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The ritual model: how to use the mechanics of ritual to create meaningful games

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The ritual model: how to use the mechanics of ritual to create meaningful games

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Content THE RITUAL MODEL:
HOW TO USE THE MECHANICS OF RITUAL TO CREATE MEANINGFUL GAMES
by
Jacob Shelley Boyle
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC SCHOOL OF CINEMATIC ARTS
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF FINE ARTS
(INTERACTIVE MEDIA)
May 2012
Copyright 2012 Jacob Shelley Boyle
Table of Contents
List of Figures! iii
Abstract! iv
The Shared Nature of Rituals and Games! 1
An Introduction to Ritual! 4
The Ritual Model! 7
Farosia Project Outline! 11
General Applications of the Ritual Model! 13
Experiments with Ritual Modes! 20
Ritualization! 21
Decorum! 23
Ceremony! 26
Magic! 27
Liturgy! 29
Celebration! 31
Other Findings and Future Research! 33
Conclusion! 35
Bibliography! 36
ii
List of Figures
iii
The Ritual Model
Sacrifice Abilities
Corridors for Ritualization
Decorum
10
14
22
24
Abstract
For millennia, humans have participated in rituals in order to experience meaning and
purpose in life. With the rise of digital games as a form of media, designers are
increasing seeking to use games to provide meaningful experiences - the kind of
experiences provided by rituals. This project, Farosia, explores the mechanisms by
which rituals convey meaning, and presents a detailed framework for how to incorporate
ritual into interactive experience design. The project consists of several small game
prototypes, each intended to emphasis different aspects of ritual. By developing and
playtesting these prototypes, we were able to determine how to implement these ritual
modes within digital experiences, and how to use them to create a more meaningful
experience to the user.
iv
The Shared Nature of Rituals and Games
In Huizinga’s seminal work on play, Homo Ludens, he describes rituals and games as
separate formalizations of a common play-element in human culture. Both rituals and
games, Huizinga argues, contain the common elements of play – order, tension,
movement, change, solemnity, rhythm, and rapture. However, they use these elements
to accomplish different purposes. According to Huizinga, rituals are play meant for
religious thought - inviting reflection, behavioral change, and societal awareness - while
games are play meant for amusement and entertainment.
The influence of games on society has dramatically expanded since Huizinga’s work.
Due to the rise of the digital game in the late 1980s and the subsequent establishment
of videogames as a worldwide multi-billion dollar industry, people are now playing more
games more often, and in more ways, than at any other time in human history.The
nature of digital games and what people expect from them has changed. In addition to
Huizinga’s “amusement,” (47) we now desire games to contain a finely-crafted narrative
and to provide a satisfactory and meaningful experience. Beyond that, game designers
are working to make games that teach, games that inspire personal or political action,
and games that invite reflection. (Bogost, 2007) In other words, people are now
expecting games to provide the experiences that have historically been accomplished
through ritual.
As games have matured as a medium, designers, developers, and theorists, have
established a strong methodology for creating games that are fun and engaging.
1
Through iterative design and playtesting, game creators know how to “find the fun” and
make their games intuitive and accessible to all players. The values Huizinga
associates with games - entertainment and amusement - are widely acknowledged and
covered by contemporary game design practice.
However, the values Huizinga ascribes to ritual – reflection, resonance, and
enlightenment – are not satisfactorily addressed by contemporary game design
practice. While games conveying these values exist, the underlying processes behind
them, as well as methodologies for ensuring that games convey them, have not yet
been adequately discovered or agreed upon.
Rituals are interactive experiences that, while closely related to games, efficiently
convey these values. In their joint work on ritual, Boston University researchers
Seligman, Weller, Puett, and Simon, conclude that one of the key aspects distinguishing
rituals from games is the fact that people place so much meaning in them. “Scratch a
ritual,” they argue “and you will find a virtual library of meanings, interpretations,
teachings, historical events, symbol systems, visions of perfection and so
on.” (Seligman, Weller, Puett, and Simon, 2008, 74) Compared with the rules of a game
- which are usually constrained to a few pages, and it is clear that rituals have been
providing meaningful experiences for thousands of years.
Because of this, rituals are ideal examples for understanding how interactive
experiences can provoke self-reflection, resonance, and transformation. While these
values may not necessarily make an experience meaningful, when such values are
2
present in an experience, people are more likely to consider that experience as
personally significant. As such, we will refer to these values collectively as “meaning.” In
this project, our goal has been to understand how rituals convey meaning, and explore
how to create similar experiences in digital games. Through this we hope to understand
how to more predictably convey meaning within a game experience, as well as provide
a framework by which other designers can incorporate aspects of ritual into games.
3
An Introduction to Ritual
In order to provide a framework for this discussion, we must determine what we mean
when using the term "ritual," what some important aspects of ritual are, and what an
understanding of ritual can bring to the game design. While the body of scholarly work
around ritual is vast, an overview of some basic concepts is necessary in order to better
understand this research. We will focus on a basic discussion of what rituals are and a
conceptual overview of the model by which rituals convey emotion and meaning to
participants.
Despite research on ritual being conducted since the mid 20th century, extracting an
exact definition of the term has proven impossible. This is understandable as society
uses the term “ritual” for such a wide range of activities - from morning coffee and
wedding celebrations to tribal headhunting. In light of this, ritual scholars have
eschewed the hard definitions that would inevitably exclude some activities which could
be considered rituals - in favor of soft definitions that provide a framework of similarities
