I found the “Slave Tetris and Our Responsibility of Game Studies” article by Samantha Blackmon extremely intriguing because of the discussion around agency in games. “Mistakes weren’t made, you made the mistake!” This is the author’s response to a halfhearted response by an insensitive game developer for “game-ifying” the slave trade as a way to learn about it. While the slave game is an extreme and grossly insensitive example, agency in games do have a purpose, but it’s important to use it in the right context or else the educational value will go out the window. I find agency in games in general to be such a fascinating subject because at the heart of it, it’s what makes games as a medium so fun and immersive.
The game director for The Last Of Us, Bruce Straley, said something about game agency that has stuck with me for years since I heard it. On a Reddit AMA in 2014, he said “We try to approach it from the gameplay angle. "Can this emotion be achieved on the stick? how??" and we go back & forth like that trying to suss out what would work best for what we're after...” I thought the phrase “on the stick” was so interesting because so much of games like The Last Of Us try to capture emotional moments or intense sequences, but unless the player is given the agency to control “the stick”, or the controller, they don't really get a feel for the potentiel anxiety or real joy if they are presented with a cutscene to watch instead.
I really agree with your point on the importance of the context of agency in video games, or in games in general. I think that specifically for video games, the idea of an expanded agency, past the notion of board games and other sorts of play, really expand the fun and interest of the medium. I will say that I think, with all the possibilities for agency that video games allow, I would argue that I personally have seen that agency work in a negative way. Whether from the game developers themselves, or the players and community of the games, unchecked development of certain things can lead to issues. The game that comes to mind for me for negative agency is Call Of Duty, and their "No Russian" level in Modern Warfare 2, which essentially gives the player the agency to commit a mass shooting at a Russian airport. The level is still available in the original game, but developers, under intense scrutiny, will not be putting the level on the re-release this year (GameSpot). I think the gross lack of awareness by the game developers in 2009 can provide yet another example of what is ok and not ok to add for play in this medium.
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