https://portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk/en/persons/thma/publications/

1.

Regarding games in a serious context, its essence lies in using entertainment-based games (non-serious games) within a serious context to create dialogue and understanding. This aligns with what I mentioned in my project, the pursuit of ‘resonance’ and ‘contemplation’ in the context of time and media research, as well as the pursuit of the ‘cycle of internal and external narratives’ in the book on narrative and cognition. In essence, it is about elevating and completing the internal narrative of individuals. For example, in the game ‘Dad’s Escape,’ it essentially allows criminals and their children to understand each other while also gaining insight into the relationship between prisoners, police, and even social order. This is a process that constitutes a complete and neutral narrative.

However, this is essentially creating possibilities within a broader context. The goal of ‘creating dialogue, understanding, and possibilities’ can indeed be applied to most design and art projects that focus on representation and sparking contemplation. So, in the future, is there a need for further refinement of the purpose of my project (to emphasize uniqueness)? This question is somewhat similar to the previous consideration of whether design fiction needs a clear evaluation criterion. In what situations are more detailed evaluation criteria or purposes needed? I believe that more detailed purposes and requirements are better suited to an evaluation environment that is more segmented and supported by a sufficient number of works. Therefore, how to place my project within a suitable framework is also a future problem to be solved, regardless of whether this framework requires me to summarize it personally.

I think the introduction of the concept of role-playing would be very helpful in summarizing the design game narrative that requires mutual understanding. For design primarily focused on fiction and speculative futures, role-playing will be a great tool for creating dialogue. The author further demonstrates in the discussion of fiction and participation the potential of fiction to encourage participation and open up new possibilities for the design discipline. So, I am contemplating whether this is a trend towards more intersections between the design and gaming disciplines or if it has already emerged.

2.

In this regard, in the famous Dragon Speech on games in 1992, Chris Crawford introduced the concept of the death of electronic games because he believed that interactive storytelling would encompass various fields such as games, movies, and more. However, I believe this is a somewhat extreme way of calling for attention to shift from the depth of game development to the breadth of interdisciplinary approaches. The ‘dragon’ he hoped to defeat was the industry’s focus on a development approach that overly emphasized graphics, narrative depth, immersion, and so on, as I understand it. From this perspective, my project may not necessarily be a speculative design project but rather a development that inherits the core of speculative design and evolves into a more extensive ‘design that sparks dialogue and contemplation.’ Of course, this can certainly be categorized as a variation of speculative design, but it’s worth considering to what extent this research can or needs to form a new discipline or concept distinct from speculative design.

Looking at it from another angle, has the concept of speculative design become rigid or created some bottlenecks? While discussing the potential for improving speculative design, could breaking through these bottlenecks through the introduction of a new concept be a simpler and faster strategy? Of course, there is also the possibility that there may not be a need to set too many boundaries. Many express indifference towards boundaries and have expectations of breaking them, which is another idealized state. So, the importance of setting boundaries and rules for the field itself is a subject worthy of much discussion.

Based on my current observations, in the realm of design practice, clear boundaries often have relatively little significance, and even the boundaries between design and other disciplines are gradually becoming blurred. However, from the perspective of theoretical research and discipline development, I believe that further clarifying or iterating concepts is definitely beneficial. However, my personal experience in theoretical research is somewhat limited, and I need to engage in more reading and writing to help myself maintain an open and impartial observational stance.