This is the process post for my 4D final project: a game about learning (it’s more fun than it sounds here) ALSO SIDENOTE @OSS PEOPLE: THE YEAR KEEPS SAYING 2018 SO MY POSTS ARE JUMBLED UP AND OSS WON’T LET ME EDIT THE DATE SO PLEASE FIX THIS IT’S REALLY FRUSTRATING AND THE ORDER IS ALL MESSED UP SO I CAN’T SEE MY POSTS IN THE RIGHT ORDER THANKS
When I asked people about the library, their answers were “studying place” or “printing place”. One or two said “reading” or “quietness for self-reflection”. So I came up with 3 proposals related to the last 2.
1. LIBRARY AS A PLACE OF SELF-REFLECTION
I planned something a bit sentimental. There would be a diary in the center of a table with handwritten diary entries talking about negative experiences and how it severely affects them (e.g. “I hurt my friend’s feelings on accident today. Even though I apologised and she accepted it, I still feel bad and think about it – and it’s been 3 weeks.”) Next to it would be a cassette player, which would play background noises of the outside world. This is to put across the point that no matter what you do, what decisions you make or whatever you’re hung up on, life moves on – and you should too. + Don’t let your past affect your future, and such inspirational things.
3. READING IS DEAD
It’s no surprise that people don’t read books often now as much as they did then. So why not put across the point via emotional blackmail! Make them feel bad as they study on a table that is made of books. Essentially they are “trivialising” the value of books and using it as practically a coaster for their laptops and books. It’s like using a ring that belonged to King George I as a paperweight. It’s similar to Chris’ project in a sense it inflicts guilt into the person, albeit more subtly. And it also makes a statement when some people don’t even seem to care that they are writing on something so important to our education
–
I eventually went with #2 – #MAKETHELIBRARYGREATAGAIN (#MTLGA), which is as follows:
When I think library I think of books (I don’t like to study in the library, too quiet) since that’s the only thing go there to get. Or maybe printing, if you mean the ADM library. My parents also make it a point to constantly nag me to read more “or else you’ll forget how to read”. I can’t say it’s not true because my tamil reading and writing skills have deteriorated since O levels, so I saw their point. But not all realise how big of a deal being well-read and knowledgeable is. When your friend studies law but thinks Gandhi was a member of Boys over Flowers, you realise where we’re headed. So I figured this game was a bit of a necessity too.
–
I drew a lot of inspiration from National Treasure (so I was really happy when someone said “wah this is like National Treasure sia” during the critique. Yes friends, that’s exactly what it’s like.
It’s one of my favourite movies of all time because not only does it bring me back to the time of the Founding Fathers, but I also felt like I’d learnt a lot about America’s past, national secrets and their cool hidden societies like the Free Masons. I figured, if America had things like these and is only a few hundred years old, why not combine this method with another civilisation I am fascinated by that has been there for thousands? (Ancient Egypt. I mean Ancient Egypt.)
–
Research wise, I decided to stay true to the game and read for myself potential information that I could use as clues and avoided the internet completely when coming up with the clues. For example, did you know that Egyptian slaves were willing locals ready to be enslaved just to help build their empire? I didn’t either! So I sat on the floor for a loooooOOoOong while and read through a few more books to conjure up some potential material that would stimulate the thinking.
My stance is that for them to even pick up the book in the first place would be indicative of there being some form of interest already there beforehand. You cant increase the ferocity of a fire if there isn’t even a small flame blowing in the first place (such analogies wow) & I think that people nowadays expect two things: 1) stimulation and 2) incentivisation. Nowadays if people aren’t poked and prodded, they won’t take the initiative to really set out to do things. Moreover, they expect to be rewarded for everything due to this neurological Rewards System (references here and this study by Schultz W (2015). “Neuronal reward and decision signals: from theories to data”. Physiological Reviews. 95 (3): 853–951.