by which rituals can be compared. One soft definition, established by Ronald Grimes
establishes ‘ritualization,’ or the processes by which ritual creativity is exercised, as
follows: "Ritualizing transpires as animated persons enact formative gestures in the face
of receptivity during crucial times in founded places." (Grimes, 1982) With this soft
definition Grimes captures many of the elements common to rituals, namely that they
exist as an event rather than an artifact; contain some human, animal or inanimate
actor; convey meaning through actions and symbolic gestures; are meant to be
4
received by a visible or invisible audience; and occur at important times and meaningful
spaces.
From this soft definition, we can easily delineate some of the main similarities between
games and rituals. Both activities hinge upon the behavior of an active participant,
whose actions generally fulfill a prescribed purpose or move toward a desired goal. Both
activities generally occur within a distinct space and time, like Huizinga's magic circle of
play, separated from the normal or profane; And both activities generally expect some
form of audience, be it a congregation in a chapel, a crowd in the stands, an all-knowing
deity, or an algorithmic system. These similarities have lead some ritual scholars to look
at games as forms of ritual (Coover, 2006) as well as some game scholars to focus on
the ritualistic aspects of games. (Gazzard and Peacock, 2011) In a more practical
sense, however, we view these similarities as evidence that much of the methodology
found in ritual for conveying meaning can be implemented in games to achieve the
same effect.
While all forms of communication employ some degree of symbolism to convey ideas,
ritual is distinct in that its most vital symbolism is embedded in the actions and gestures
performed by its participants. Rituals primarily transmit meaning through the actions and
interactions of those involved. As such, the basic unit of ritual is the symbolic gesture.
While rituals often include symbolism in space (chapel or sacred ground), time (holiday
or transitional moment), object (fetish or altar), and sound (choirs or chanting), the
overall message or purpose of the ritual is revealed as participants perform actions in
relation to these other symbols. Mecca carries some symbolic meaning on its own, but
5
the meaning of a pilgrimage is principally expressed through the movement of the
pilgrim in relation to the holy city. In this example, the symbolic gesture is the act of
traveling to Mecca which, when enacted, resonates with the other symbols associated
with the city.
6
The Ritual Model
This gives us a functional model for how rituals convey meaning: participants
experience meaning as they perform symbolic gestures in relation to an existing
cosmology. The gesture is an action, or combined series of actions, performed that
evokes or modifies the cosmology. The cosmology is a set of entities, or objects,
spaces, sounds, or actors with individual symbolism, as well as symbolism in their
relation to each other. By performing symbolic gestures, the participant modifies these
relations - literally or figuratively - and extracts meaning by experiencing a change in her
relation to the cosmology.
Although this model is simple we can use it as a framework for understanding
contemporary religious and cultural rituals. In the Catholic Communion, the primary
symbolic gestures in this ritual are the eating and drinking of the sacramental wafer and
wine. Within the Catholic cosmology, the wafer and wine symbolize the body and blood
of Christ - who in turn symbolizes a variety of concepts, not limited to spiritual
perfection, absolute love, and ultimate sacrifice. As the participant performs the gesture
of eating and drinking, he is changing his relation to the cosmology by incorporating a
portion of Christ into his own body. This action then invokes the other associated
symbols. Through consuming a portion of Christ the participant also incorporates the
perfection and love of Christ.
This model also applies to cultural rituals. Every four years the citizens of the United
States perform the ritual of voting for the next president. In voting, the symbolic gesture
7
is the act of entering a booth, marking a choice, and submitting the ballot. The
cosmology comes from democratic ideals of American culture - "government of the
people, by the people, and for the people," "e pluribus unim," etc. When a voter submits
her ballot she evokes this cosmology, assuming her voice as part of the government
"pluribus" and thus experiences meaning. One remarkable consideration in this case, is
that from a functional perspective, a single vote is rarely important in determining the
outcome of an election. For the past 24 years the state of California has reliably and by
significant margin given it's electoral votes to the democratic candidate - meaning that
regardless of which candidate a California voter chooses, the outcome is already
apparent. And yet citizens of California - regardless of political affiliation - continue to
find meaning through the voting ritual.
We can also find this model in digital games. In the game Shadow of the Colossus
(Sony Computer Entertainment, 2006), the protagonist is tasked with slaying a series of
giant creatures with the promise that doing so will bring his deceased love back to life.
The primary symbolic gesture of the game is the act of slaying a colossus. Within the
cosmology of the world, death presents a seemingly impossible challenge - yet the
small protagonist is determined to defeat it at whatever cost. The colossi - immense in
stature compared to the protagonist - symbolize the impossibility of the greater task.
When the protagonist does defeat one, it’s death is treated as a painful and tragic event
which upsets the balance of the cosmology. In this way the players actions - resonating
through the cosmology - symbolize the tragedy that comes through unwillingness to
accept the natural order of death.
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This model plays out in a similar manner in the game Braid (Blow, 2006). In this game
the player controls a man searching for “the princess,” a women he once loved, by
moving through a series of spacial puzzles. In this quest the player has the ability to
rewind time and must use this ability to successfully overcome the puzzles presented in
the game. As such, the symbolic gesture in Braid is the act of rewinding time - while the
cosmology involves the princess and a paradisiacal state that once was. By rewinding
time then, the player is not only solving the game puzzles, but symbolically attempting
to reach a time when the protagonist was once happy. In the climax of the game, the
player and the princess almost come together - however just before they do, the player
must rewind once more. When the player does this, the protagonist and the princess
are suddenly pulled apart - demonstrating that the action of rewinding, which seemed to
be bringing them together, is actually driving them apart. This realization further
resonates with the game cosmology.
Not only can this model can be clearly seen in modern story driven games but it can
also be found in more simple and abstract games. The sliding block game sometimes
referred to as The 15-Puzzle, perfectly demonstrates the ritual model. The game
consists of 15 slide-able tiles in a 4 x 4 square - with one position open. The player must
slide the tiles around through the use of the empty slot, until the tiles are in the correct
order - usually indicated by an image, or the numbers one through fifteen. Although The
15-Puzzle has no story context, the goal of the game values order over chaos. Because
of this, when the player slides a tile into the empty slot that action is a symbolic attempt
to move the cosmology from chaos to order. As the game progresses, however, the
player generally reaches a state where most of the tiles are in the correct position, but
9
the remaining few are out of order. The only way to properly place the remaining tiles is
to move the ordered tiles out of the proper positions - thus creating chaos instead. This
resonates with the order-valued cosmology symbolizing the ossifying effect of order,
and the creativity of chaos.
One compelling aspect of this model is that it fits in well with the current understanding
of game design. When considering how a game works, it is often distilled into a set of
procedures the player can perform, and a system of rules governing the effects of those
procedures upon the other systems at work within the game. The ritual model provides
a useful parallel to this way of thinking. A game can be viewed mechanically as
procedures modifying a system, and symbolically as gestures modifying a cosmology.
By aligning the effect of an action on a game system with it’s meaning within the game
cosmology, this parallel provides a framework for understanding and implementing
meaning and symbolism at the most fundamental level of the game design process.
Figure 1: The Ritual Model
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Farosia Project Outline
With this theoretical basis, our goal in this project was to explore the functional
challenges to building a game based on this model. We primarily focused on
understanding how to design symbolic gestures and how to establish a compelling
cosmology in which the player could enact them. We also explored various forms of
ritual, the corresponding meaning and emotions they evoke, and how to structure
gameplay in like manner. Throughout this process our goal was to develop a functional
roadmap for incorporating the ritual model into existing design practices.
For our research, we created several small game prototypes, each following the ritual
model and designed to emphasize different aspects of ritual. Through playtesting these
prototypes we were able to determine what aspects evoked emotion and meaning in
players, and what aspects prevented such responses. In order to ensure our findings
were general enough to be incorporated into other games, we attempted to make each
of these prototypes as simple as possible. As such, each prototype was developed as a
low resolution 2d sidescroller. We chose this genre because it is both simple and its
design concepts can be easily transferred to other genres. This also allowed us to limit
engineering time by developing a common set of tools and focus on the design and
research aspects of this project.
In describing the outcomes of the project, we will first focus on some of the general
applications of the ritual model we discovered through our prototypes, focusing in
particular on what elements are necessary in order for the model to function properly.
11
We will then discuss the prototypes more in depth along with what specific aspects of
ritual we were attempting to convey and our conclusions on how to best convey them.
12
General Applications of the Ritual Model
Through our prototyping and playtesting process, we determined that while the ritual
model is conceptually simple, the process of designing symbolic gestures and
cosmologies requires significant effort. We often found that although a prototype
contained all the correct elements, the player would either miss the relationship
altogether or simply not care. As we iterated on our prototype designs, we determined
several major factors that the ritual model requires in order to function properly for the
participant.
First, symbolic gestures require a sense of agency. The player must feel as though it is
her choice to perform the gesture rather than feeling the gesture is being forced upon
her through the game system. This is necessary because symbolic gestures are
primarily communicative rather than functional, so if the player performs the gesture
because the game has told her too, or to obtain some immediate functional benefit, the
outcome of the gesture often overshadows the message of the gesture.
In one of our early prototypes - titled "Sacrifice" - the player was tasked with rescuing a
child from the underworld. At the outset of the experience, the player has several
abilities that facilitate movement through the game space, such as jumping, double-
jumping, and a dash move that can break blocks. As the player moves through the
space he eventually reaches the child only to be told that he has broken the law of the
underworld and must attempt to move through the space again without using his dash
13
ability. The player repeats the experience several times, each time being told that he
must try again using fewer and fewer abilities.
Figure 2: Sacrifice Abilities
The intended symbolic gesture in this prototype is the willful sacrifice of game abilities,
which is intended to resonate with cosmological symbolism associated with helping
children. However, this prototype made the sacrifice mandatory by immediately shifting
the player back to the starting location whenever they used a forbidden ability. This
changed the symbolic gesture into a required act enforced by a harsh game system. As
a result the player experienced the same degree of ritual meaning as a child does when
forced to sit quietly through a church service.
In later prototypes we found it much more effective to focus on softer results. Instead of
an immediate functional response to a gesture performance, we focused on responses
that were not immediately apparent, as well as situations where no response was
needed from the game system. In situations where an immediate response is needed,
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however, that response should come as a positive reward for a successful gesture
performance, rather than a negative punishment for gesture failure. Positive responses
can be direct, while negative responses should be softer and less apparent.
Another major factor when considering the ritual model is the need the player to have
an internal knowledge of the symbols present in the gestures and cosmology. If the
player doesn't understand what the gestures symbolize, or how that relates to the
cosmology, he will miss the experience entirely. On the other hand, if the experience is
heavily explicit in explaining its meaning it comes off as forced and contrived. The
difficulty in designing an experience based on the ritual model, therefore, lays in
conveying the needed information to the participant without overwhelming or boring
them.
The common method by which rituals solve this problem is repetition. Repetition
enables a ritual participant to better understand and make internal connections between
the symbols embedded in the ritual gestures and cosmology. To illustrate this we will
compare the ritual experience of an initiate performing a ritual for the first time with a
more experience practitioner.
When an initiate performs a ritual for the first time he generally doesn't have a clear
understanding of what the ritual gestures symbolize, nor of larger cosmology. As such,
he has difficulty seeing the connection between the two. Compounding this issue is his
desire to correctly perform his part in the ritual. For the initiate, especially when
performing a highly social ritual where others are watching him, the primary concern is
15
"What do I do, and how do I not mess it up?" His focus is primarily on the mechanical
aspects of the ritual rather than the symbolism expressed by those mechanics.
An experienced practitioner - having repeated the ritual many times - is much better
equipped to comprehend the symbolism expressed in the experience. Having been
involved in the cosmology repeatedly, she is more apt to know what the gestures
symbolize and how they interact with the relevant symbols in the related cosmology.
Additionally, she has much more experience performing the required gestures, and can
focus on the meaning of the performance rather than the act. Having repeated these
gestures many times, she may even experience some boredom during the performance
and, seeking to occupy her mind can focus on what the gestures and cosmology mean
to her.
Thus, the more the participant understands the internal cosmology the better she is able
to find meaning in the interactions of the experience. This is one explanation for the
continued success of some long running game franchises. The Legend of Zelda
franchise (Nintendo, 1986) just reached its 25th anniversary and continues to enjoy
immense success. Within the franchise, each game is remarkable similar to all the other
games. Each game involves a green-clad hero, wielding a sword, and saving a
princess. Each game takes the players to the same locations within the world of the
game. Each game gives the player the same set of items and abilities - a sword, a bow,
a grappling hook, etc. From the perspective of a game designer the Zelda game appear
as rather unoriginal copies of each other.
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However, this repetition has engrained the cosmology of the game world within the
players. The game cosmology revolves around the importance of a magical artifact
known as the "triforce," which is composed of 3 equilateral triangles. Each triangle
symbolizes a specific trait - courage, wisdom, and power. These traits are the core
symbolism of the game and because the players understand it so well, it is simple for
the designers to create gestures that reflect these symbols. The core gesture of the
series involves the player filling the role of the hero (representing courage) defeating the
villain (representing power) to rescue the Princess (representing wisdom.) Because the
player understands the cosmology so well, he feels meaning every time he repeats this
gesture.
There are three mechanical ways in which rituals and games may involve repetition.
The first is at the gestural level - wherein a practitioner repeats a symbolic gesture
several times during a single experience. We see this in the repeated recitations of the
Lord's Prayer and the Hail Mary during the devotion ritual of the Catholic Rosary.
Because games generally involve a limit set of procedures that the player can perform,
they are well suited to this form of repetition. In Shadow of the Colossus the player must
kill many Collossi, in Braid the player must continually rewind time, in Super Mario Bros.
the princess is always in another castle (Nintendo, 1985), etc.
Repetition can also be employed at the ritual level when a practitioner repeats the same
ritual and all involved symbolic gestures several times. The ritual may be time based -
such as daily oblations, weekly services, or annual holidays - or need based - such as
penitence or cleansing rituals. Due to their contingent nature - with a variety of possible
17
outcomes - games are generally repeated in like manner. Short puzzle games such as
Tetris (Pajitnov, 1984) are repeated by players hundreds if not thousands of times.
Finally, repetition can be found at the communal level - where in a participant may only
perform the ritual once, but it is repeated by others in the community. Weddings, Bar
Mitzvehs, and graduations are examples of this. Games generally do not employ this
form of repetition, however, it is found in some annual competitions - such as the
Olympics, the World Cup, and the Super Bowl.
Digital games also have their own conventions for employing repetition. While these
conventions are generally not intentionally symbolic - their repetitive nature often
encourage players to interpret them as meaningful moments. As such these
conventions can be aligned with the ritual model to evoke a greater sense of symbolism
and meaning.
One common method of repetition found in games is the concept of “leveling up.” In this
case the player repeats a set of small tasks over time and is rewarded with various sorts
of experience points. Eventually the player reaches a certain threshold and is rewarded
by the game system with an increase in the player’s abilities or attributes. The online
game World of Warcraft (Blizzard, 2004), along with many other role-playing games,
strongly employs this method of repetition. Due to their receptive and somewhat boring
nature, the tasks required to level up in World of Warcraft are often referred to as
“grinding.” When players do manage to level up, they ascribe great significance to that
moment - often broadcasting it publicly with an exclamation of “Ding!” In this case, the
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boredom caused by repeated gestures heightens the moment of change - evoking a
sense of meaning and transformation in the player.
Another common method by which games employ repetition is through alternate content
or endings. In this case, the game system presents the player with different narrative
scenes or other rewards based on the player’s actions. This content may come as the
result of player’s moral choices (such as the Paragon/Renegade system in Mass Effect)
(Bioware, 2007), how well the player performs (such as the alternate endings of Super
Metroid) (Nintendo, 1994), or any other arbitrary system (such as the trial scene in
Chrono Trigger) (Square, 1995). In each of these cases, the player is encouraged to
repeat the game several times in order to see the different possibilities. With this
method, the repetition emphasizes the small differences between plays, which makes
these differences much more meaningful to the player.
In our early prototypes, we encountered difficulty in getting the player to understand the
symbols and care about the experience. After playing these prototypes playtesters
commented that while they understood how to play the game, they did not find it very
meaningful. Through these responses, we began focusing on repetition and how to
employ it in player tests. In our later prototypes, we tested repetition by instructing
players to play the prototype once per day for a week, after which we discussed the
meaning of the experience.
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Experiments with Ritual Modes
As stated earlier, our goal for this project was to extract known principles of ritual and
determine how to employ them in digital games. In doing so, we wanted to develop a
framework by which we could better understand how players experience meaning in
games. Now that we’ve discussed the ritual model as a useful abstract overview, we will
focus on how it functions in the game design process, and how to use it to create a
variety of experiences and emotions.
In exploring the ritual model, one of the challenges we encountered was how to best
distill what a ritual is to a basic mechanical framework. This proved difficult due to the
wide range of activities considered as rituals. Rituals range from sacred and
transformative moments such as a wedding or baptism, to simple routine moments such
as getting dressed and prepared for another day at work. Ritual cosmologies can be
grand religious traditions, or simple unarticulated preferences. Games can also involve
this range of intensity like the climactic threshold and the daily moment. The ritual model
must apply to all these possible situations.
Ritual researcher, Ronald Grimes, developed a categorization of these ritual modes that
enabled us to properly approach this problem. Grimes identifies six modes upon which
rituals operate: Ritualization, Decorum, Ceremony, Magic, Liturgy, and Celebration.
Each of these modes has a unique way of establishing a cosmology, and relevant
symbolic gestures. In this project, we created four small game prototypes, and in these
prototypes we attempted to create an experience that followed one of these modes.
20
Through developing and testing these prototypes, we were able to determine several
useful concepts for designers attempting to create experiences based on these ritual
modes.
Ritualization
Ritualization is the most basic form of ritual. It is the small actions we regularly perform
that through constant repetition eventually take on an imperative form. Ritualization is
the importance of getting up on the right side of the bed every morning, or the magical
procedure for making that perfect cup of coffee. With ritualization, the cosmology comes
from the conjunction of personal physiology and the environment. In other words, it
develops naturally from the set of affordances that arise as our bodies interact with the
environment. The gestures and their meanings are personal and generally
unarticulated. While these small rituals cannot be designed by anyone, per say, the
affordances and environment presented to a player can encourage or inhibit
ritualization.
For one of our prototypes, we designed a series of challenges for the player to
overcome in order to climb a tower. However, we needed to separate these challenges
in order to provide proper pacing, so we designed several vertical corridors for the
player to move through between each challenge. In our first iteration the path through
these corridors was a linear column of platforms, the player simply hitting the jump
button to move from one to the other. However, this proved to be boring for the player,
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and so we began to look at the corridors as places where ritualization could occur. In
our revised corridors, we separated the platforms, and added steps on either wall - thus
requiring the player to choose between moving left or right at each jump. This allowed
the player to develop a standard way of moving through the space and thus made the
corridors a space for ritualization.
Figure 3: Corridors for Ritualization
When designing for ritualization the main consideration is the degree of freedom the
player has. If the actions required of the player are too strictly defined, the experience
becomes boring and forgettable. The player will merely get it done quickly and move on.
On the other hand, if the experience has too many options the player will never repeat
the same process enough to ritualize it. By carefully calibrating the amount of options
available, we can create a situation where ritualization can arise and allow the player to
gain a more personalized connection with the game environment.
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Decorum
The second mode of ritual sensibility is decorum - the rituals that arise through social
interactions. While these are often simple actions, such as greeting someone with a
"good morning," they can also become as complex as the hundreds of rules governing a
proper japanese tea ceremony. With decorum, the cosmology is established by
interpersonal interactions - gestures being the established or generated actions of
politeness. We perform these actions out of a desire to promote acceptance and avoid
offense. Decorum is inherently connected to a specific community. Indeed one often
judges how well someone belongs to a community be how well that person performs the
