Initial Interview Findings of Designing and Playing Memories

This paper presents selected excerpts from the qualitative interviews undertaken with both players and developers during the period between January and May 2016. These interviews were carried out with the intention to uncover the different aspects of how digital games invite certain meaning potentials of playing and/or producing digital games that depict the past with an emphasis on marginalized or excluded perspectives and experiences.

On one hand I seek to learn how people appropriate the object of a digital game in the form of the activity of play and how this relates to ‘playing the past’. For this, I conducted interviews with individuals who may or may not be familiar with playing digital games that in some way are related to the past. On the other hand, I also seek to inform my research on the development processes and design considerations within them when making decisions to encode meaning potentials. For this, I spoke with developers of digital games that in some way or another mediated the past through narrative and/or mechanics and rule systems.

To accompany this presentation, I introduce the employed methodology and reasoning for why using it. The selected quotes are then employed to map out potential research directions and blind spots of the current state of my research project. Finally, my presentation anticipates constructive feedback and comments on how to proceed with the research and more importantly take into account some of the considerations of the complexities of play, memory, and marginalization.


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