{"407491":{"#nid":"407491","#data":{"type":"external_news","title":"Why Empathy is the Next Big Thing in Video Games","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn an interview conducted by \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/radio\/spark\/286-empathy-games-intangible-art-and-more-1.3073000\/why-empathy-is-the-next-big-thing-in-video-games-1.3074676\u0022\u003ECBC Radio\u003C\/a\u003E host Nora Young, professor \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/faculty-and-staff\/faculty\/bio\/bogost\u0022\u003EIan Bogost\u003C\/a\u003E spoke on the emergence of empathy games\u2014a newly defined genre of games that seek to foster a sense of empathy with a character.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEmpathy-driven games simulate an experience constrained by rules in which the player is \u003Cem\u003Enot\u003C\/em\u003E empowered, and they may offer commentary on experiences ranging from \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.cnet.com\/news\/spirits-of-spring-can-a-game-address-bullying\/\u0022\u003Echildhood bullying\u003C\/a\u003E to the morality choices inherent in expanding a \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/01\/20\/AR2007012000729.html?nav=hcmodule\u0022\u003Efast food empire\u003C\/a\u003E. Games like \u003Cem\u003ERIOT\u003C\/em\u003E, which simulates riots that have occured in places like Egypt and Italy, are eliciting empathy in a manner that differs in significant way from experiencing narratives through film or novels.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022You\u2019re not just watching something; you\u2019re making choices, you\u2019re enacting actions inside of the experience. Something is different about that kind of empathy. It\u2019s a subtle distinction, but an important one,\u0022 said Ian Bogost. \u0022Instead of the empathy being a matter of affective feeling that\u2019s emanating from your head and your heart towards the screen or pages of a book, it\u2019s about the decisions you can make and what if feels like to be inside the logic of that other individual\u2019s life. What kinds of choices are available? Which ones aren\u2019t? What does it feel like to operate the machinery of their world?\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBogost, whose research interest lies in \u0022serious games,\u0022 or those that have a primary purpose other than entertainment, notes that bridging the cerebral and emotional aspects of an experience is a tension that has been shifting over time. Empathy games, in which the player is embodied in or presented with an inidividual character, weight the emotional aspects more heavily than their systems-oriented counterparts.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The delightful and beneficial feature of games, which can also be seen as their flaw, is that they\u2019re very logical apparatuses; they\u2019re computer software. You have resources you manage, you make choices, and you build thing,\u0022 said Bogost. \u0022[...] games like Civilization and Sim City... you\u2019re at a remove, building stuff, and things are happening below you but you\u2019re in charge and making calculated decisions.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs a video game designer and researcher in the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/dm.lmc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EDigital Media\u003C\/a\u003E program in the \u003Cstrong\u003ESchool of Literature, Media, and Communication\u003C\/strong\u003E at Georgia Tech, Bogost spoke on the use of different philosophies used both by different creators and in different game genres. He notes Paolo Pedercini and Vander Caballero as designers with contrasting approaches to empathy games, comparing the systems-oriented approach to \u003Cem\u003EThe McDonald\u0027s Game\u003C\/em\u003E with the personal narrative of \u003Cem\u003EPapa y Yo\u003C\/em\u003E, as well as speaking on where he falls on the spectrum.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022For me, as a designer who\u2019s interested in systems-oriented gameplay and the empathy of felling what it\u2019s like to be subjected to a circumstance or scenario that\u2019s different from the one you occupy rather than a specific individual\u2026you look at the world and find these systems,\u0022 said Bogost. \u0022How does it behave? What is the part of it that you find interesting and appealing? I\u2019m really fascinated with mundane, repetitive, and laborious work, especially work in particular: the kind of menial labor of working in restaurants or copy shops.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile empathy games may be on the rise, Bogost notes that the genre\u0027s segmentation out from other games may provide a rehtorical function in and of itself.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022You don\u2019t turn on the television and go to the empathy channel so you can watch the empathy shows. It\u2019s just assumed that empathy is baked in to these media. Good works would provide empathy, and bad works would fail to. We\u2019re trying so hard to respond to this trivialization of games that perhaps we\u2019re overcorrecting in a way.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBogost concludes the interview by speaking on the importance of providing alternative gameplay alongside larger commercial games, noting that the inclusion of empathy games like \u003Cem\u003EPapa y Yo\u003C\/em\u003E in online marketplaces adjacent to games like \u003Cem\u003EBejewled\u003C\/em\u003E is an affordance in the game industry that not only increase the diversity of experiences represented, but also validates all of these forms of gameplay.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/radio\/spark\/286-empathy-games-intangible-art-and-more-1.3073000\/why-empathy-is-the-next-big-thing-in-video-games-1.3074676\u0022\u003EListen to the full interview...\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27889","created_gmt":"2015-05-27 10:23:28","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 02:27:31","author":"Beth Godfrey","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","publication":"SMASH","field_article_url":"","publication_url":"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/radio\/spark\/286-empathy-games-intangible-art-and-more-1.3073000\/why-empathy-is-the-next-big-thing-in-video-games-1.3074676","dateline":{"date":"2015-05-25T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-05-25T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"407401":{"id":"407401","type":"image","title":"A still from the empathy game \u0022This War of Mine\u0022","body":null,"created":"1449254168","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 18:36:08","changed":"1475895132","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:52:12","alt":"A still from the empathy game \u0022This War of Mine\u0022","file":{"fid":"202144","name":"thiswarofmine.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/thiswarofmine_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/thiswarofmine_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":79623,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/thiswarofmine_0.jpg?itok=yYwQOND7"}}},"media_ids":["407401"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"},{"id":"1283","name":"School of Literature, Media, and Communication"}],"categories":[{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"315","name":"bogost"},{"id":"2274","name":"cbc"},{"id":"124","name":"Digital Media"},{"id":"2213","name":"Games"},{"id":"1804","name":"interview"},{"id":"39781","name":"LMC"},{"id":"104081","name":"press"},{"id":"1265","name":"radio"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}