Love, Lust, Courtship and Affection as Evolution in Digital Play


Grace Lindsay D
2017 DiGRA '17 - Proceedings of the 2017 DiGRA International Conference

This paper outlines two models for framing affection games as a contribution to the evolution of courtship rituals or as a matriculation through Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It then frames the design of these games through two distinct lenses. The first is a game verb based framing, focusing on the affectionate actions designed to meet game goals. The second is an interaction dynamic framing, which describes digitally contained affection (affections remaining within the game), digitally facilitated affection (affections facilitated by the game) and digitally communicated affections (affection shared through the game). Continued research into affection games offers a peek into the softer side of digital play and gendered play. Its study unearths an intersection between sociological and psychological tendencies and technology. The work provides an update to previous published work in the domain of affection games by providing new data on affection games and the case study game.

 

Affection Games in Digital Play: A Content Analysis of Web Playable Games


Grace Lindsay D
2014 DiGRA '13 - Proceedings of the 2013 DiGRA International Conference: DeFragging Game Studies

Affection games are ludic experiences in which players are required to express culturally recognized expressions of liking as a primary goal in the game. Interestingly, while the physical world of analog play has many such activities, the digital world has been relatively limited in affording players the ability to express affection as the primary game goal. Affection games in digital play exist as somewhat esoteric clusters across a variety of cultures and super genres. This paper defragments the diverse set of affection games, collecting, cataloging and describing the games in detail. The paper provides a content analysis of affection games and an overview of their preponderance on the web. This paper organizes affection games into a simple classification based on their game verbs. These are flirting, hugging, kissing, and sexual affection. The content analysis provides the attributes through which the affection games are clustered. Notable patterns from the content analysis include indications that kissing and sexual affection are most common, while hugging games are the rarest. There is also a strong coupling of targeted gender identification and the types of affection made playable. These patterns are indicated both in the spaces in which they are distributed and in their content. As the game industry and the academic research community look for new ways to understand and engage wider demographics, the lessons learned from studying affection games may prove useful. Affection games reveal cultural values, taboo, and may potentially expand the space of pro-social play.

 

Big Huggin’ A Case Study in Affection Gaming


Grace Lindsay D
2014 DiGRA '13 - Proceedings of the 2013 DiGRA International Conference: DeFragging Game Studies

Big Huggin' is a game designed for use with a custom teddy bear controller. Players complete the game by providing several well-timed hugs to a 30 inch teddy bear. It is an experiment and gesture in alternative interface and affection gaming. The game is designed around the action of hugging to support an onscreen character. If the players hug too much, their on screen bear will suffer. If they hug too little the player character will never reach its goal. This paper outlines the design, development and evaluation of the game by a wide demographic. The first section provides an outline of the history of affection gaming, providing the theoretical basis for the design of Big Huggin’. The second section describes the development, prototyping and pre-release of the game. The final section outlines the release to a community of pediatric patients and general play audience. The application of this game as a resource to promote pro-social exploration by players is addressed. The goal of this research is not merely to create an alternative play experience. It is envisioned as an opportunity to explore and critique the intersection of play and affection as practiced in digital games. This paper serves as an introduction to the history of such games, a case study and a post-mortem in the design and development of an affection game.

 

The Poetics of Game Design, Rhetoric and the Independent Game


Grace Lindsay D
2011 DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play

This paper approaches the question about games as art from a fundamentally different perspective. Instead of asking questions of visual aesthetics and pursuing analogies to film or commercial arts, it demonstrates an even clearer analogy to poetic forms. Allying common practices in independent games in particular, this paper serves as an illustrative demonstration of the poetics of game design, emphasizing the poetic properties of independent game designs. It frames game design in terms of the rhetorical devices used to create an experience. Such framing is useful to independent game designers, developers of persuasive and critical gameplay, and archivists seeking an effective way to catalog digital games that is driven by structure instead of subject or play mechanic.