Last Guardian Standing
As writers, our work functions in a social world. What does that mean exactly?
Well, writing is a situated act with conscious or unconscious considerations of who we are writing for.
In composition studies, the interplay between author, audience and text is commonly referred to as rhetoric.
In video games, the rhetorical situation changes slightly as the relationship becomes creator, game and player.
That last bit is important; no longer are consumers of electronic texts just an audience; they are an interactive and integral part of the text itself, shaping the rhetorical outcomes as they play.
No matter what message the creator (author) intended, the audiences (players) can have experiences that are uniquely their own.
Ian Bogost discusses game design and the idea of fun.
'Video games are not mere trifles, artifacts created only to distract or to amuse. But they are also not automatically rich, sophisticated statements about the world around us. Video games have the power to make arguments, to persuade, to express ideas. But they do not do so inevitably. As we evolve our relationship with video games, one of the most important steps we can take is to learn to play them critically, to suss out the meaning they carry, both on and under the surface.''
-Ian Bogost, "The Rhetoric of Video Games"
But really, writing works just like this. The compositions we produce go out in the world and they serve a purpose, they accomplish a goal (if we as writers are doing our job) and they do this because our texts are social.
Destiny is a game that demands social interaction and at the same time demands failing constantly. You have to lose; over and over and over...and over. After all these attempts at perfection, at coordinating with your teammates, at devising just the right strategy to tackle the toughest boss...only then do you enjoy some small modicum of victory.
In this game, there is extra motivation to get better because you are failing with friends and you don’t want them to see you mess up. They depend on you. They need you. This is exactly how writing works as a situated, social act.
Your writing is important and it should do something; fail as much as you want. Fail publically. Fail in your writing group. Mess up. Let the team down. All of these things are as important to writers as they are to players in Destiny. I use this framework to think about my own writing all the time; who am I going to need to impress with this? Who might I let down? How will my actions affect the team? After so many tries the hard boss fights in Destiny become routine and it becomes hard to imagine that you failed at doing this so many times over.
So what does all of this have to do with writing and, specifically, the idea that writing is a social act?
Well, let’s think about the video game Destiny for a moment. In Destiny, players shoot aliens, go on missions and collect cool gear. What sets this game apart from other shooter games is its dependence on other players to succeed.
WIthout a fireteam of five friends, you have no chance to defeat the tougher challenges in this game and, in turn, acquire the coolest gear.
In this way, Destiny is a game that relies on being social; you have to seek out people to play with and you have to talk to them over the internet to succeed.