Parsons @ PETLAB
Parsons was a refreshing visit to a gaming development insitution. The punk rock theme was really interesting, and I think that this take on video games would bring in a wider audience of attention. They made games raising awareness for women’s rights and the Red Cross. They introduced us to their game- Metagame, which is similar to Cards Against Humanity in mechanics except it propels freedom of expression in its improvised subject definitions. They gave us the words punk rock, and asked us to pick which of each cards in our hand that could be punk rock in an unconventional sense (DIY sense). Someone would read out their card and why it could be considered punk rock.
They changed up the pace a bit- we got to make our own mini games. I like the fact that the two prepared a sheet of guidelines for us. One side gave ideas for themes on subversion. One idea particular jumped off the page at me for some unknown reason: school. I guess because it’s the biggest factor in my life at the moment to the point where it feels like it’s the only factor. To make our game I took a really simple idea, and some fake money to bet with. My group ended up creating a game on buying assignments called Pass/Fail.
Through this game they forced us to think outside of the box, even outside of any rules. I feel that this aspect of the game being without borders made it more fun and spontaneous.
One point they made which I especially agree with Colleen when she said “games aren’t good for presenting a lot of facts”. Considering these people had made games for change, I could see why their approach to creating games would work for getting a message across rather than presenting facts. Their suggestion was to model the system, not the data. I think other game making institutions need to keep this in mind, especially when making an educational or games for change type game.
