ARG Design
Experimental Games: Critique, Play, and Design in the Age of Gamification
Patrick Jagoda 2020 12 references
Apply Patrick Jagoda's framework for analyzing gamification as neoliberalism and designing experimental games that make problems rather than solve them.
gamification game-design neoliberalism media-theory alternate-reality-games affect-theory game-studies
Overview
The Core Framework
- Gamification ≠ design trend: It is the formal counterpart to neoliberalism — a 4-stage genealogy: game theory → neoliberalism → behavioral economics → digital games
- Form does the ideological work: A game's mechanics, not its narrative, produce or resist neoliberal subjects (Stardew Valley's anti-capitalist story runs on extractivist mechanics)
- Two modes of behavioral design: Conditioning (closed environment, molded individuals) vs. priming (open environment, acts on rules) — experimental games use priming
- Three difficulties: Mechanical (execution) / Interpretive (meaning) / Affective (irresolvable, relational) — affective difficulty is the ideological site
- The experimental move: Make problems rather than solve them — activate untimely historical potentials gamification forecloses
Quick Lookup
| Situation | Do This | Avoid This |
|---|---|---|
| Analyzing why a game feels ideological | Check the verbs — what does the player do? | Reading narrative/aesthetic surface only |
| Designing against gamification | Design for priming, not conditioning | Adding "anti-capitalist" content to optimization mechanics |
| Evaluating game difficulty | Ask which of 3 difficulties it targets | Treating mechanical difficulty as the only kind |
| Designing experimental games | Generate problems, not solutions | Testing for correct answers |
| Analyzing player choices | Ask what prior affective conditioning shaped the "choice" | Assuming sovereign rational choice |
The Key Insight
"Games do not merely represent or simulate a social field but produce social realities, subjects, desires, and habits." — Patrick Jagoda, Introduction: Society of the Game
References
No references match your search.