Poster Information
| Title | Designing Games about Distributive Justice |
| Presenter(s) | Thomas Fennewald |
| Session | Conference Reception, Game Exhibition, and Poster Session |
| Time | Thursday, October 18, 7:00p-10:00p |
| Location | East Lansing Technology Innovation Center |
| Format | Poster Presentation |
| Description | This poster describes a prototype game in which players must develop and explicate claims regarding distributive justice, i.e. the question of how a society and its citizens should allocate and share wealth. Despite being a central topic of political debate, few games challenge both fiscally conservative and fiscally liberal thinking and allow players to experiment with notions of distributive justice. Several design elements are essential for this kind of game. First, players must be able to engage in value development and normative discussion. Second, the game must afford players the opportunity to test ideas in resource management situations that provide a dynamic multiplayer environment with complex systemic features. Third, the game cannot lead players strictly into fully collaborative or competitive play. Accordingly, the design of the game prototypes builds on prior games that are neither fully collaborative nor fully competitive (Fennewald and Kievit-Kylar, 2012) and modifies these early designs to more precisely address the topic of distributive justice. To be precise, in the game players take on the role of a family in a community and must maintain a positive score to win. Any number of players can simultaneously win or lose in the game and players must decide how often to be cooperative by sharing with others. Early playtests indicate that players are often inconsistent with how often and under what conditions they share. This poster summarizes findings from playtests and explains how these three design elements are incorporated into the game. A prototype of the game will be showcased on site along with this poster.
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