The initial direction I began developing was strengthened in my mind by the Philosophical games section of the Critical Play module. I had always been interested in Foucauldian discourse analysis, as from my experience interacting with and seeing online discourse, I believe a different framework is necessary in understanding the way that power relations affect how these kinds of interactions play out, especially in comment threads on social media websites like Twitter and YouTube.
Something that has always scared me is the lack of need for substance in online discussions, relying mostly on the perception of people around the discussion, as those finding the threads without an idea of the topic of the discussion are more likely to read the aesthetics of the discussion, who is on the offensive, who is most concise or civil, to decide who they believe to be correct. Borrowed Observation #1
From trawling some of the more commonly attacked content creator’s, and those that inspire such harassment’s comment sections, I found that it was impossible to find two comments that could not fit a similar template, and be constructed even from a simple string concatenator.
It is a little difficult to describe how I reached my initial design idea post hoc, but I know that I wanted to juxtapose the more analytical and progressive analysis of thinkers such as Foucault, with the modern discourse. I mainly chose to look at American posters as the disparity between Foucauldian analysis of discourse and posts about how “The Democrats are space lizard paedophiles” of the QAnon conspiracy movement was far more entertaining to think about than the extreme political discourse in the UK, which from my perspective mainly consists of contradictory arguments justifying Anti-EU and Anti-Immigrant sentiment, the English media constantly platforming and humanising Anti-Trans sentiment and Anti-Feminist morons like Laurence Fox being wheeled out every time a woman speaks out about injustice, or a supermarket takes a “daring” anti racist stance (how does that guy still get on TV?). Source 1
Initial Design
I wanted the game to reflect the difference between what we commonly believe about civil discussion, freedom of speech, and “the marketplace of ideas”, and the reality of how these discussions take place, both online and in interviews with relatively well regarded speakers. While the aesthetic and credentials of those making the arguments are different, I believe the substance to be the same.
It would begin with a single comment under a mockup of a youtube video, that once responded to begins to spawn new comments, increasing the speed of the appearing comments and forcing the player to begin pruning and moderating them.
I will either have the player manage a “discourse meter” a simple representation of how the conversation is trending, or more likely attempt to make the player attempt to respond meaningfully to some of the comments made, and slowly allow the level to snowball out of their control. Between levels, of which all will be the same level with minor tweaks, quotes from Foucault’s “Discipline and Punish” fade stylishly onto the screen and fade out as the next level begins.
Not quite sure how it’s going to work out, but I’m planning to try this for now, and make changes once the base systems are in.
Borrowed Observations and Sources
Borrowed Observation #1: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJA_jUddXvY7v0VkYRbANnTnzkA_HMFtQ