Further game theorizing:
I completely agree that I don’t want to make a game that encourages exponential wealth/economic value growth. I also don’t want it to be extractive. I do believe these themes can be present in good games if really commented on well and not used unquestionably, but that requires more focus than our game would have on economic structure. So my game is a cat/animal cafe sim. The fantasy is unfortunately really based in current reality set-up. There’s a lot of parts I’m unpacking. To me, the fantasy is that I live a life where I create a space that people and animals enjoy and coexist and eat cute food. But irl, there’s issues with the exploitation of animals (irl some few places work hard on this, acting more as an interactable cat shelter so I have some examples of that), and all the economic baggage of cafes and consumerism. I could definitely remove currency, but my main issue is on how to create gameplay that rewards engaging with the game mechanics with more game or creative options. The main issue is that for a decoration game, you need items, and generally you need a gradual increase of those item options. That means somehow acquiring those items, generally from shops. A barter system is possible, but unsure if that solves the issue.
So my challenge I think is at what stage of that concept I need in order to send the messages while fulfilling a healthy fantasy. Commerce and exchange do exist in non capitalist and pre colonial forms of economy, but very honestly, I NEED to and plan to do some more specific reading on what structures exist or have been theorized. I am a college dropout and woefully unread on the material details beyond the ethical and philosophical concepts. It definitely is possible to do what I intend without any form of currency, but a pro of making it more grounded in current reality, is that people have a more direct example of how to apply the concept in their own life. I think having many games about all stages of that are incredibly useful. A good activist needs to know what the ideal is we are striving for, and also what decision to make today in their material life. Your example/ idea is great, and I’d love to see an array of games exploring better ideal systems. I’m not committed to a specific economy structure, so I’ll have to read up on a way that makes sense for having a decorating game. I do wanna throw in sustainability and reusing/recycling etc. So yeah I need to really watch how we implement both acquiring and holding items. My main goal I think is to at least create a narrative that makes it super clear that the universe of my game is not intended as a utopia. The fantasy of the game is that a community of people all are aligned in kindness, but disagree or need growth and learning about how to build a better community. The core of the narrative art is about trying to fix a community that relied on one benevolent person holding it, and when that person burned out, they’re left floundering. So instead of the protag coming in and taking over that role, they have to help everyone through their own arcs of discovering working as a community. The conversations I feel comfortable in are the ones I have in real life, about how like for example, me and my friends are all levels of disabled and mentally ill, neurodivergent, so we can’t all be exchanging equal labor, sometimes we have to unconditionally lift people up (sometimes forever, and not just a limited time), and that also someone helping doesn’t have to be physical labor, it can even be just being kind, and this is built on trust that everyone is trying their best.
So yeah I think regardless of specifics, the ethos is always to ask myself why I’m putting a feature in, can it be done another way? Differentiate the things that I have in there to comment on, and the things in there as idealist examples. There’s a lot of discussion I love about allegorical consistency in art. Like a big example being those clunky racial allegories with animals, like okay we’re talking about race when the carnivores are discriminated against, but are we also talking about race when the… carnivores factually eat other people??? So yeah, in my game, if I have idealized systems elsewhere, how do I communicate what isn’t meant to be shown as ideal. Even if we don’t have money, there will be some method of exchange, items from the real world, developed towns, so it’ll all need that lens at some level. I’m certainly more comfortable figuring that out with things I have lived experience in, like how even in my pro ND spaces, we can accidentally oppress each other. Another part is that I think it’s okay for there to be things safe to do in games that aren’t good to do irl. Like I think if all of society agreed we don’t get to cut down all the trees, but there was like, a tree cutting simulator, that would actually be a really good way to get to experience that without the harm. It’s more about how the narrative frames it, and I agree that a huge issue is that cozy sim games have a narrative issue differentiating what is a thing we want to reflect about an ideal world, and what is something we are creating a space to do without harm, even though we all know it’s harmful. And the diff is probs relating to us knowing it’s harmful. No one cares much that in my first game you can take a bear cub and keep it in your cat cafe, because we all feel safe knowing most cozy games know that stealing exotic animal babies is bad. But I can really understand the feeling seeing a game feature encouraging a practice that we don’t actually feel safe assuming everyone knows is bad. I do think there’s different parts of this that differ between are usual ethical quandies for any game, and what is required consideration for a cozy game. I do think there’s added baggage that whatever you show will be assumed to be part of the cozy factor, I haven’t entirely solved this for the marketing side yet. Especially given we have an arc where the player discovers the initial concept of taking over the other person’s role taking care of everyone on their own is hugely flawed. So I think one of the biggest things is communicating that difference to the player. I don’t have a good solution yet for that, but is important for me to think over. Okay gunna try to find an endpoint bc I could discuss forever. Ultimately, I’d love the dev community to get further in the weeds like this. To me personally, I feel most of the cozy dev community are already aligned on wanting to do better about these things, but ultimately failing for one reason or another. Generally for all games, we run into issues getting stuck with the established grammar of games, and the immense challenge of matching narrative with gameplay. I haven’t played any cozy games in a long time that wasn’t trying to send a good message, though I’ve played plenty that tried and contradicted themselves further down the line of development. So yeah, I hugely agree there’s good crit, and I did see a lot of good crit in your writing!! I should probably start just ignoring what I deem more shallow dives into the topic, and focus my time on having these more nuanced discussions. Next manifesto jam I think I’ll try to make my own actual genre critique, instead of defense. I want to carve out time to actually do what I suggested in gathering some good specific examples and details. I genuinely love this convo, and it very literally spurned good conversation with my own team on the current decisions we have to make soon. I’m definitely going to have to get some books and really get a stronger foundation for the economic part. Sorry for talking in circles, and thank you soooo much for the discussion