A Rhapsody of Self-determination: How Narratives and game mechanics may address difficult cultural heritage in Games as Art and Cultural heritage.


Keywords: empowerment; social innovation; activity theory, Neuroplasticity, eudaimonic game design;

Rhapsody is a computer game that seeks to tackle difficult sociocultural heritage and the intergenerational impact of family violence. The game’s protagonist, Rhapsody is a mischievous sorceress; from her perspective, the user plays the multiplayer game. The aim of Rhapsody as a game offers a world in which the player is empowered to act and to choose modes that challenge, rewrite and recreate their environment. Veering away from digital vigilantism (Chiou, 2020) and the oversimplification of complex issues, to reconnoitre how the realm of social context may impact meaningful and reflexive game experiences, our research looks to studies of digital games grounded in the eudaimonic effects of gameplay (Daneels, et, al 2021) and self-determination frameworks (Ryan & Deci, 2017). The, anomalies and glitches, enable opportunities for connection, engaged autonomy, and capabilities reflexivity. The gameplay promotes and establishes conventions for recursive plots and game mechanics skirmishes between the protagonist and narrative play, encouraging competency through persistence (engaged autonomy), gaining momentum (perceived competence) to overcome barriers, and feeling a sense of belonging (relatedness). Different levels examine scenarios and character archetypes in intergenerational violence, i.e., the intimidator, the confidence builder, the advocate, the enabler, and the resilient one.

Enhancing the social benefits of online gaming and drawing upon the integrated player experience framework (Daneels, et, al 2021), we explore how narratives and game mechanics can address complex cultural heritage through how the player experience is elicited through the interplay between the narrative realm of the character and their attributes and fictional negotiations.

The project's current state demonstrates a basic playable prototype of Rhapsody, a work-in-progress developed by an experienced group of digital artists, game designers and feminist media theorists. The implications of these research findings for the game design of meaningful games are discussed.


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