Empathy in Wingspan

Happy 100th Post! I asked the denizens of Meeple Syrup Shop Talk to contribute ideas for my 100th post. I'll be using some of the other responses in future posts (because I simply cannot be brief), but I chose this topic based on a question by Elizabeth Hargrave. 

Elizabeth asks, "How can we experience or encourage love and empathy in games?" 

My first reaction to this question was, "But I know you know the answer. After all, you designed Wingspan." Then I realized that unpacking that statement could help me explain a concept that I feel I have struggled to explain in the past. 

Let me start with a scenario. You see a donation link online for a nature preserve. How likely are you to donate $5 to that particular preserve? What if I told you that that preserve was an important habitat for the scissor-tailed flycatcher, the bird on the cover of Wingspan? Does your familiarity with that image increase your chances of donating? 

The thing I love about Wingspan is that the game relies on attention to detail to express its love of birds. We are never presented with injured or distressed birds that we have to save, just details unique to each bird. And that's what I'm getting at. 

Theme with proper attention to detail can get people to care about a topic. However, I believe that positive imagery creates a better emotional response that negative imagery. The African American community has spoken out about the fact that quality of representation matters as much if not more than amount of representation. Positive depictions of cultures in entertainment media has a real world impact on how cultures are perceived. 

But positivity cannot be forced. It needs to come from genuine care. (If you yourself do not possess empathy, but want to make a game that produces empathy in others, that's going to be an uphill battle.) False positivity comes off as creepy and agenda driven. Positive depictions rooted in real cultural practices invite viewers to "imagine others complexly" to quote John Green. Then the next time viewers are presented with an aspect of that culture, they will remember the positive associations they already have about the culture. In other words, I love the cover of Wingspan, so I'm making a donation. (This is a made up scenario; flycatchers aren't a threatened species.)

Lots of the things we "love" are just feelings of nostalgia for what we remember. Games are great vehicles for creating nostalgia— we make happy memories with people we care about. What better mind-state to introduce people to topics that need more empathy, like marginalized groups or threatened species? 

I'm not saying that negative depictions don't have a place. But especially for marginalized groups, negative depictions (in this case, negative refers to depictions of victimization or villainy or stereotypes) can be actively harmful,  particularly when created without input from the groups in question. Having empathy means not trying to speak for or over others.

Having a deep appreciation for a culture leads to attention to detail, which in turn helps foster appreciation for that culture. Even if the culture in question is birders. 

ShippBoard Games is a board game design blog that updates most Mondays.