Last week @leighalexander tweeted about how one of the main things holding the game industry back is a lack of institutional memory. Today a tweet goes viral with “hey guys, dunno if you noticed, but video games are empathy machines bc you literally pretend to be someone else!!"

I think part of the problem is partially the incredibly high turnover in our industry, partially the feeling that no one has ever taken a video game seriously before you have, and partially that some people who think they’re taking games seriously… still aren't

But that’s not why I’m making this thread. I’m making this thread to talk about what I talked about in my 2017 book, Empathy Engines: games are not empathy machines, and depending on the game, it can be anything between naive and actively dangerous to assume that they are

By making players think they’re experiencing something like empathy, it can distort and dehumanize the experience of the person they think they’re empathizing with: if the game ends, if there’s a win condition, why can’t this person pull themselves out of their own circumstances?

Sometimes, players empathize with the “wrong" characters. @merritt spoke in an interview about how cis people often assume the game LIM is about bullying and not the treacherousness of passing — as though the game were designed to put you in the mindset of the bullies.

In fact, many of the creators whose games get LABELED “empathy games” hate the label for that reason. @adult_witch created “Road To Empathy” that encouraged players to literally walk a mile in her shoes; @gmattievc created a game literally called “Empathy Machine”!!

In “Empathy Machine,” players control the character in Mattie’s previous game “Mainichi” by literally touching and manipulating parts of her body.

“Mainichi” was also called an “Empathy game.” http://www.mattiebrice.com/empathy-machine/

In my book, Empathy Engines, I make the argument that meaningful games do not produce empathy, but rather, are the product OF empathy.

Machines create a product: engines use fuel to power something.

It’s not Design + Game = Empathy.

It’s Design + Empathy = Game.

I’d actually argue that many mainstream games aren’t empathy machines, but dehumanization machines: certainly the US Army isn’t running twitch streams for recruitment because they’re trying to create a new breed of hyper-empathetic super soldier.

But that’s a different thread.

Anyway. My point is that “Do video games something something empathy??” is a really important conversation to have, but if you’re invested and want to participate it’s an excellent idea to catch up on what’s already been said so that we can actually move the discourse forward.

(PS, you can get my book on Itch or Amazon: https://elizabethsampat.itch.io/empathy-engines )

(I’m in the process of expanding/revising it with more modern examples, but anyone who buys it from itch will have free access to the second edition when it’s complete)

AND ONE MORE THING

I am VERY CLEARLY not the first person to ever put the words “Game” and Empathy” together. My work was based on a shit ton of research and work from people who went before me! And more people than me (like @LeenaVanD) have been working on this as well.

Okay NOW I’ll stop.