Self-Determination *Of Self* [SDT & Creativity/Expression]

[droqen]

Competence is supported by providing the person with optimal challenges and opportunities (specific goals that are challenging enough, but not overwhelming), encouraging their sense of initiation (try it out!), providing structure . . . to mobilize and organize behavior and providing relevant feedback.

This is interesting. Most of the stuff I've cited above is actually from the Competence subsections.

When I consider that the activity in question is some form of internal activity, i.e. an activity which engages the player's own internal forms of judgement, self-identification, etc... rather than something external, i.e. an activity which acts upon the world or another individual or which even has to do with external stuff made internal (i.e. knowledge)... I find a lot of ground that I would like to work with.

optimal challenges and opportunities (specific goals that are challenging enough, but not overwhelming) . . . to the player's identity --> challenge the player's identity, without overwhelming them

encouraging their sense of initiation* intution . . .
* i just noticed this says "initiation" and not intuition. like, what? is this a typo?
encourage the player to choose what appeals to them, what seems close to their true self...
how do we do this? i am so interested in how! // remove all logical noise. encourage you to choose what speaks to you on an intuitive level. remove all calculable systems... i cannot give you any easy foothold to determine what is objectively right or wrong

providing structure . . . to mobilize and organize behavior and providing relevant feedback.
structure that mobilizes the player to express themselves, their identity
structure that provides relevant feedback; if you say "this is my identity", i can give feedback on that level: if you have said that this is your identity, here are concepts related to your identity that you might find useful for better understanding what you have chosen, what you have said.

feeling of choice and willingly endorsing one's [own] behaviour
you can choose to be whatever you want to be. additionally, when there is less systemic/logical noise, there is no conflict between 'identifying' with a choice VS making the 'right' choice. this allows a player to endorse their behaviour as strongly as possible. this may also lie at the root of ludonarrative harmony or whatever...

[droqen]

I remember people asking, what is the art form of games?
What can games do that no other medium can do?
A lot of the answers did not feel meaningful to me. I didn't care, in the long run.

Recently I have started to think along a certain other angle, a different usage of the word art... That's not relevant but I want to mention it cryptically for my future self.

But thinking about the interactivity of games, this 'unique' thing that they bring to art, through the lens of self-perceiving and in particular self-determination regarding one's identity, I think I start to see the unmistakable glimmers of something valuable.

I watched Challengers yesterday and Triangle of Sadness a few days before that. Both these films presented characters in many different lights and situations -- as different people, versions of themselves. I was allowed to perceive these characters go through these versions of themselves.

In theory, a game would allow me to experience this in a deeper sense: not perceiving from the outside, but being from the inside.

[droqen]

How valuable is that? I can say that it is formally a difference, at least.

I watched a video right after about the costume design of Challengers and found myself thinking differently about that than I have ever before. Often I feel that a limited medium has a limited ability through which to push expression. For example, look at 'contemporary costume design' (i.e. you dress people in contemporary, 'ordinary' clothes).

But what if we look at any medium as a way in which a person might try to convey anything, might try to express themselves, and think long and hard about what is being conveyed or expressed?

latte art, still frames of Joe Biden eating a sandwich, costume design.

[droqen]

' What did he mean when he texted "lol k"? '

[droqen]

I can deeply question the intention behind something. I can empathize with someone. An artist, a character. I can think about what they might have been thinking when they made the decisions that they made.

But.

In a game, I can -- in addition -- be the person, the artist, the character, myself. I can be the one making the decisions. I can think about what I was thinking about when I made the decisions that I made.

[droqen]

The topics explored by many games... I do not care about them.

Consider... idk. Sokoban. It's such an easy target. So central.

As a player playing sokoban what are the decisions that I'm making? Through the lens of 'identity', who am I when I'm playing Sokoban? I am a problem solver, and not much else. Perhaps I forget how to remain calm, and I become a resigned or frustrated person. Someone who is failing to solve problems. And then I figure it out and I become a person who solves problems again.

That's it. That's the full extent of my identity shifts as a Sokoban-er, pretty much.

This is on par with some of the most dead-basic shallow plots that exist out there. A character wants something, they can't do the thing, they figure out and do the thing, they get what they want. I hate these kinds of stories with no further depth to them. And so, for the exact same reasons, I hate these kinds of games.

[droqen]

At some point I did like these kinds of stories. Likewise, I liked these kinds of games.

[droqen]

One last thought that I'd like to rope into this whole thing.
'Three-dimensional characters.' What are they?
I think that they are characters who display multiple identities, it's as simple as that.
Because stories take place across time, this is often understood -- very reasonably -- as character development.

I am interested then in games that have three-dimensional players. People and players are different entities, in this model. A person is a person, we all know what a person is. But a player is a person entangled with a game, the person-half of the person-game cyborg. All people are complex, but not all players are complex: their existences are constrained by the game they have paired themselves with.

The Sokoban player does not have a dog, even if the player-person does.

OK, I hate this terminology already, but "three-dimensional player" stands.

I'll ask my friend Maddi about what she thinks a three-dimensional character is and then think about how to apply that to a game's treatment of its players.