Welcome to a quick exploration of the issues related to COM 394: Rhetoric and Video Games.
This will start with a short game, discuss how it was made, and hopefully give you a space to discuss.
This example involves creating an interactive experience about a routine police stop.
[[Continue|What is Your Name?]]
Let's walk through a situation and see how things might work.
You can still be (print: $name), but your race might change.
We will assume your race is (set: $race to (random: 0,5))(if: $race >= 2)[white](if: $race < 2)[black] for this example.
[[Continue|Officer]]
(live: 10s)[Did you know if it was random or fixed?
[[I don't know|Race Variable]]]You encounter a police officer.
<html><img src ="http://fleetowner.com/site-files/fleetowner.com/files/archive/blog.fleetowner.com/trucks_at_work/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/traffic-stop3.jpg"; style="float=center;width=400px;height=250px;"></html>
What will you do?
(if: $race >=2)[[[Continue|White Stop]]]
(if: $race < 2)[[[Continue|Black Stop]]]
It might be good to ask other people to see what they got. That might help you figure out what's going on.
[[Continue|Officer]]The officer asks, ["Well, (print: $name), do you know why I pulled you over?"]<c1|
{
(if: $cha > 10)[[[You calmly explain the situation|White Explaining]]]
}
(click: ?c1)[You say, ["No, what seems to be the problem?"]<c2|]
(click: ?c2)[The officer says nothing, asks for your license, insurance, and registration. He takes them back to the car to check.
[[Continue|White Search]]]
The officer asks, ["Do you know why I pulled you over?"]<c1|
{
(if: $cha >14)[[[You calmly explain the situation|Black Explaining]]]
}
(click: ?c1)[You say, ["No, what seems to be the problem?"]<c2|]
(click: ?c2)[The officer says nothing, asks for your license, insurance, and registration. He takes them back to the car to check.
[[Continue|Black Search]]]It seems like the officer believed your explanation. You are allowed to go without even a warning.
[[Continue|Search Explanation]]{(set: $searchn to (random: 1,5))(set: $search to false)(if: $searchn > 4)[(set: $search to true)]}
{(if: $search is true)[We will need to search your car. Can you step outside, please?]
(if: $search is false)[This is a citation for a faulty vehicle. It's only a warning. Get your brake light taken care of immediately]}
[[Continue|Search Explanation]]
[Did you get searched?]<c1|
(click: ?c1)[How your search was determined was done through random number generators, but the odds were different.
Based on [statistics reported in the Washington Post in 2011,]<c2| black drivers were around 3x more likely to get searched.]
(click: ?c2)[<html><img src ="https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2014/09/search.jpg&w=1484"style="width:600px;length:1200px;"></html>]
(click: ?c2)[The random number generators for the odds of getting searched were relative rather than absolute. For white drivers (the race is selected as "white"), the number generator picked 1-5 and only searched drivers who got 5. For black drivers, the number generator did the same thing but searched every driver who got 3-5. This represents different experiences, but it [might not be accurate.]<c3|]
(click: ?c3)[When creating a random system like this, we have to consider the choices made when coding something and how that affects the experience.]
(click: ?c3)[[[Continue|Pariser (2011)]]]]
It seems like the officer believed your explanation. You are allowed to go without even a warning.
[[Continue|Search Explanation]]{(set: $searchn to (random: 1,18))(set: $search to false)(if: $searchn > 2)[(set: $search to true)]}
{(if: $search is true)[We will need to search your car. Can you step outside, please?]
(if: $search is false)[This is a citation for a faulty vehicle. It's only a warning. Get your brake light taken care of immediately]}
[[Continue|Search Explanation]] Everything on the Internet runs on computers, which are machines. Many people embrace machines because they believe machines are objective or, failing objectivity, [neutral.]<c1|
(click: ?c1)[Pariser (2011) disagrees with the idea of computers, applications, and programs as neutral objects. Algorithms are programmed with the biases of their creators, which can influnce the views of digital objects. [There are also limitations built into tools and how they create worlds.]<c2|]
(click: ?c2)[For example, when coding the random generator for race, the meat puppet gave two choices represented by 1 and 2. This meant someone was entirely coded as black or white. It might be possible to code someone with a biracial background or apperance, but that option doesn't appear in [this project.]<c3|]
(click: ?c3)[Even though the programmger isn't very smart, he's (text-style: "subscript")[probably] not a racist. It's possible he needed a quick solution to a problem and decided coding multiple ethnicities was too difficult. He went for quick rather than accurate. However, that would not be clear to the average user, and the more this type of game would be praised as "realistic" means more people might see the binary as real.
[[Continue|The Stats Question]]
<html><font size="-2">Pariser, E. (2011). <em>The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. Penguin UK.</em></font></html> ]
And there are also [questions of statistics.]<c1|
(click: ?c1)[Let's say I used the actual statistics from the graph:
<html><img src ="https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2014/09/search.jpg&w=1484"style="width:600px;length:1200px;"></html>
Both white and black players were more likely to get searched by a factor of 10. The number generator was exaggerated to make getting searched far more likely than in [real life.]<c2|]
(click: ?c2)[If only 2 percent of white players and 6 percent of black players got searched, it would be pretty unlikely for anyone to get searched. Some might object to the depection of police officers in the game, making them appear [more aggressive]<c3| in searching vehicles than they are in real life.]
(click: ?c3)[While the numbers might work well to create a conversation about the differences in searches between black and white drivers, it might create a misconception about police activity. A clear debriefing might allevate some of those concerns, but it might be difficult to debrief if no one sees [the code.]<c4|]
(click: ?c4)[Using simple numbered variables can produce lots of intersting stories, but the choices designers make are part of the code. Even unintentional or cultural biases can creep into codes just like any other text. However, the verbal or nonverbal expression of ideas is clear in most other media. When code is part of the text, it is the hidden part of the text. That is one of the challenges of looking at digital products generally, and games in particular.
So, what does all of this mean?
[[Continue|COM 394]]
You can explore how some of these things are programmed, how interactive experiences create meaning, and other topics in COM 394: Rhetoric and Video Games.
You don't need to be a "gamer" or have much experience with rhetoric to be part of the course. If you made it this far, (print: $name), you should be fine.
The course is 1-credit, and it's offered on ASU's Downtown Campus in Spring 2016.
Email Ian Derk at [email protected] if you have any questions or want to know more.(set: $name = prompt("Please write your name","Student"))
Welcome to the introduction, (print: $name).
Please feel free to share with others.
[[Continue|Race Example]]