The article titled "Slave Tetris and Our Responsibility to Game Study" written by Samantha Blackmon was the reading that stood out most to me this week. This piece of writing was both interesting and unsettling as it explored distasteful (and flat out racist) realities behind some forms of gaming content in relation to the concept of agency within the realm of gaming. Within this article, the author explains how there was a section or "mini-game" within a game that educators would later find out about and test out themselves called "Playing History 2: Slave Trade". Supposedly the intent behind this game being created was to "make historical discussions of slavery age appropriate" (Blackmon) While this was a situation that could have been totally prevented by developers, game theorists, and designers alike, it was not and thus has become a great example of bringing up agency and games in education.
Another example of agency in games could be the "Life is Strange" video game series. Within this series, there is a different main character with different powers in each version of the game. Throughout the game you go through the characters backstory and when you play as them throughout their present times, you have the choice to choose between different paths of life for them by deciding on different choices which all circle back to their lives and experience(s) in the game. At the end of each chapter of the game it gives statistics of what other plays around the world chose for their characters life and there is a lot of comparison regarding what could have been different to have the best outcome for the character and player overall.
Blackmon, Samantha, and Samantha Blackmon. “Slave Tetris and Our Responsibility to Game Studies.” NYMG, 3 Sept. 2015, https://www.nymgamer.com/?p=10993.
I enjoyed your example regarding agency in a choice-based video game like Life Is Strange and how it's an effective example of how agency can be properly used in the realm of the game industry. I'm a big fan of not only the Life Is Strange games, but choice-based games in general like Detroit Become Human and The Walking Dead. In Detroit Become Human, not only do you get to see the other choices that you could have made, you get to see the web of choices and consequences, but only after you have experienced them, encouraging the player to replay the chapter in order to see all versions of how it could have played out. I'm not sure about this strategy and I think I like Life Is Strange's method better because it instills a sense of purpose in the agency of the player, like all of their decisions matter because there is no way to go back. In Detroit Become Human, it gives you an option to replay the chapter right after you finish it, making the decisions you made, often in haste and without much thinking, meaningless if you can just change them right away.
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