliefs are fundamentally different from your own. This person could be from a different race, religion, socio-economic class, or political party. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you begin the design process:
• Which potential cognitive biases would the designer have in relation to your life?
• What aspect of your life do you think the designer would find most interesting, unique, or repellant?
• How would the designer portray this aspect mechanically?
• How do you think the designer would want the players to feel while playing the game?
• Or after completing the game?"
3) "Exercise Four: Sympathy & Empathy
The challenge: think of something difficult that has happened to you, and the ways in which you have processed that event. Design a system to create sympathy, and then re-design it for empathy. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you begin the design process:
• How have I processed this event?
• Am I still processing it?
• What are the consequences of this event that have made it so difficult?
• Beyond the event itself?
• What other experiences, in gameplay and otherwise, have evoked similar emotions in me?
• What lessons can I learn from the sympathy system, and how can I apply those lessons when designing for empathy?"
4) "Exercise Five: Found Systems
The world is full of systems, designed well and designed poorly— and being able to deconstruct and synthesize those systems is an important part of thinking mechanically.
The challenge: make a 'bad game' by systemizing a frustration you experience on a regular basis. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you begin the design process:
• What is the actual, intended goal of the system you're abstracting?
• Does it differ from the stated or implied goal?
• Where does the frustration come from?
• Does the system exploit or ignore a player's existing cognitive biases?
• If so, how?"
5) "When futurists talk about a world in which everyone is happy and fulfilled because everyone is earning points and engaging in daring fictional challenges, they're missing a core tenet of games: consent. Consenting to play leads to a suspension of disbelief, which leads to those wonderful feelings of joy and accomplishment. In short, the reason that games feel so good is because we know they aren't reality, and we enjoy pretending that they are. What enjoyment is to be gained from pretending that reality is fake?
[...]
Gamification happens when one person (or company or team) wants to change the behavior of another person (or company or group). The problem with gamification, then, is that it often comes from the solipsistic approach of the 'Text or Tip' project: it tries to solve the problems of the people who want behavior changed, and not the problems of the people who are the target of the proposed system. Gamification asks 'What's bothering me?' while corrective design asks 'What's bothering them?'"
6) "Exercise Seven: Corrective Design
The challenge: create a game to help you correct or bypass a personal fear or flaw. The first step is to establish what part of you will be in the game. Are you making something that emulates something that happened or that currently exists, or are you creating something as a response to something that happened or currently exists? If you're not sure which you're going for, ask yourself some questions:
• Do I want to explore how something affected me, or do I want to explore what would have happened if it had gone differently?
• Do I want to immerse players in a narrative based on my reality, or do I want to make a statement or take a stand?
• Am I talking about how things are, or how I wish they would be?
Once you've established that, you can then start assembling the raw materials that will inspire your mechanics. If you're making an emulation, you need clay that you can shape and add to— explore your emotions and the key results of your experiences, so that you can start making mechanics that lead to those same results. Ask yourself: what has affected me the most? Why did it affect me? How did the parts of my experience connect together, and how can I create those connections in abstract?
If you're making a response, you need a block of marble— start looking for all of the things you want to chip away, and remove everything that keeps you from getting at your desired goal. So ask yourself: What do I regret? What would I change? What would the ramifications of those changes actually be, and am I prepared to face them?
These are two different ways of getting at the fruitful void— the negative space created by the systems you make. That negative space is where emotion lives, and it's the heart of what makes games into empathy engines. Ultimately, system design isn't about designing rules; it's about knowing the space you want players to exist within, and designing the borders of that space to ensure they know where they're going."
March 26, 2021
This book was fucking amazing and actually made me tear up at certain points. Brilliant.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews