This is an independent study project advised by Professor Geoff Kaufman in Fall 2020.
The study focuses on developing and testing a set of interactive narrative games that aim to provide players with a deeper understanding of implicit bias and micro-aggressions toward stereotype-targeted and marginalized groups (e.g., racial minority groups, LGBTQ+ youth).
The following content documents my ongoing process of understanding Gender, Appearance & Identity related micro-aggressions. Please feel free to reach out to me if you'd like to contribute insights or provide corrections to my research.
A human-centered design approach is used to ideate, prototype, and evaluate playable narratives that feature interactions between characters and decision points for the player that are designed to reveal biases in players’ assumptions, expectations, and evaluations of characters from marginalized groups.
Below shows early interactive fiction interface ideas. Volume circle around the name of the character implies their tone.
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This process began with a deep engagement with the social science literature on implicit bias and micro-aggressions before proceeding to the design phase (during which playable interactive narratives will be iteratively prototyped and tested) and the summative research phase, when the completed, playable narrative will be evaluated in an online study investigating the game’s efficacy at increasing players’ awareness of their own unconscious biases.
I've decided to focus my research on gender, appearance and identity micro-aggressions, and received critique from Geoff as well as my peers in the same group. I appreciate their constructive criticism on my initial lack of understanding towards this topic, and their suggestions directed my research in a clearer direction.
While playing the game, players should discover that “Lily” has an identity crisis, and she views herself more as a male rather than female. The conversations with those who knew "Lily" reveal the types of micro-aggressions and biases they faced on a daily basis, which also served as hints to her whereabouts towards the end of the game. Based on the decisions made by the player, they will reach one of the two endings:
1. While "Lily" was away, their family did lots of research on the topic of transgender, and decides to provide their full support. The player reconvenes with "Lily" and their family a few months later at a pride parade, and together they were educating others with their own experiences and beliefs.
2. "Lily"'s family still doesn't understand their thoughts and struggles, and eventually "Lily" decides to travel around the world and go on a journey of self-exploration. They are never alone, because there were people supporting and caring for them in the past, and there will always be people who support them in the future.
The statement of this narrative is: Microaggression can happen anywhere, anytime. Even if a person doesn't intend to be mean / harmful / ignorant, they can still inflict microagression on others.
"You were asked to investigate a missing person case of someone called Lily, and you need to speak to anyone who might’ve known them or what happened the day before they went missing. You are expected to gather hints from these interviews, and organize the evidence based on your judgements."
This prototype is coded with MiniScript, a coding language developed by Joe Strout for game creations.