"Loneliness": How Games Use Symbolism in Game Mechanics to Create Story

Hello my cute cranberry cocktails and welcome back to my blog!

These week we will be discussing~ *symbolism*

As humans, we love stories.

Humans have used stories since the beginning of time to relay history, teach lessons, and just to pass time. In fact, we love stories so much that our brains create images, connections and stories even where there are none, such as in clouds passing overhead, or in the pattern of stars in the sky. Consequently, our ability to make stories out of abstract images, forming metaphors and symbols, allows for the creation of stories with deeper meaning that address emotions and ideas that words cannot concretely describe.

This cloud symbolizes me right before I wrote this blog post

As we enter this new era of technology, humans have begun to create stories unlike any before using video games, and as our technology and experience in creating these stories advances, many game developers have started telling stories that reach beyond concrete images and ideas. They have designed games using abstract images and symbolism, that call on the player to create their own meaning and devise their own story through the playing of these abstract games.

One such game is “Loneliness,” developed by Jordan Magnusan, where you control a single pixelized dot passing by formations of other pixelized dots. As your dot approaches the other dots, they always move away from you, often scattering their formations, before disappearing into nothingness.

Most people, when playing through the game, begin to look at the dots as people, especially as Magnusan has the dots moving and interacting with each other, and our brains help fill in the gaps about these dot-people, constructing relationships between them and reasons for their formations. As we control our own dot, who is forever chasing the other fleeing dots, we begin to create a narrative for our dot as well, and this narrative is different for every person who plays. Some people might get sad for their dot, who can never join the other dots or take place in their formations; some people might get angry that they cannot join the other dots and give up on approaching them altogether. Some people might enjoy looking at the dot formations and have their dot avoid them as to not break up the already established balance. In this way, the game becomes a metaphor for how different people deal with the feeling of loneliness. Whatever the player feels, they are using the game's simple mechanics and abstract images to create a story, even though there are no words, dialogue, or any other traditional forms of storytelling.

Magnusan created “Loneliness” to spread awareness of reported loneliness in children and adolescents in Korea, and his game mechanics, although simple, evoke feelings of loneliness in the player as the other dots time and time again run from our dot and disappear. “Loneliness” is an example of many games that use abstract images along with game mechanics to create and deepen narrative, using our human tendency to create story, meaning, and metaphors out of abstract images.

Until next time, cuties~

ricecakerabbit <3