associated rituals.
We focused on decorum in one of our prototypes in which a non-player-character or
NPC guided the player through a game level, stopping an explaining aspects of the
world at various points. While the NPC conveyed important information to the player in
this prototype, we did not require the player to listen. Additionally, we programmed the
NPC to notice if the player walked away and to act upset the next time the player
interacted with it. While we initially hoped this would give the player incentive to listen,
non of our playtesters ever did, preferring instead to explore the rest of the environment
rather than listen to an NPC talk about it. A few playtesters noticed the NPC getting
upset, but none of them responded by listening more.
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Figure 4: Decorum
Reflecting on this we determined two considerations that are necessary for rituals of
decorum: reciprocity and occupation. In order for two actors to feel the expectation of
politeness, both must be equally able to perform the necessary actions. In our prototype
the player showed decorum through stopping and listening. However the player could
never say anything. The result was that there was nothing the NPC could do to
reciprocate decorum back to the player and thus no real expectation for the player to
reciprocate.
Decorum requires both agents to be able to perform the same actions. This is
somewhat difficult when dealing with interactions between players and NPCs because
the player is a complex social entity and the NPC is a set of programmed responses to
stimulus. In designing decorum in future prototypes, we determined to first look at what
actions can be performed by both the player and the NPC, and structure the rituals on
those actions.
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The second consideration for decorum is occupation. When there is a pressing need
that must be met, decorum is generally ignored. A police officer rescuing a man from a
burning car rarely stops to say “good morning.” In our prototype the environment
presented a need to be explored, which overruled any need for decorum between the
player and the NPC. Decorum instead arises when two or more agents are able to
communicate, and don't have other pressing needs.
The decorum between players of the competitive multiplayer game Starcraft (Blizzard,
2010) provides a good example of both these considerations. First, matches are
between two humans, each with the ability to type messages to each other, thus fully
able to reciprocate actions of decorum. Second, Starcraft requires an intense amount of
concentration from its players which makes it difficult to focus on anything else.
However, at the beginning of a match there is some downtime before the action
increases, providing non-occupied time. In this situation, one player will usually
message "GL HF" (good luck have fun) to which the other replies "U2" (You too), even
though the game is highly competitive, and both players are really hoping for the other
to have bad luck and fail as quickly as possible. The combination of reciprocity and
downtime has produced this ritual of decorum.
25
Ceremony
Ceremony is ritual involving identification with larger social/political communities. It
includes reciting the pledge of allegiance, coming to a soccer game wearing the team’s
colors, and wearing a gown and marching at a graduation. Its cosmology incorporates
the shared identity and values of the group developed by a group leader or through
group consensus. Ceremonial gestures affirm the value of the group and its shared
cosmology. As such, the motivation behind these gestures is somewhat enforced but
also freely given. One wants to be part of the group and so performs the actions that
resonate within it.
In our prototype for ceremony, we created an experience where the player was
defending a city from enemies. At the beginning of the experience, an NPC tells the
player a story about a hero who defended the city, and then the player assumes the role
of that hero. The player then moves through the level defeating ever larger enemies.
In developing this, we learned that ceremony requires strong identification with a group.
We initially determined to have the NPC tell the story in as simple a form possible -
assuming the player would want to play the game as quickly as possible. Our
playtesters, however, expressed desire to know more about the story. Because the
players were fighting for a group in the game, they developed a desire to better
understand and identify themselves with it.
26
Magic
Magic is ritual with an express purpose - intended to effect the world in a functional way.
A healing rite or prayer with a specific purpose could be considered a magic ritual. The
cosmology involves transcendent power that supersedes the natural order of the world.
The gestures are an anxious attempt to employ this transcendent power for a desired
outcome.
Magic is one of the most prevalent modes of ritual found in games. The player generally
has a specific desired outcome in the game - to score a goal or pass a level - that can
only be accomplished by the performance of a set of arbitrary gestures - throwing a ball
through a hoop or jumping on an enemy's head. As a result, there is not much that
needs to be said concerning how to design magic experiences. However, the ritual use
of magic in life involves a rich series of tensions that are generally not present in games,
but if implemented well could provide interesting experiences.
Primarily, ritual magic involves uncertainty between the action and the result. If one
uses a key to unlock a door, that action carries a determined outcome. It is simply the
way the world works. With a ritual of magic, however, one asserts a subjunctive world
over the ordinary. When a clergyman performs a healing it is implicit that a higher power
is to supersede the natural world. In spite of belief, however, those involved are left with
a great deal of uncertainty as to if and how the healing will function.
In many cases, the expected result of a magic ritual and the actual result differ greatly.
While intuitively one would think this disproves the effectiveness of the ritual, within the
27
mind of the practitioner it instead acts as a narrative gap, a story construct described by
Robert McKee (McKee, 1997). McKee explains the narrative gap in terms of film writing
as the difference between a protagonist's expected outcome, and what actually
happens. The purpose of this gap is to intrigue the audience and involve them in the
narrative. In the case of ritual magic, this unexpected gap often serves to deepen the
