Creative Agency and Play in Design-Based Games
2021; Volume: 13; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/jeu.2021.0013
ISSN1920-261X
Autores Tópico(s)Child Development and Digital Technology
ResumoCreative Agency and Play in Design-Based Games Christina Fawcett (bio) Dreams. Media Molecule, 2020. Super Mario Maker 2. Nintendo, 2019. As video games take up more of young people's screen time, finding games to engage them is an ever-growing concern. The fears surrounding young people and screens, and video games specifically, have been amplified through the COVID-19 pandemic. On 16 January 2021, The New York Times ran a front-page story on parents' anxieties about children's over-exposure to digital media. Highlighting fourteen-year-old James Reichert's reliance on technology to deal with the physical and social isolation of the pandemic the story feeds into parents' fears of digital media as addiction and mental health risk: "The cost will be borne by families, Dr. Christakis [director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children's Research Institute] said, because increased online use is associated with anxiety, depression, obesity and aggression—'and addiction to the medium itself'" (Richtel). The language of moral panic echoes the cultural refrain that new technology is inherently dangerous. A long-standing compromise exists: games defined as edutainment, combining math or grammar or other primary subjects into game structures, are parent-friendly nods to the importance of screens for learning. A search for "edutainment games 2020" offers a wealth of websites listing the top resources for kids learning at home. The lists further normalize the anxiety around digital gaming, as the subtitle to CNET's "15 Educational Video Games for Kids in Quarantine (That Are Actually Fun)" suggests: "These educational video games for kids make screen time less guilty while everyone is at home" (Brown).1 The fear of screen time and focus on games labelled as educational frequently ignores the learning opportunities so-called entertainment-only games offer. The problem solving, emotional modelling, goal orientation, spatial relations, and in-world physics that games [End Page 315] require encourage skills that may not align with rubrics on traditional report cards but are invaluable parts of learning. While I could rhapsodize about the value and importance of all digital games, this review is about a category of game that began in 2008 with Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet (LBP): creator games. The LittleBigPlanet series offered both a storyline and platformer2 mechanics: players collect different sound effects, background materials, props, and tools that they can then remix. The LittleBigPlanet platform was all about creation. The storylines of LittleBigPlanet, LittleBigPlanet 2, and LittleBigPlanet 3 revolve around taking in ideas and creating something to share: play is fun, creation and design is important, but sharing creativity is key. LBP set the stage for Super Mario Maker, a nostalgic game-design platform. The 2015 game let players create new courses situated in the Mario intellectual property; the game engaged the creative process through an accessible set of tools and familiar set of visuals: specialized knowledge, training, and experience were not requirements. In both platforms, coding became drag and drop and digital storytelling was democratized: "All imagination is here, and what you do with it all is entirely up to you. Build new levels and expand the environment, collect the many and varied tools and objects to make your mark on this world, or just simply enjoy the people and puzzles they've set" (Media Molecule). Dreams and Super Mario Maker 2 amplify the importance of the creative process in gaming: building on their predecessors' successes, these games create opportunities for not only creative but collaborative play. Dreams Dreams opens with a dark screen and a voice-over by the Dream Queen, voiced by Sophie Okenado: "In the beginning, nothing. No movement. No sound. Complete emptiness. Then, something. A spec, an idea. The idea could be anything. It could be everything"3 ("Big Bang"). At the mention of an idea, a glimmering light appears, before the screen gradually fills with lights, colours, shapes, sound effects, and animation: a pair of eyes that open. The game then introduces simple mechanics, for instance, moving the controller to move the player's Imp, that is, her onscreen avatar. The Dream Queen's encouragements become more emphatic as the player learns these inputs: "You're amazing. You...
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