I went to PAX East 2015! It was awesome! I took a lot of notes!

(Part 2: Making & Selling Games)
(Part 3: Dungeon Mastering)

Here are the notes from the “social media / dealing with people” type talks.

Enabling Co-Op Mode

Tracy Hurley, Christine Chung, Georgia Dow

• Social Identity Theory
  • We need to form groups to survive. We want to protect our group. We like to form an identity with out group. We form “ourselves”, and “belong” to the ingroup. The outgroup is the “other”.
  • We protect our identity as part of our own self-esteem. We think of our ingroup as better than they really are.
  • Now we have globalization which goes against this.
  • Actors in Planet of the Apes took to ingroups that matched their ape costumes.
  • Power and Identity
    • Conflict due to differences in identity
  • It’s the self-esteem connection to identity and connection to in-group (views) that is “the problem”
  • Cognitive Dissonance
  • Social Resources
    • What are they?
  • One of the things to do is contact, actually meet the outgroup to realize that they are more diverse. We see our ingroup as diverse but the outgroup as monolithic stereotypes. (“varied” / “unrealistic” )
  • Just putting people in the same place doesn’t work, but getting them to work together does.
  • Replace the “instance” of the outgroup with an actual human being.
  • Use gaming to reinforce, or, hopefully, break down these stereotypes.
    • Stereotype break down is not about repetition but about diversity of experiences with “The other”
    • Aggressiveness breeds aggressiveness.
  • We want to be seen and accepted. We want our feelings to be seen and accepted.
  • Remember that some [trolls] may be upset about something else.
    • Don’t build up ammo
    • Aim your weaponry, just not at each other
    • Accept that you do not have to agree, to win
    • We don’t have to be right
    • We want peace, space, and reception, if not agreement
  • Look for common ground (what do both people care about?)
  • People who are uncomfortable with uncertainty are more likely to end up in conflict.
  • Use “I” statements, not “You” statements [when dealing with trolls]. Also pay attention to body language (this doesn’t translate well online).
  • Accountability.
  • Don’t feed the trolls?
    • The trolls aren’t ususally actually upset about *this*, but this is the forum in which they express the anger.
    • Games as *escape*, to get away from other *anger*, which follows them into the game.
    • Remember that you’re not just speaking to the troll but also the audience. So make sure you speak in a way that brings people together, not divides them.
    • Pause, wait, breathe, calm down before posting.

Player Select: Identifying with our virtual selves (video)

Alexa Ray Corriea, Neha Tiwari, Mitch Dyer, Elisa Melendez, Mike Laidlaw

• Background Reading One: Leveling Up for Dummies
• Background Reading Two: The Proteus Effect
• More attractive avatars walked closer and divulged more information in game
• People rarely (3%) create “scary” or “unattractive” avatars
• Men trended toward average avatars, women toward attractive avatars.
• Katrina Fong is doing cool research. Also Aria Bendix.
• People who are comfortable with themselves don’t have such strong tendencies to create heroic or beautiful avatars.
• Character creation is intentional.
• Convince the player that the relationship is real and not the result of some systems.
• Samantha Traynor is a good example of a character who breaks the “sex as reward” system (for male Shep) by turning him down no matter his advances.