Rewards in operant conditioning are positive reinforcers. … Operant behavior gives a good definition for rewards. Anything that makes an individual come back for more is a positive reinforcer and therefore a reward. Although it provides a good definition, positive reinforcement is only one of several reward functions. … Rewards are attractive. They are motivating and make us exert an effort. … Rewards induce approach behavior, also called appetitive or preparatory behavior, and consummatory behavior. … Thus any stimulus, object, event, activity, or situation that has the potential to make us approach and consume it is by definition a reward. … Rewarding stimuli, objects, events, situations, and activities consist of several major components. First, rewards have basic sensory components (visual, auditory, somatosensory, gustatory, and olfactory) … Second, rewards are salient and thus elicit attention, which are manifested as orienting responses (FIGURE 1, middle). The salience of rewards derives from three principal factors, namely, their physical intensity and impact (physical salience), their novelty and surprise (novelty/surprise salience), and their general motivational impact shared with punishers (motivational salience). A separate form not included in this scheme, incentive salience, primarily addresses dopamine function in addiction and refers only to approach behavior (as opposed to learning) … Third, rewards have a value component that determines the positively motivating effects of rewards and is not contained in, nor explained by, the sensory and attentional components (FIGURE 1, right). This component reflects behavioral preferences and thus is subjective and only partially determined by physical parameters. Only this component constitutes what we understand as a reward. It mediates the specific behavioral reinforcing, approach generating, and emotional effects of rewards that are crucial for the organism’s survival and reproduction, whereas all other components are only supportive of these functions. … Rewards can also be intrinsic to behavior (31, 546, 547). They contrast with extrinsic rewards that provide motivation for behavior and constitute the essence of operant behavior in laboratory tests. Intrinsic rewards are activities that are pleasurable on their own and are undertaken for their own sake, without being the means for getting extrinsic rewards. … Intrinsic rewards are genuine rewards in their own right, as they induce learning, approach, and pleasure, like perfectioning, playing, and enjoying the piano. Although they can serve to condition higher order rewards, they are not conditioned, higher order rewards, as attaining their reward properties does not require pairing with an unconditioned reward. … These emotions are also called liking (for pleasure) and wanting (for desire) in addiction research (471) and strongly support the learning and approach generating functions of reward.
). These 2 combined can be deadly but in this case, it proved to be the thing I needed to get the game to work smoothly.
–
I went with the documentary as an introduction to sort of start them off, get them intrigued. 1 minute I felt was just enough, else it’d be too long and they’d lose interest. Then when it glitches they’d be stimulated by confusion, only to be greeted by the first clue. I figured using the computer to start off would be more attention-grabbing for millenials seeing as most of them live their lives online. (Case-in-point: OSS) then slowly transitioning into reading. They’ll be too busy decoding the clues to get a chance to be bored.
The key in this case is the thumbdrive, a modern twist on something old.
From NT (National Treasure). This was the inspiration for the first clue, by using an Ottendorf cipher. Essentially instead of finding letters to a sentence, I got them to find numbers to a chapter and section number.
The next clue was a simple decoding clue but instead of using glasses like in the movie, they used the chart provided in the book. Unfortunately the book’s translations only ranged from A – F so I couldn’t use a real Egyptian name or word for the password.
The last one I figured would lead them somewhere, so it was between using words or images. If I had it my way, I would make a short riddle in complete hieroglyphs to lead them to the final destination. But that would take too long for the player, and is probably better off in escape rooms or more high-level thinking games.
The ending is quite straightforward. My only regret is the anticlimactic ending, but I didn’t know how to set my point across while making them excited with the reward that was relevant to “learning”.
–
To summarise, this game was meant for millenials who have forgotten the beauty of the library. Places like the Library of Alexandria aren’t considered imperative to human civilisation just because it was from the past. It was important because it contained massive amounts of knowledge that people 3000 years in the past had used to built the empires that stand till today. It’s no small feat, and books were a documentation of their works just like OSS is, but also disseminated information to others who used it to go on and achieve greatness. The library can do so much for us but we don’t use it enough. It’s a pity that it’s just a place to study or use the computer (reading books just for art history doesn’t count guys ahahahah) It’s so much more. I hope I don’t sound like a ranting old lady but there’s so much we don’t know and we don’t remember that it’s all there in one place. Hopefully after this project I’ll actually make an effort to go and read more books :’-)