Ylva Björnberg: Collective Imagination Projects, Trainings and Podcast Interviews

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Allies Emerging: A Posthumanist Nano Roleplay Game

In the online roleplay game Allies Emerging, players embody the roles of Seers, characters with the unique ability to communicate with objects considered allies. Designed to function as a divination tool, the game invites players to challenge common perceptions about human abilities and the intrinsic nature of objects.

Allies Emerging asks an important question: Are our perceptions of reality constrained, causing us to overlook an immense potential around us?

Targeted at adults looking for innovative ways to gain clarity or guidance, this 1-hour online game unfolds as a divination ritual, set in the confines of the player’s screens. The Seers, equipped with archetypal skills resembling those of magicians, embark on a quest to resolve a real-world question from one of the players. As players interact with physical objects seen in one player's background, the question gets resolved. The game motivates players to see and treat themselves as skillful beyond the ordinary and objects as partners, challenging limitations of human perception and the human-centered ranking that places humans above non-living things.

Immersion; Structured Debriefing; Safety Mechanics

The nanogame follows a structured format including the following elements: character creation, ritual opening, ritual performance, object interactions, de-roleing, individual reflection, group sharing, and debriefing. The game incorporates narrative-driven and carefully crafted guided meditations accompanied by music designed to facilitate immersion into character, the embodiment of Seer capacities, guidande into interaction with objects, de-roleing/exiting characters, and a structured debriefing session to reflect on the experiences. Before engaging in gameplay, players are briefed on safety and safety mechanics such as the "lookdown" technique, allowing them to disengage from the gameplay if needed. Players are encouraged to share their reflections during and after gameplay.

Ritual, Immersion

The game draws on multiple theoretical frameworks and concepts. Ritual theory is central, using Van Gennep and Turner's ideas of rituals creating liminal spaces for transformation. Magical realism blends supernatural elements with realism, while Barad’s agential realism suggests objects and non-human agents possess relational agency, shifting perceptions of objects as active participants. Immersion concepts from Pohjola and Bowman are applied, requiring players to fully believe in their characters, supported by guided meditations and sensory engagement (e.g., names, appearances, and scents). Crookall’s debriefing framework highlights emotional and intellectual reflection post-game. All playtests followed Zimmerman & Forlizzi’s research-through design model, including problem identification, game design, playtesting, evaluation, and iteration.

Results: Immersion Enhanced by Meditation

Playtest outcomes highlight the potential of enhancing players’ capacity for divination work as well as working communication and relationships with inanimate objects through role-play. Furthermore, the guided meditations enhanced players' immersion into their Seer characters and abilities. Nonetheless, players expressed a desire for a fuller (longer and physical) game experience. This feedback highlights the potential for future iterations to deepen the transformative aspects of the game through extended and physically immersive gameplay.

The game was played from September 2023 to February 2024, in a series of playtests for the "Transformative Game Design 1" and “Introduction to Transformative Game Design” courses at Uppsala University.

Sources:

Barad, Karen. 2007. “Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning”, 214. Duke University Press.

https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv12101zq⁠

⁠

Bowman, Sarah Bowman. 2022, January 2. “Transformative Game Design: A Theoretical Framework” --Sarah Lynne Bowman [Video]. YouTube. Transformative Play Initiative, January 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX1U73eF53A⁠

[accessed 16th October 2023]

Bowman, Sarah Lynne. 2017. “

Immersion into LARP: Theories of Embodied Narrative Experience⁠

.” First Person Scholar, March 8.

Coulton, Paul, and Alan Hook 2017. “

Games Design Research through Game Design Practice⁠

” In Game Research: Theory and Practice, edited by Petri Lankowski and Jussi Holopainen, 97-116. Carnegie Mellon University: ETC Press.

Crookall, David. 2014. "

Engaging (in) Gameplay and (in) Debriefing⁠

." Simulation & Gaming, 45, no. 4-5: 416-27.

Holkar, Mo. 2015. “

Workshop Practice: A Functional Workshop Structure Method.Links to an external site.⁠

” In The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book, edited by Charles Bo Nielsen, 150-155. Copenhagen, Denmark: Rollespils Akademiet.

Kemper, Jonaya. 2020. “

Wyrding the Self⁠

”, Nordic Larp online magazine, Nordiclarp.org, May 18

Rusch, Doris C., and Andrew M. Phelps. 2020. “.” Frontiers in Psychology (November 4).

TeachThought Staff. 2022. “

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a Hierarchical Framework for Cognition and Learning Objectives⁠

." TeachThought University.

Zimmerman, J. & Forlizzi, J. (2014). Research Through Design in HCI. In J.S. Olson & W. A. Kellogg (Eds.), Ways of Knowing HCI (pp. 167-189). Springer.

Westborg, Josefin. 2022. “

Learning and Framing⁠

.” Transformative Play Initiative. YouTube.

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