practitioners involvement with the cosmology, rather than weaken it.
As mentioned earlier, one of our prototypes involved the player attempting to rescue a
child from the underworld. Upon navigating a dangerous space and reaching the child
the player was informed that he had broken the law of the underworld and had to
navigate the space again, this time without jumping (or using some other ability). The
intent was to deepen the player's interest by providing an unexpected result to a gesture
performance.
We found that while this proved effective, our experience repeated the unexpected
result several times. Thus, by the third time it happened, the player no longer felt any
gap. The initially unexpected result became the expected result. Providing an
unexpected result to a player's action in a game is similar to writing an unexpected twist
in a story: it only works once. Unexpected results must continue to surprise and intrigue
the participant.
28
Liturgy
Liturgy is ritual as "cosmic necessity" - its primary purpose is only that is must be done.
Liturgy includes the fundamental rites of most religious traditions - Eucharist, Zen
Meditation, etc. It differs from ceremony in that its cosmology centers on the divine or
absolute rather than a political or social group. It differs from magic in that it doesn't
expect a definite result but rather invites the divine to illuminate the practitioner. In this
manner it strives to provide a sublime and meaningful experience.
Liturgical rituals generally distinguish themselves through framing. A practitioner
generally enters with the hope that this ritual will be meaningful and transformative. As
such, liturgical rituals can be viewed as a petition to an absolute power to provide a
meaningful expression. When a person goes into the water to be baptized in a
Protestant or Evangelical Christian context, that person hopes to feel rejuvenated or
"born again." In this case, the required actions of the ritual must be strictly adhered in
order to provide a proper setting or "worthy sacrifice"
In a sense, any game that portends to offer a meaningful experience can be considered
a liturgical ritual. The player enters the experience with the hope that should she
perform the required actions in the correct manner the game system will respond in
such a way as to grant the player a meaningful experience. The player becomes the
adherent, petitioning the almighty system to grant meaning and purpose.
We attempted liturgical experiences with two of our prototypes. In the first one we
concentrated on framing. As the player started the game, an NPC would simply explain
29
- with some amount of gravitas - that the experience is intended to be meaningful. We
found that even with this simple framing, players understood it and continued the
experience expecting a meaningful outcome. Our difficulty, however was satisfactorily
delivering on that promise of meaning. The remainder of that experience fell flat on the
players, and didn't live up to the promise given at the outset.
In our second prototype, we paid much more attention the the experience - ensuring it
followed the ritual model and had a classical story arc with proper buildup and pacing.
We also drew back on the initial promises given to the player, emphasizing the player's
own part in considering and interpreting the experience. We also provided incentive for
the player to repeat the experience several times, in order to shift focus from how the
player is performing, to what the overall experience means.
In this prototype, the player starts at the base of a tower, and is told that at the top of the
tower one can reach the sky. The player then journeys up the tower, primarily by
jumping. In climbing the tower, the player overcomes three challenges, each based on
jumping. Upon reaching the top of the tower the player sees an immense starry sky, and
finds that by jumping properly he can place a new star in the sky. Eventually, the player
must jump off the tower, and is then told that in a certain amount of time he should
return and place another star.
In this experience, the cosmology deals with the importance of height, eventually
reaching the stars, symbolizing progression and empowerment. As such, the player’s
jumps become symbolic gestures symbolizing the effort of moving upwards. As the
30
players repeat the experience and reflect on this symbolism, the experience fulfills its
promise of meaning.
The meaning a practitioner experiences through a liturgical ritual is a conjunction of
reason, emotion, and corporal sensation - similar in many ways to the effect of a great
piece of literature, a great film, or a great painting. As such there is no magic formula for
consistently providing this experience. While the ritual model offers a framework for
providing this experience, in the end the experience must show true excellence in craft
and expression.
Celebration
The final ritual mode is celebration - a ritual whose overriding purpose is the expression
of joy. Celebration rituals are heavily related to play, similar to ritualization, however, in
celebration the gesture dominates the cosmology. While the cosmology may give a
context for the celebration, the ritual itself is performed for the sheer joy of performing it.
Thus celebration rituals center on the actions that feel good to the participant - from the
reveling at Mardi Gras, to the sometimes excessive eating at a Thanksgiving
feast.!
Within games gestures of celebration are heavily linked to Jesper Juul’s concept of
"juiciness" - a construct where the positive feedback resulting from an action is
sufficiently enjoyable as to provoke a desire to perform the action independent from it's
31
effect on the overall game system (Juul, 2009). An extreme case is the "Rainbow
Fever" from the game Peggle - where the game goes into slow motion and plays "Ode
to Joy" amid brilliant flashing lights (PopCap, 2007). In a more general sense, however,
the basic controls and responses of the game - the manner of jumping, and how the
character "pops" - can be designed to induce pleasure in the participant. In this case, a
game can become a celebration ritual when it removes the overt goals from the player,
and allows them to simply enjoy the juiciness.
Our main experiment that dealt with celebration, occurred at the end of our tower
climbing prototype - where the player can place a star in the sky. However, due to time
limitations we weren't able to properly iterate and test on this concept. We hope to do
future research into the functional aspects of implementing celebratory rites into
gameplay, and how these rites interact with the larger game context.
32
Other Findings and Future Research
At the outset of this project, one of our desired goals was to discover a process through
