Week 12 Question - WHeeee...........;p

In her paper "The Puppet Master Problem: Design for Real-World, Mission Based Gaming", Jane McGonigal suggests that "the success of the puppet master challenges our assumptions about the kinds of action and interaction that qualify as gameplay, reveal dramatic interpretation to be a viable game mechanic, and demonstrate the value of a dramaturgical perspective for pervasive game design." Discuss how these ideas could be applied to designing elements of narrative and gameplay in interactive media systems.


In conventional game settings, players usually have absolute control of their gameplay. As emphasized by various writers, gameplay entails player free will and decision making. Meaningful play can only exist when players have the freedom of making meaningful choices. However, recently, we see the advent of real-world, live action, performance-based games, which McGonial termed power plays. Players are mere objects, responding to commands of the game designer. This kind of game seems to defy conventional definitions of gameplay, where the player is in control.

According to Zengotita, virtuality is not the antonym of reality, but rather optionality. Conventional games offer players a wide range of choices and employ technology to create an immersive game space. In pervasive gaming, the designers strip away this sense of control. There is no self-authorship, only performance. They engaged players with real-world environments, drawing on the actuality and physicality of real-life people and objects, to create immersive environments.

However, do the players really cede all control? Outwardly yes; but McGonial reported puppet masters having much less control. Players are not passive objects. They interpret commands in any manner they deem fit, sometimes diverging from what the designers initially conceived, leading to interesting outcomes. McGonigal termed this “interpretative control” of players. I believe this is the emergence property of pervasive gaming. Players co-author their gameplay through interpretative control. Furthermore, players push back on the system by implicitly indicating the type of gameplay they are looking for and puppet masters respond in turn to satisfy their needs. Game design is thus responsive and ever-changing. Puppet masters, again, do not have the complete control we initially perceived.

Looking back, I believe I did participate in such activities before. My CCA in secondary school always organize a camp during the holidays. It was called “Malu Camp” (Malu means embarrassment in Malay… or some such). The main part was the Scavenger Hunt. Participants were to go around Singapore to get specific items, i.e. 3 rolls of toilet paper from Takashimaya (those big ones), a bottle of water from the fountain of wealth etc. At each station, there is a “bogey man” (station master) who will require the participants to perform certain…acts, i.e. going into MANGO (the fashion brand) shop and asking to buy 1kg of mango, trying on kiddy pants and asking the salesgirl to help, acting gay and scaring the people sitting next to us, going on stage and singing “GO GO POWER RANGERS, THE MIGHTY MORPHING POWER RANGERSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!” (OH MY GOD! Imagine the horror!), before he would give the next clue. While the commands were given, but how they were followed really depended on the individuals.

Pervasive gaming probably really isn’t as new as suggested. It has been around for a while, just that no one has thought to examine it and define its place with reference to contemporary games. Come to think of it, most games include such puppet master elements, especially games that incorporate quests. Players are required to obtain certain article or complete certain acts. You can do anything in between, but sooner or later you need to do the quest. Pervasive gaming just reduces the in-between processes and enlarges the “quest” part. However, the in-between process still exists in the form of interpretative control, pushback and such.

Understanding pervasive gaming is helpful to creating new immersive games. For one thing, we know that players do not require complete, or even partial, control during play. It is more about the immersiveness game space. For another, interpretative control can make the game more interesting for both the designers and the players. Interpretative control is really like bugs. One manner of achieving this can be through fusing narratives and games. I think that the group project The Others seems to fit this concept quite well. The players do not do much but click, but it does make for quite an immersive gameplay.