Affinity Space: Observations #2
I found my participation in an online gaming affinity space to be lacking. At first I thought it was because I didn't find the right game. I started with Little Big Planet but since it was an older game, and not one I was familiar with, the online community I found seemed pedantic and slow moving. Perhaps because of its relatively slow engagement I found myself not really interested in participating.
I bought the game to help increase my motivation for engagement. But in my opinion or experience the game itself doesn't really lend itself to much engagement. The game has been cited as a "player-as-the-designer" game, but I didn't really see this. I only recently discovered that because I started the game, and progressed through the game, I didn't see the actual menu, which does provide a space for creative design. When I tried to build my own "planet" it was really confusing and I couldn't figure out how to place the objects. So this experience derailed me as well. This portion of the game is perhaps the only element that would lend it self to engagement with other players, so you can showcase what you have created, especially to other people already interested and familiar with the game. But even this didn't provide enough motivation for me to want to participate in an online affinity space.
After much consideration, I've realized that my true motivation is the ability of games to provide opportunities of learning to learn. As such, my real interest in not in the games themselves, but the discussion on the theories, concepts, and principles embedded in games. My inital research took me to revisit Reddit, using a serach for Subreddit. I like Subreddit more, because it provides a cleaner space, with less ads, porngraphic material, and outrageous content. Subreddit seems to provide the real information, the real communities, which perhaps was the initial spark and interest in Reddit.com.
Having a better idea of my motivations and interest I decided to join the subreddit community on the "The Art of Crafting Rulesets". The community claims to be a community for "topics related to the design of rulesets for interactive entertainment systems - video games, board games, tabletop RPGs, or any other type. /r/GameDesign is not a subreddit about general game development, nor is it a programming subreddit. This is a place to talk about crafting game rules.Use this community to network, discuss rule crafting, and share game design tips with other game designers. Designers of all experience levels are welcome!".
After viewing recent posts I liked the topics already created. For instance one person was looking for help when designing a board game that would reflect the life and experiences of the couple, which the user would use to propose! How fun is that! The community seems to be open to exploring to concepts, design, and engagement, and more importantly seem true to their mission. So my new affinity space can be found at: https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedesign/
