In class, we took a look at the game Journey and how it correlates to social justice dialogue. The game can be played single player or with another player, and in our livestream, the player plays a character with no arms who travels through a deserted wasteland littered with what appears to be gravestones. The game of Journey does not feature high stakes of losing or a clear win condition. Instead, the game seems to be more to experience a (no pun intended) journey through the lens of the character they play as. 

The creator of the game, Jenova Chen, explains the decision to take away arms and mouths, thus removing the ability to pick up things and to speak, as a way to take away forms of violent online interaction. This includes griefing and verbal harassment through the player characters (Nakamura, 7). I think this also brings up a point in putting to conversation the lack of voice and visibility given to marginalized groups, especially in fields such as gaming, without directly saying it in the game. In addition, the restricting of verbal and somatic interactions through hands forces players to look through other ways to interact with the other player in a co-op experience. Chen also added visual feedback of the player’s character when that character experiences harm. This takes into account that players are usually much more willing to harass others online due to the fact that they are not facing their victim in person (Nakamura, 7). By creating a vehicle for players to see the result of harmful actions done to their cooperating player up close, the players will feel less inclined to commit online harm to other players. 

I think Journey does something unique in that it puts strict focus on the element of cooperative play. This is done through making the players the only characters present in the setting, and stripping any potential for competitive or griefing behavior towards the other cooperating player in the game mechanics. Nakamura mentions that the way that the player characters are designed makes them gender ambiguous, disabled, and non-white. I think this gives a case where a game can be created where the “default character” is not just a generic white person. In many games that I have played where there is character customization, the default model is usually a white character, let alone being able to have an option where they are disabled. I think having the player characters in Journey be the opposite of what is usually present in games with customization brings up another point of view in handling the default model, as well as the highlighting of options not present in customization. While there are a few games out there that highlight the disabled experience, mostly through the single-player experience, I think it would be interesting to see a game such as an MMORPG tackle this issue. I say this because it gives the player a choice to experience this, and the game can give certain mechanical disadvantages to the player for choosing this certain customization that highlights the struggles of disabled people in the real world.

Sources:

Nakamura, Lisa. “‘Putting Our Hearts Into It.’” Gaming’s Many Social Justice Warriors and the Quest for Accessible Games.