8 ms·

We Become What We Behold (2017)

216 points by ColinWright 4y ago

ai_ia 4y ago
Was an engaging and overall excellent game. Big fan of Nicky Case and their work. I believe, simple tools and explorables such as these can help understand human psyche much more than a volumes of monograph exploring human conditions. I think these game-based explorables will be big in the future for explaining deep and difficult concepts.
- paganel 4y ago
  Games like this one (and video games more generally, I would say) also self-select for the people who have the patience and the drive to, well, play them, so, if anything, they'll only help with understanding the part of the population that is part of that demographic.
  - paulgb 4y ago
    They self-select when they’re spread as viral games, but there’s nothing to stop a teacher from discovering it as a viral game and assigning it as curriculum.
    - leetrout 4y ago
      I recommended this to my class and other faculty when taught a class and it fell on deaf ears mostly. Shame, really, because it is very true and a great exercise for journalism students.
    - mistermann 4y ago
      There's also nothing to stop word of a particularly noteworthy game from spreading into the MemePlex as well. It can be countered with memes though, which is what much of our ecosystem is now composed of.
hayst4ck 4y ago
Another game from Nicky Case: https://ncase.me/trust/ https://ncase.me/trust/ The punch line of this game is probably the most painful lesson to see play out in society again and again: In the game of prisoners dilemma, if you let defectors win, then you will end up with more defectors. It is not enough that you "win," defectors must lose. Defection must be a losing strategy. The results that this game displays so eloquently are so central to living in a high trust society that I think it should be mandatory curriculum for all schools. Crime or corruption gone unpunished will breed more crime or corruption.
- mellavora 4y ago
  Yes, I think about this often. The US used to be a high trust society. It has lost much of that in my lifetime. Causes: Money is an abstraction of reputation and honor, and we have made it an (almost) total replacement. The problem with money is it does not have a record of how it was earned, unlike reputation. Extreme individualism. Almost no sense of community or commons. Everything is about the ego. Cars. Driving has become our main (and almost only) form of social interaction with our community. And it is all about "winning" as an individual, not about working together to get through a difficult situation. See all the HN comments about rude driving as the norm. Could go on, won't.
  - bambax 4y ago
    > Money is an abstraction of reputation and honor Not in every part of the world. In many places, the dominant culture assumes people got rich by cheating and stealing. Which doesn't mean rich people aren't courted -- money's attractive in and of itself; but they don't get much true respect by default.
    - metadat 4y ago
      Where is this place?
      - mantas 4y ago
        Sure checks out for my whereabouts in Eastern Europe... And it’s not just USSR legacy. It was there for a looong time since feudal era.
bambax 4y ago
Maybe it's my machine or the browser, but the game is sooo slow I didn't have the patience to get past the first step where we apparently have to take a picture of random people and the picture gets put on an easel (?). What's the general point of this game?
- mordae 4y ago
  Media currently amplify anomalies, which misrepresents probabilities, leading to wild swings in human behavior due to miscalibration. At least that's my take.
- throwamon 4y ago
  mordae already spoiled it, but it's still worth playing. It's very short (5 minutes) with a really good execution and message. I say as soon as you find a better computer, go play it.
mughinn 4y ago
I love Nicky Case's work. I particularly like their explanation of how voting could be better and a little bit of theory on it https://ncase.me/ballot/ https://ncase.me/ballot/
throwamon 4y ago
Really cool as always! But uhh... https://i.imgur.com/sTMUkag.jpg https://i.imgur.com/sTMUkag.jpg
- ZeroGravitas 4y ago
  Amazing accuracy in this simulation, this represents the news story your family shares as "proof" that doesn't actually say what they think it says, and they never read beyond the headline for a hit of anger anyway. He certainly looks from the neck down like the kind of person that would brazenly wear a hat, and if he isn't in this specific photo, that doesn't prove anything, even though there's a whole news story about this unsubstantiated claim.
  - throwamon 4y ago
    When you put it this way, it does make the game even better.
ZeroGravitas 4y ago
This reminded me of this: How to report mass murders - Charlie Brooker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2o1V4lX_g4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2o1V4lX_g4
GTP 4y ago
Some journalists should play this game.
- ajmurmann 4y ago
  I think it's unfair to expect individual journalists to be able to change this. It's the incentive structure around them that forces this. The game does a good job at expressing this by giving you crickets when you take a photo of another guy in a hat or of people getting along. What's the solution? Who knows...
  - TimedToasts 4y ago
    Well then by all means they should keep doing what they're doing. Just following orders, right? Every snowflake thinks themselves innocent in an avalanche.
    - ajmurmann 4y ago
      It's not orders, it's the incentive structure and maybe some amount of tragedy of the Commons. If you are the head of a publication, you can stop reporting about outlier events and dramatizing them. However, your publication's market share and reach will drop or you'll entirely go out of business. The attention will instead go to publications who do feet the outrage machine. It needs to be solved, but a singel, regular journalist very likely cannot
  - GTP 4y ago
    I get what you're saying, but I'm not referring to all journalists. There are some that still do a decent job at representing the facts, while some others are at the opposite end of the spectrum and seem to only care about making a striking headline or telling a certain group of people what they want to hear. Like when in the game you take a picture of four people where three are mad at each other and the fourth is neutral, and the headline says "Almost everyone hates everyone else!".
- tsol 4y ago
  That won't make them stop wanting to make money.
Dig1t 4y ago
Wow this was SO good. I almost didn't play it but I'm glad I did. Something tells me that a lot of people will miss this because they will click away before giving it a try; it being interactive for some reason triggered my lazy click-away impulse.

