On September 26th we held the workshop Play the Future! at the Games Garden in Utrecht, with the following representatives from G-Motiv's game developing companies: Michael Bas (RANJ), Evert Hoogendoorn (IJsfontein) and Niki & Simon (Monobanda).
Inspired by game journalist Leigh Alexander's article "Three Ways to Play the Future", the workshop aimed to look beyond the immediate goals of G-Motiv, in order to generate fresh ideas which we could later feed into our process. We worked on three exercises inspired by Leigh's future game predictions: "Games will never end - Games won't be perfect - Games will be played everywhere".
Divided into three groups, each team worked on each other's concepts, by rotating workplaces. Three game ideas resulted, summarised into the following: A Synch-Mood-Tool to catalyse social group behaviour / Crowdsourcing emotions through smell for navigation / Soundscapes in ringtones to exchange social information. These outcomes questioned healthcare's strict division into physical, mental and social factors, whilst exploring alternative possibilities for collaboration between the partners.
Triggering social exchanges through play, common goals lead to shared experiences between individuals. By 'doing the same thing at the same time', a specific space is formed from such exchange. Fictions can help define these interactive contexts, enriching the play experience by allowing it to grow alongside individual narratives. Furthermore enabling, as Leigh puts it: "ever-living, continually-evolving spaces that feel increasingly real".