The part of this week’s reading from Salen and Zimmerman that caught my attention was their section on design for gameplay, and its connection to the idea of “meaningful play”. The authors give the definition that games are designed for people to encounter a certain created context, and meaning emerges from the user of said game (Salen & Zimmerman, 62). Game design is deeply intertwined with the concepts of semiotics and symbolism. Semiotics, being the process in which meaning is made, involves the interpretation of symbolism and their context (63). Now, design is important because it provides players of a game a “carefully crafted experience” or context in which a set of rules can organize meaning to make sense of the play (63). In a sense, design creates a reason for certain aspects of play, and everyday life to have certain meaning, and when it comes to meaningful play, designers can help produce personal meaning to an intersection of “people, objects, and contexts” (63). The design of play also serves as a way for people to make sense of symbols, and “movement between known and unknown information” where new information can be built through interaction (67).
When I started college, I actually came in as a Product Design major, and did that for about a year and a half. One of the things that I connected with in this reading was the idea of how the consumer or individual ‘encounters’ a design. One of the biggest things that you learn about effective design is how to attract an unfamiliar audience to your object. This idea of presenting an interesting encounter to an individual, and in return the individual interacting longer with your design is a common goal. I can remember working on projects, specifically things like headphones and bottles, and having to remember this idea of “who would be interested in this?”. When you do that kind of design, you don’t design for yourself, you design for the consumer or the individual’s needs. I never got the chance to design any sort of game, but I can understand the idea of crafting an experience that may create meaning for someone. I can only assume that creating gameplay, or some form of meaningful play utilizes some of the same aspects of semiotics and thought process. In the words of renowned designer Dieter Rams: “Good design is making something intelligible and memorable. Great design is making something memorable and Meaningful”.
"Basics Design 01: Format: Second Edition" by Gavin Ambrose, Paul Harris, A&C Black, (p. 151), May 1, 2012.
I thought that the reading was at times difficult to understand or process but this blog post made things more clear to me! It is crazy to me all the aspects that go into making and creating a game. For example I think the aspect of symbols and semiotics plays a huge role in engaging the player with the game. It allows for people to connect on a more serious level and engage in ways they might not have before. Creating a game with personal meaning to a group so large must be a very difficult task. We must consider how many different people are playing these games and relate it to people's perception of each game.
ReplyDeleteIn my own studies I can relate to the point made about making something that's not for you. I think this relates to a lot of different areas that we must understand. In my experience in marketing it is extremely important that you know who your target is, just like targeting peoples engagement on video games. As I think more deeply about this concept it makes me realize that these lessons we are learning are quite everywhere around us at all times. A question I ask myself is in the future how much can we deeply connect to an individual? It scares me to think about it but there are many games/ads I have seen that got my full attention instantly.