Abstract
How do games effect the way we problem solve, socialize, or even view the world? When we shoot do we learn to destroy obstacles instead of work around them? Does the binary world of enemies and adversaries teach us to ignore the gray in the everyday? Are we forgetting how to play with each other because playing against each other is more fun?
Critical Gameplay is a collection of "strategically designed" video games. Each game asks what common game mechanics teach us. The four games in the collection are designed to help reevaluate our perspective on gameplay experiences. As Critical Cartography changes the way we perceive the world, Critical Gameplay seeks to offer alternate perspectives on the way we play.
Critical Gameplay does not attempt to answer these questions. Instead it seeks to open the dialogue with demonstrative experiments in gameplay. It attempts to fill the space of what if, with something tangible - a game. What if that avatar did have a history before you destroyed it? What if you couldn't read the game world by stereotyping characters? Critical Gameplay is simply about raising questions that encourage critical reflection on gameplay experiences. A Critical Gameplay game is valued in intellectual profit.