Two years ago, I was running a project to explore innovation in mobile gaming. I had the great good fortune to work with Raph Koster, Sean Vesce, and others.
Our design focus areas were:
- Colocated play with phones (YDKJ, SpaceTeam, “couch co-op for phones”)
- Design that supported true human connection between the players, based on my interpretation of hundreds of papers I read in sociology, psychology, neurobiology, popular science, etc.
At the same time, Daniel, Bill, Joel, Yuri, Michael, and others at PH2016 were working on the same challenge, and posted their report on “Game design patterns that facilitate strangers becoming ‘friends’“.
Synchronicity. The movement to reclaim our electronic lives – to counterbalance the unhealthy unintended consequences – gathers steam. The game design morphogenetic field in action. An idea whose time has come?
The result of my project was a design lens called The Trust Spectrum, which Raph published in great detail on his blog. I have been continuing to refine and update the theory in my personal work, and just gave a talk on it at the Intentional Play Summit.
Since it is no longer my ‘full time job’ to develop and refine this theory, I feel PH is an ideal forge in which to temper the concept, put it to the test with some of the greatest minds in the industry, and see if there’s anything there.
This concept – creating games that have positive social impact in the real world, that help strengthen the bonds of humanity – has become my personal lodestone, a guide in my career to help me work on things I will be proud to leave behind.
I would like help refining and solidifying the Trust Spectrum into something usable – or determine that it’s superceded by the work of others. Jumping off points for a workgroup (not a checklist – a brainstorm starter):
- Do design analyses of a broad array of games
- Refine the levels of the trust spectrum
- Deep dive back into the scientific research from whence the Trust Spectrum came
- Cut away that which does not work
- Attempt to correlate Trust Spectrum measurements of games to other indicators – audience size, popularity, ratings scores, even profitability. Does the Trust Spectrum predict anything?
- Pick it up and use it as a tool. See if it helps us design something healthy, something new, something beautiful. (Something blue?) One success story would be to develop a physical game to share with other PH attendees that leaves players feeling better about themselves and each other.
- Oh, by the way – how do we define that? How do we measure it?
- Explore the morality of ‘gamifying’ friendship. I strongly believe games should not *push* people closer together – rather, serve as enrichment, as nutrition for a relationship. Where do we draw the line, and how does a game use friendship as part of a compulsion loop? What stance should we, as an industry, take when we *know* that a game is unhealthy – and how do we know?
I’m eager for the opportunity PH offers to dive into this research and concept, and would be thrilled to have others along for the journey.
Thanks for reading!
– Aaron
2 thoughts on “Designing for Friendship, Part Deux – The Trust Spectrum”
I am very interested in similar topics — is it through comments that we are supposed to offer feedback or are there other mechanisms?
Offering your feedback here is best. We will be voting on topics prior to the event, so the best contribution you can make at this time is in the areas of definition and clarification of what this topic is or can be.
If this topic is selected for a workgroup, and you join that workgroup, you will have lots of time to contribute to the discussion.
– Linda
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