216 points by ColinWright 4y ago

Was an engaging and overall excellent game. Big fan of Nicky Case and their work. I believe, simple tools and explorables such as these can help understand human psyche much more than a volumes of monograph exploring human conditions. I think these game-based explorables will be big in the future for explaining deep and difficult concepts.

paganel 4y ago
Games like this one (and video games more generally, I would say) also self-select for the people who have the patience and the drive to, well, play them, so, if anything, they'll only help with understanding the part of the population that is part of that demographic.
- paulgb 4y ago
  They self-select when they’re spread as viral games, but there’s nothing to stop a teacher from discovering it as a viral game and assigning it as curriculum.
  - leetrout 4y ago
    I recommended this to my class and other faculty when taught a class and it fell on deaf ears mostly. Shame, really, because it is very true and a great exercise for journalism students.
  - mistermann 4y ago
    There's also nothing to stop word of a particularly noteworthy game from spreading into the MemePlex as well. It can be countered with memes though, which is what much of our ecosystem is now composed of.

hayst4ck 4y ago

Another game from Nicky Case: https://ncase.me/trust/ https://ncase.me/trust/ The punch line of this game is probably the most painful lesson to see play out in society again and again: In the game of prisoners dilemma, if you let defectors win, then you will end up with more defectors. It is not enough that you "win," defectors must lose. Defection must be a losing strategy. The results that this game displays so eloquently are so central to living in a high trust society that I think it should be mandatory curriculum for all schools. Crime or corruption gone unpunished will breed more crime or corruption.

mellavora 4y ago
Yes, I think about this often. The US used to be a high trust society. It has lost much of that in my lifetime. Causes: Money is an abstraction of reputation and honor, and we have made it an (almost) total replacement. The problem with money is it does not have a record of how it was earned, unlike reputation. Extreme individualism. Almost no sense of community or commons. Everything is about the ego. Cars. Driving has become our main (and almost only) form of social interaction with our community. And it is all about "winning" as an individual, not about working together to get through a difficult situation. See all the HN comments about rude driving as the norm. Could go on, won't.
- bambax 4y ago
  > Money is an abstraction of reputation and honor Not in every part of the world. In many places, the dominant culture assumes people got rich by cheating and stealing. Which doesn't mean rich people aren't courted -- money's attractive in and of itself; but they don't get much true respect by default.
  - metadat 4y ago
    Where is this place?
    - mantas 4y ago
      Sure checks out for my whereabouts in Eastern Europe... And it’s not just USSR legacy. It was there for a looong time since feudal era.

bambax 4y ago

Maybe it's my machine or the browser, but the game is sooo slow I didn't have the patience to get past the first step where we apparently have to take a picture of random people and the picture gets put on an easel (?). What's the general point of this game?

mordae 4y ago
Media currently amplify anomalies, which misrepresents probabilities, leading to wild swings in human behavior due to miscalibration. At least that's my take.
throwamon 4y ago
mordae already spoiled it, but it's still worth playing. It's very short (5 minutes) with a really good execution and message. I say as soon as you find a better computer, go play it.

mughinn 4y ago

I love Nicky Case's work. I particularly like their explanation of how voting could be better and a little bit of theory on it https://ncase.me/ballot/ https://ncase.me/ballot/

throwamon 4y ago

Really cool as always! But uhh... https://i.imgur.com/sTMUkag.jpg https://i.imgur.com/sTMUkag.jpg

ZeroGravitas 4y ago
Amazing accuracy in this simulation, this represents the news story your family shares as "proof" that doesn't actually say what they think it says, and they never read beyond the headline for a hit of anger anyway. He certainly looks from the neck down like the kind of person that would brazenly wear a hat, and if he isn't in this specific photo, that doesn't prove anything, even though there's a whole news story about this unsubstantiated claim.
- throwamon 4y ago
  When you put it this way, it does make the game even better.

ZeroGravitas 4y ago

This reminded me of this: How to report mass murders - Charlie Brooker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2o1V4lX_g4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2o1V4lX_g4

GTP 4y ago

Some journalists should play this game.

ajmurmann 4y ago
I think it's unfair to expect individual journalists to be able to change this. It's the incentive structure around them that forces this. The game does a good job at expressing this by giving you crickets when you take a photo of another guy in a hat or of people getting along. What's the solution? Who knows...
- TimedToasts 4y ago
  Well then by all means they should keep doing what they're doing. Just following orders, right? Every snowflake thinks themselves innocent in an avalanche.
  - ajmurmann 4y ago
    It's not orders, it's the incentive structure and maybe some amount of tragedy of the Commons. If you are the head of a publication, you can stop reporting about outlier events and dramatizing them. However, your publication's market share and reach will drop or you'll entirely go out of business. The attention will instead go to publications who do feet the outrage machine. It needs to be solved, but a singel, regular journalist very likely cannot
- GTP 4y ago
  I get what you're saying, but I'm not referring to all journalists. There are some that still do a decent job at representing the facts, while some others are at the opposite end of the spectrum and seem to only care about making a striking headline or telling a certain group of people what they want to hear. Like when in the game you take a picture of four people where three are mad at each other and the fourth is neutral, and the headline says "Almost everyone hates everyone else!".
tsol 4y ago
That won't make them stop wanting to make money.

Dig1t 4y ago

Wow this was SO good. I almost didn't play it but I'm glad I did. Something tells me that a lot of people will miss this because they will click away before giving it a try; it being interactive for some reason triggered my lazy click-away impulse.