Bullies and Other Nuisances
August 9th, 2007Kickaha over at the Adventure Developers forums posted a very nice writeup of When We Were Kids. One thing it highlighted was uncertainty as to whether the game had a moral it wished to convey, or whether it was simply a product of my worldviews, as most art inevitably tends to be. The short answer is that it’s a mix of both. The long answer is as follows. Have at it.
This game was indeed meant to make a point, though not a didactic one, and certainly not one meant to be a teaching tool in classrooms! Mainly, it was a cynical mockery of how adults generally teach kids to deal with bullies, i.e. by ignoring them, being nice, or telling an authority figure what’s going on. When I was younger and nerdier (hence, a very blatant target for bullying), I quickly discovered that none of these approaches actually worked, and you’ll notice that they don’t work in the game as well. Talking to the teacher only results in her getting annoyed, trying to suck up to Morgan backfires, and not doing anything, well, accomplishes nothing. The only valid options are either to use your wits to outsmart Morgan somehow or (gasp!) threaten her.
Not that I’m trying to give the message that being nasty to people is something one should do; it’s more that I wanted to explore situations where it seems to be the only kind of behaviour that will yield obviously meaningful results, and in a sense, ask my audience how it made them feel in turn. When we play games, it is common for us to suspend our morals for the sake of winning, usually because we have no choice but to do so. I wanted to turn that tendency on its head a bit, by offering choices (but not always ideal ones), and framing a real-life situation as a game. How far are you willing to go to take back what is rightfully yours? These are things I dealt with on a regular basis when I was a kid, and I wanted to illustrate that to people.
Of course, one of the challenges I face as a designer is how to convey personal views in my art clearly and effectively without beating people over the head with them. Since you’ve outlined that there’s some ambiguity in this regard, perhaps it means I have yet to find this balance. In any case, I hope I get better at it with practice.
August 18th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
It was a pleasure to play through “When We Were Kids”. There is interesting experimentation going on in freeware Adventure games, but I need to make myself find time to sample it.
One can play an Adventure game in several different ways. Some may go just for the story, some for the puzzles. I was playing “When …” almost as a reviewer which perhaps got in the way of playing the game as you intended.
August 19th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Interesting thought processes. I played through the game several times, and found at least one solution which didn’t involve being nasty. I think it depends on what the goal of the game is? I think many would say, “well, obviously it’s to get the Game-Bot back”. I looked at it as I look at most things: “What will make me feel better than I do now?” This could lead to many actions. I, of course found the teacher unhelpful. But I did learn how to deal with the bully without punching her, etc., and my patience paid off! Morgan stopped being a bully, then. My goal is not to change HER, though, but to find a way to be more congruent within myself. Is this too psycho/philosophical for an Adventure Game?
August 20th, 2007 at 11:28 am
Haha, not at all! In fact, I encourage that kind of thinking.
I guess it also depends on whether one considers nastiness to only involve physical violence or outright insults, or whether deceiving and tricking a person also counts. I’m the kind of person who tends to value honesty over most other virtues, so sometimes, I admire the person who outright expresses their anger for a person.
…not to say I condone violence, of course, but there are times when lies and deceit can be just as damaging.
August 21st, 2007 at 12:47 am
Ahhhh…I just went to play it again, to verify what I thought playing WWWK. So, the solution where she outsmarts Morgan seemed to me our heroine’s attempt to move beyond the combative, without trickery. And the moral lesson here is that when she was nice, Morgan didn’t have anything to bounce off of, and lost interest in the game. If ulterior motives were involved, I didn’t suspect them! I certainly agree that sneaky deceitful behaviour is unecessary and unhelpful. I like that in your games you point out, usually humorously, that some behaviour common in games would not be acceptable in the “real” world!
August 21st, 2007 at 11:46 am
Haha, I’m glad you do. Perhaps it’s to offset my frustration with “it’s only a game!”-type thinking, and prove that games can and do teach us how our world works.
August 31st, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Well, sometimes even the most pleasant approach backfires. I watched some poor kid try to do an exchange with a bully for something the bully took (like giving Morgan the sculpture) and the bully stole THAT. I am 6 foot 2, 220 pounds, and 15 years old, so bullies leave me alone, but I have to watch bullies pick on the 80 pound teen who hates all social interaction (for this exact reason). At that point, you have to wonder, in this harum scarum world (did i spell that right?), if there are any other alternatives from the sneaky/violent methods.
(Un)Fortunately, the kid got his items back by ruining the bully’s “reputation” in school. (Have you ever heard someone called a “sticky-fingered-extra-slimy fish” before?) The bully panicked and hid, letting the kid get his stuff. But what are you supposed to do if there doesn’t seem to be an alternative?