which we could design highly transformative ritualistic experiences. We developed the
ritual model in an attempt to create experiences with a strong sense of communion -
where players would feel touched and changed by it. However, in this research we were
unable to satisfactorily create this type of experience. Presented here are several
potential reasons for this, each of which could be an avenue for future research.
Our major focus in this project was ritual action, or the gestures performed by
participants during a ritual. As such, we heavily emphasized interaction design in our
prototypes, rather than visual or audio design. Because our prototypes never provided
the desired transformative experiences, we conclude that mechanics alone are not
sufficient in conveying them. At some point the player needs additional forms of
communication in order to fully experience meaning. One potential avenue for future
research is to explore just how much these other channels are needed. This could be
done by taking an existing game experience that people find meaningful, and gradually
scaling back the non-interactive aspects of it until it loses meaning. Through this
process we could gain a better understanding of what each channel brings to the overall
experience.
Another item of consideration is the simplistic nature of our prototypes. Our prototypes
were all 2D-sidescroller avatar based experience which is severely limited when
compared with the corporal nature of most rituals. A participant performing a Catholic
33
Communion experiences that gesture through all senses - sight, smell, taste, touch, and
sound. In most of our prototypes the only feedback provided to the player’s body was
the feel of the keys and the visual depiction on the screen. In contrast, Ronald Grimes
refers to ritual gestures as a “bodily way of knowing” (Grimes, 1982) understood
implicitly through the corporal body. This project has demonstrated that removing the
participant’s body from the experience makes it much more difficult to for the participant
to fully experience the meaning of the gesture. Future research in this could focus on
several variations of a ritualistic experience using different modes of interface, from
keyboard and mouse, to more immersive interfaces such as the Kinect or head
mounted displays. Testing these different experiences would provide better
understanding of the corporal nature of ritual gesture.
Perhaps one of our most compelling conclusions in this project is the importance of
repetition to ritual experience. All of our early prototypes were one-time experiences,
and, as such, players never really considered the embedded symbols and interactions.
As such we conclude that repetition is not merely a important aspect of ritual symbolism
- but absolutely essential. While we eventually began to employ repetition, we have
certainly not exhaustively explored this topic. Future research, in particular recording
how many times players repeats an experience before ascribing meaning to it - as well
as how players respond to different methodologies of repetition, will offer profound
insights.
34
Conclusion
Throughout this discussion we have largely focused on the use of the ritual model, and
the various modes of ritual interaction, as tools for designing interactive experiences.
Beyond this, however, the ritual model works as a framework by which designers of
interactive experiences can understand and draw inspiration from ritual. Because
people have been experiencing meaning through ritual for millennia, rituals present an
nearly endless library of inspiration for designers. The ritual model, as well as the other
ideas expressed here, can serve as a guide for game designers seeking to tap into this
library and develop more meaningful experiences.
Additionally, this model can provide insight into how to develop ritual in a digital
environment. As human interactions are increasingly taking place in online digital
settings, the rituals underlying these interactions will need to adapt to the affordances of
this new environment. The ritual model presented here offers insight into how this
evolution must take place. As such, the curators of these online interactions -
community managers, and system designers - need to functionally understand how
rituals operate in a digital setting. The ritual model offers a framework for them to gain
this understanding.!
35
Bibliography
Braid. Blow, Jonathan. 2006.
Bogost, Ian. Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames. The MIT Press,
2007. Print.
Chrono Trigger. Nintendo, 1994.
Coover, Robert. “Morality Play: Soccer as Theater.” National Geographic 6 June 2006.
Gazzard, Alison, and Alan Peacock. “Repetition and Ritual Logic in Video Games.”
Games and Culture 6 (2011): 499–512. Print.
Grimes, Ronald L. Beginnings in Ritual Studies. 1982. Print.
Huizinga, J. Homo Ludens. Routledge, 2008. Print.
Juul, Jesper. A Casual Revolution: Reinventing Video Games and Their Players. The
MIT Press, 2009. Print.
Mass Effect. Bioware, 2004.
McKee, Robert. Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting.
1st ed. ReganBooks, 1997. Print.
Seligman, Adam B. et al. Ritual and Its Consequences: An Essay on the Limits of
Sincerity. Oxford University Press, USA, 2008. Print.
Tetris. Pajitnov, Alexey. 1984.
The 15-Puzzle. Chapman, Noyes Palmer. 1879.
Peggle. PopCap, 2007.
Shadow of the Colossus. Sony Computer Entertainment, 2005.
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. Blizzard, 2010.
Super Mario Bros. Nintendo, 1985.
Super Metroid. Nintendo, 1994.
The Legend of Zelda. Nintendo, 1986.
World of Warcraft. Blizzard, 2004.
36

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Asset Metadata

Creator Boyle, Jacob Shelley (author)

Core Title The ritual model: how to use the mechanics of ritual to create meaningful games

School School of Cinematic Arts

Degree Master of Fine Arts

Degree Program Interactive Media

Publication Date 05/09/2012

Defense Date 05/09/2012

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag design,Games,meaningful,OAI-PMH Harvest,Ritual,symbolism

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Bolas, Mark T. (committee chair), Gibson, Jeremy (committee member), Hoskins, Janet A. (committee member)

Creator Email boomcallister@gmail.com,jacobsbo@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-39728

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Legacy Identifier etd-BoyleJacob-836.pdf

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Rights Boyle, Jacob Shelley

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Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

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