#week red

Option 1: 

This week really sat with me in a different way than the week before. Yeah we as Game Designers work hard and create products for people to consume. But It’s not just that, being a Game Designer has responsibility. It’s not just, here’s a game enjoy! It’s, here’s a game and much like art in a museum it has a meaning it has a purpose. Sure the meaning and purpose may be interpreted differently per person, but it’s up to us, the creators, to make sure that the meaning is overall positive. Game Designers have the power to shape the world and the world’s view. 

Much like “Gaming for Understand,” and the suggested article “Using Board Games to Help Fight and Understand Bias,” we as Game Designers can educate people in ways they WANT to be educated. The article says that people don’t like to be forced to learn but when entertained they learn better/willing to learn. I think this is very important, because instead of making the next AAA FPS game I could make a game that could HELP the world. I really never thought about a Game Designer as someone who could make such a huge difference but really thinking back on it much like Brenda Romero’s child, I also learned better when it came to games. My grandmother used to teach me difficult concepts with M&Ms actually! 

But creating games with such a deep meaning, with a chance the change someone’s view or even expand someone’s view, means a lot to me. My race is white, I could never fully understand the difficulties of other minorities but due to my Jewish heritage I could somewhat empathize. I was raised a certain way that would hide my heritage but at home I could be proud of it. Though when I went to school(In the deep South mind you) we were taught a few things but very little did it ever delve into exactly what minorities faced in America and around the world. In fact most teachers glossed over it like it meant nothing at all. But since I was taught personally about slavery and the Holocaust growing up, I knew this was wrong, I knew it was wrong that so many students would never understand the full extent of what had really happened. But If I could create a game, make the experience of learning interactive perhaps people would be much more interested in learning about it all. I even have a personalized story of my Great Grandmother escaping the Holocaust as a poor pregnant Jewish woman on her own with 3 kids. Perhaps being in her shoes would help open other people’s minds. 

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Option 2: 

For the game I tried out this week I stepped out of my comfort zone with virtual gaming and took a dive into physical games, specifically a card game called Magic The Gathering. My roommate is a huge fan and plays with a lot of different people every week(Due to COVID I avoid going to those sorts of things). This week he taught me how to play the game and even played a few rounds against me (non-open handed). Luckily, I quickly caught on to the rules and mechanics of the game since I use to play a lot of the Yu-gi-oh card game as a kid. Though due to my reading disability my roommate did have to walk me through a lot of the meanings for descriptions.