This blog started as a result of my PhD research on Personal Epistemological Belief Structures in Video Game play. As you can imagine, such an academic and esoteric research topic didn’t create the most accessible piece of writing. I still thought the findings were interesting though and there should be a way to apply the research to the world of video game design. Basically, the research looked at how our worldview interacts with the information we see every day. What we think about knowledge, and the process of knowing, filters our daily information when we decide what that information actually means to us. As we grow and mature, our beliefs about knowledge can evolve and change. My research looked at whether or not video games could play a role in that evolution. The basic answer is yes, they can play a significant role. The “how” aspect becomes a lot more complicated. I’ll probably post a number of articles about that. Simply put, it is a dynamic process that is affected by a large number of variables including the personal context, motivation and emotional needs of the video game player.

One interesting phenomenon was the number of research participants who had reached a point where they actively sought out the kinds of experiences that might help them grow. All of them had grown up with video games and they assumed that they would always be a part of their lives. When they looked for growth opportunities in video games they found that they usually didn’t exist. Many of them talked about video games as something they were going to leave behind. For them, video games could still be part of relaxation and socialization but not about the growing sophistication in their beliefs about knowledge.

I started looking for the kinds of video games that might fill that void that those video game players had identified. I’m taking two approaches. First, I’ll be looking for games that might be able to address the needs of those game players. I’ll be writing reviews but if I have a chance I’ll talk to the game designers as well. The conversations with the designers will be about understanding their perspectives and design philosophies behind the game. Second, I’ll be working on some game designs and prototypes myself. I think one of the main problems with video games is the aversion to risk. With the exception of a few small independent game companies most of the video games we see today are the same ones we saw a decade ago. I’m able to take those risks as I don’t need to have a financial success with video games to survive. Ultimately, I just need to develop prototypes that will create some discussion in the game design community. I’ll probably have a number of failures but I hope that process will also lead to some innovation.