What is it about?
Many games are about uncertainty, often with a focus on uncertainty regarding the motifs of other players. In this paper we are exploring how this uncertainty, and distrust can be used in order to create interesting game experiences. The paper uses gameplay design patterns, describes these patterns with related theories from sociology and psychology, to introduce a design intent that describes how to create this uncertainty with care and intent.
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Why is it important?
For those who are interested in social interaction in games, this paper highlights relevant theories for understanding social interaction. It further examplifies how social interaction can be very different in different games. This knowledge gives us a hint about how we can create games without distrust as well.
Perspectives
One perspective on this publication is that it´s exploratory, and the definition on meaningful distrust is tentative. Hopefully it will gain some interest, and perhaps even start a couple of discussions. That is essentially what we are looking for, a discussion that can refine the perspectives of how to create a meaningfulness to distrust in games, and how this can be beneficial for other fields
Magnus Johansson
Department of game design, Uppsala University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Just because you´re paranoid, doesn´t mean they aren´t after you - Meaningful distrust and game design patterns- a study of 4 games, October 2024, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
DOI: 10.1145/3681716.3681732.
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