Juan and the Beanstalk
“Juan and the Beanstalk”, a game that is still in the process of being made by Rafael Fajardo and the Sweat collaborative is likely to reinvent the way we see games as social mechanisms and further the important work of understanding how experiential and interactive gameplay can produce empathy within complex social issues. In the game you play as Juan, a simple coffee farmer in rural Colombia. Juan, whose son has just vanished before planting season, is given the difficult choice of cultivating poppy flowers for the rich and powerful narcos, or continuing to grow coffee for the federation.
“Poppies grow fast, give a high rate of return, and carry a high degree of risk of expropriation by the government. Coffee grows slowly, gives a low rate of return, and runs a high degree of risk of expropriation by the narcos”
Pablo, via sudor.net
The economic system buried within this gameplay consistently emulates a lose-lose situation. This strategy of burying a social issue within an interesting story is the approach that game designers, like Fajardo, interested in socially conscious games have been taking.
Juan, via sudor.net
In a 2010 article from Cognitive Technology, authors Belman and Flanagan highlight the unique capability of games to foster empathy:
“Games are well-suited to this because they allow players to inhabit the roles of other people in a uniquely immersive way. One can read about Darfuri refugees in the news, but, in an admittedly limited sense, a game can allow one to be a Darfuri refugee.”
They argue that empathy, having been shown psychologically to be a powerful tool to reduce negative attitudes and behaviors towards other individuals, combined with carefully designed games as a sort of step to jump over prejudices that prohibit empathy, can be a legitimate approach to opening people’s minds to other viewpoints within complex social issues. The authors give several key principles in designing these experiences, emphasizing the importance of making the player aware that they are meant to cognitively empathize, clearly stating ways in which the player’s actions can affect the issue, and highlighting the similarities between the player and the group with which the player is meant to empathize. Although “Juan and the Beanstalk” follows some of these principles (e.g. Juan’s original plight is a lost or missing child, a relatable fear for many players), however some would point out that following these rules is not enough.
In a blog from 2012, Stephen Dick argues that designing socially conscious games is not always good, and can even sometimes be destructive.
“Whatever the excuse, due to poor design, avoiding what we should be doing becomes a learned behavior. After all, it’s just easier to avoid it than take the chance that you are doing it wrong. This leads to a pattern of apathy and ignoring the issues all together out of guilt. We’ve all walked past those guys who sit outside of Target asking for donations, pretending to ignore them or suddenly getting very interested in our phones.”
Dick takes a pessimistic view on the issue, but brings up a serious point. Gamers, generally speaking, play games as a form of escapism, not to face serious issues that they are already averse to in everyday life. Although experientially games can how a powerful influence on players’ thoughts and habits, having a player aware of the fact that they are meant to be empathizing (as emphasized by Belman and Flanagan), removes them from the playful space and makes them a third-person viewer in their playing experience. The game must be attractive to the player first as a game, Dick argues, and then sneakily introduce the player to the desired message.
Dys4ia via Kill Screen
Another perspective presented by Dan Solberg at Kill Screen recognizes the development of empathy games but calls into question some of the methods frequently used in them. Solberg highlights the transition between two games made by a pioneer in empathy game, Anna Anthropy. Her first, “Dys4ia”, is an autobiographical take that puts the player in the shoes of a trans woman trying to decide whether or not to begin hormone transplant therapy. “Dys4ia” served as a cultural artifact and holds artistic importance for the story it brings to people’s attention, however Solberg notes it is hard to measure its success. Even more critical of the next game, Solberg argues:
“Anthropy’s sequel to Dys4ia sheds some light on how much has and hasn’t changed since people first started talking about empathy games. Shortly after returning home from her New York show, Anthropy was struck by a car while using a crosswalk. She made a game about the experience and its immediate aftermath called Ohmygod Are You Alright?... The mostly text-based Ohmygod grapples with heavy concepts such as trauma, anxiety and empathy – with a direct, autobiographical voice. The game also brings full circle the empathetic potential of games and the problematic way “empathy games” can be inserted as stand-in solutions to real world issues… While many believed the seeds of empathy would already have sprouted and borne fruit, Anthropy’s Ohmygod instead illustrates absences: absence of a supportive community, absence of health insurance, absence of financial stability, etc.”
It seems that Solberg finds Anthropy’s autobiographical voice to be uninspiring within the context of her medium. He, among others, may have only taken the time to put on the shoes, and not related enough to Anthropy’s story to take the time to cross the road.
Both Dick and Solberg bring up relevant criticisms. If the goal of an empathy game is to broaden the perspective of the player, than the faults existing within players in general make empathy games like “Ohmygod Are You Alright?” problematic. In a way the player must be tricked into empathizing, or by Solberg’s apparent mantra “motivated to supportive action”, not just empathy.
This is the way in which “Juan and the Beanstalk” will excel. It attracts players like a traditional game to scenarios that are challenging, interesting, and hard to beat. It goes beyond challenging the player to cross a road, or to read a plain-text story in a new and creative way. The game has a story worth exploring that engages the player, but also the classic gameplay elements that have attracted generations to games that lack a strong narrative (Pacman, Super Mario, etc.). The most important trick to making the player think more deeply within Fajardo’s work, however, is not in the ways that it is secretly not “gamey”, but how it explores what “gamey” is in the first place.
“Elements of the game logic will run against the current of tradition, and resonate more with the cultural logic of Latin-America. This will pose interesting challenges to the player. It is better not to reveal too much here because the game will reveal itself to the player. The choice to turn the logic on its head is as much a critique as the choice of politically inspired subject matter. If our games reflect our cultural values… then the introduction of these other values to a North American audience will create some interesting dissonance.”
Fajardo suggests that we can insert cultural understanding by changing the gameplay rather than explicitly stating the message. For example, Juan is rewarded after losing a soccer game against el narco, Pablo. The player is left to question what they are meant to consider a win or a loss in this scenario, redefining the meaning of the game and creating a unique moment of empathy between the player and Juan.
Fajardo, via Works and Days
This approach is difficult to understand and explain. It seems as though it will work, and if not, it is at least an interesting experiment. Perhaps the approach is best explained by the Fajardo and the Sweat collaborative themselves:
“We are culturally engaged. We seek moments of empathy and of creative imagination in the mind of the player. Blurring the line between the fun and the social conscience. We attempt to create a tension, a dissonance between “game” and “critique”, between fun and serious, between glee (which I think is unself-conscious) and guilt (which is totally self-conscious). We try to put players on uncertain footing, without preaching, without piety, and open a space, an opportunity for the player to question the situation being presented.”
Sources:
Juan and the Beanstalk
http://www.sudor.net/games/juan.html
Sudor.net:
Cognitive Technology:
Works and Days:
http://www.worksanddays.net/2004/File17.Fajardo_File17.Fajardo.pdf
Gamasutra:
Kill Screen
https://killscreen.com/articles/the-problem-with-empathy-games/
Ohmygod Are You Alright?
