Feminine gamification viewpoint: balancing power
The events of this week definitely made me reflect that we have an urgent need to re-examine values in society and to balance the power back to good as opposed to evil and ego. Whether it is atrocities in Africa caused by leaders from faraway, shootings based on skin colour, violent attacks under the guise of a so-called religious theme, all of it is driven by power hunger. Sometimes it is a smokescreen to cover up incompetence closer to home, sometimes it are the beliefs of the few ego’s who have spun out of control and have tapped in to a fear or a hate that has been nurtured over time.
Fear of the unknown or of what is different is easy to cultivate, all you need is a few people expressing it and one populist politicians tapping into it as we saw with the whole Brexit campaign in the UK. I had honestly hoped that those elements would be removed from government because of the fact that they misrepresented facts, blatantly lied and frankly didn’t have the best interest of anyone apart from themselves at heart. But guess what the biggest anti-europa politicians continues to be paid in his role as MEP, the very institution he dislikes so much. Instead of changing it from within. The guy that publicly admitted that he was in ti for himself and proven to lie consistently, receives a top job representing a country to the outside world without an ounce of diplomacy. We reward wrong doing and don’t address it, in fact we publicly show it is even acceptable and good to get ahead.
I had personally hoped that things would change with a lady prime minister, but those were dashed as soon as the Brexit brigade got offered key roles and when it is made clear that no further consultation is needed on something that was a near 50/50 split when most of it was won on lies, which were admitted to.
So the gamer in me wants to address this situation at it’s core and I guess re-balance the power towards good instead of this spiralling evil all around us. Because Pokemon Go is such as craze right now, it is encouraging people to explore new areas and go further. How about it also including an empathy measure where additional levelling up is given for being kind to the environment, maybe even engaging with other players of different backgrounds to yourself whilst playing and earning rewards for this. Can an element of nurturing and caring be built in to the game so we also nurture our creatures instead of just capturing and levelling up. Maybe a special energy level when acts of kindness are carried out and proven by other players.
Our world is set up for achievement focus and is often fuelled by emotions of scarcity. Levelling up and achieving is seen as the one reason to live, work and do business. Whilst in any game we can also build in empathy, with collaboration and more philanthropic game mechanics such as resource nurturing and gifting could be useful. The energy that drives either side is different and we have grown comfortable to hard and powerful and possibly in some sense a global addiction to adrenaline based on power status. The energy behind collaboration, resource nurturing and gifting is much more subtle and low key. For some people I believe it would feel outright awkward to do this, hence they stick with the old and comfortable. This is what I mean with balancing the power back towards good and nurturing, collaborative actions as opposed to power hungry, egotistical drivers.
All I can say is that although I am a very optimistic type of person most of the time, the current state of world affairs makes me anxious about what is yet to come. A part of me is still hopeful, but that part is not winning ground rather the opposite. As designers I want to create solutions that drive the team spirit and tap into the positive subtle energy associated with nurturing and empathy.
What is your suggestion to redress the balance of power towards good?
