April 15, 2006
Cultivating "Possibility Space"
Back Burner, List #1, Item #4 
(You can read about Item #5, Engaged Scholarship, from my first list here, and about item #2, Families and Technology, here.)
It's been a while since I have discussed any of my "back burner" research and teaching interests. Partly I have been, as I have mentioned, on Dissertation House Arrest. But also, the further I have progressed in my program, the more focused I have necessarily been on interests more closely related to my dissertation and immediate plans post-PhD. But I did see this piece in Wired recently that brought to mind one of my interests having to do with using computer games and simulations in family science research and teaching.
It is written by Will Wright, creator of The Sims. My computer, video, and on-line gaming is limited mostly to games I play with my children and puzzle or word games. But even though I have never played it, I have always been fascinated with The Sims. It is partly because the goal of the game is to create a person and then live your life in a typical (relatively, in the game-world), present day world.
Plus, you can create families--an obvious interest for me, scholarly speaking, and an element strangely absent from many gaming worlds.
Anyway, this piece caught my eye because of the wonderful description of computer gamers Wright gives. This description of what gamers do to learn a game sounds to me a lot like lay theorizing (which is part of my dissertation topic). Note the following:
[A]n entire generation has grown up with a different set of games than any before it - and it plays these games in different ways. Just watch a kid with a new videogame. The last thing they do is read the manual. Instead, they pick up the controller and start mashing buttons to see what happens. This isn't a random process; it's the essence of the scientific method. Through trial and error, players build a model of the underlying game based on empirical evidence collected through play. As the players refine this model, they begin to master the game world. It's a rapid cycle of hypothesis, experiment, and analysis.
...Games cultivate - and exploit - possibility space better than any other medium. In linear storytelling, we can only imagine the possibility space that surrounds the narrative: What if Luke had joined the Dark Side? What if Neo isn't the One? In interactive media, we can explore it.
Now, Wright does not have it all right in his description of the "scientific method." For example, his "collecting empirical evidence" is really only one kind of empiricism. And I think this is the case with lay people, too: they both induce and deduce to form their theories about their world.
But still, this piece captures for me the potential of the "game" model for my own scholarly interests. What if something like a video game or simulation could be used to help people understand how genetics works? Or explore complex family relationships? What narratives might people learn and explore, and how might they relate (or not relate) these to their life outside of the computer?
Very interesting possibilities, even if I will not be taking this idea off of the back burner any time soon.
Posted by perry032 at April 15, 2006 09:34 PM | TrackBack| Printer-friendly version