Digital Games Reflection
Part I
Spent
How I felt
I felt very fortunate and thankful while playing this game. Saying this from first hand experience, it is extremely difficult to be responsible for someone you love and not be able to provide what they want so you always put others first rather than yourself.
Lessons learnt
Financial literacy is very important. Understanding how to save, spend, and budget is a necessity. It is also important that we try and put ourselves in situations where we can understand the obligations and responsibilities of our loved ones and thus be more lenient.
Area for improvement
Preferably, have an option where you can “beat” the game and not force the player to lose just so they can understand the difficulties people face. There is also a lesson in learning how to spend and actually understand the value of earned money.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-32057601
How I felt
I felt anxious while playing the game trying to weigh all the options and how to reach Europe safely.
Lessons learnt
To be able to comprehend situations and make decisions promptly.
Area for improvement
Maybe a longer storyline to show that life is not always better at the destination in order to stop entertaining the idea that Europe is the best place to be.
September 7th, 2020
https://caitkirby.com/downloads/Fall%202020.html
How I felt
I felt a bit overwhelmed with this and did not really get the point. I lived through this era and experienced many of the things mentioned but felt that this game tried to force in certain information that was not really relevant to the main theme.
Lessons learnt
To accommodate the difficulties of all people around me no matter how small.
Area for improvement
Reduce the amount of information that is being mentioned about the character that is done in an attempt to force the user to feel empathetic with the protagonist.
Voter Suppression Trial via New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/01/opinion/voting-suppression-videogame.html
How I felt
I was partially aware of this before so I was not really caught off guard but I did understand the frustration of non-white people who try to cast their votes and how oppressed they are when trying to do so.
Lessons learnt
Voting is not a true reflection of society’s wants due to its proneness to fraudulent activity and corruptness.
Area for improvement
Maybe have a longer storyline that could exhibit more difficulties rather than just standing in line and waiting to vote.
Know Yourself
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfifJhjetTC2YS3gJ-QHtbfYG_PNcpjy6d4WWT1KrgG9RHveg/viewform
How I felt
Apparently, most answers I gave were very judgemental yet I did not feel like they were at all. I never felt that I am judgemental but according to this game apparently I do judge. Maybe I understood the scenarios wrong.
Lessons learnt
To be extremely passive to avoid being labelled judgemental.
Area for improvement
Reword the scenarios and maybe adjust some of the answers to really exhibit the judgemental ones and non-judgemental ones.
When someone you love is depressed
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfifJhjetTC2YS3gJ-QHtbfYG_PNcpjy6d4WWT1KrgG9RHveg/viewform
How I felt
I really enjoyed this game. Very interesting storyline and related to it as I feel like I have been put in many similar situations and was trying to deal.
Lessons learnt
To always try and understand the needs of another person and how they really think and to also be considerate of their feelings.
Area for improvement
Maybe try to have the same game but a different platform than a presentation so it feels like more of a storyline rather than flicking through slides.
Game Comparison
Playing through these games really highlights the gap between a digital simulation and the messy reality of life. While Spent and the Syrian Refugee game did a great job of triggering that stressful anxiety feeling, they sometimes felt limited as it either forced you to lose in Spent or by painting an overly simple picture of life in Europe. It’s clear that when a game tries too hard to force a specific emotion, like the character details in September 7th or the “judgmental” labels in Know Yourself, it can actually make you pull away or feel defensive rather than more connected. The most successful moments were the ones that mirrored your real-life experiences, like the depression simulator or the struggle to provide for a loved one in Spent, because they validated the difficulty of putting others first. Ultimately, while these games are great for a quick reality check on things like financial literacy or voter suppression, they work best when they feel like a genuine story you’re living through rather than a lecture or a series of slides you’re just clicking through.
Part II
My Ikigai
What do you love?
I love sports, being out and about, exploration, finance and investing, learning about financial literacy, engineering, and cooking.
What are you good at?
Cooking food, task management and delegation, engineering, finance, and sports.
What can you be paid for? Or What can you get credit for in your course?
Coaching, working as a professional engineer, or becoming a financier.
What does the world need?
The world needs to adopt more sustainable methods when carrying out traditional activities.
Top strengths
AI Response & Reflection
“Based on your unique intersection of engineering precision, financial literacy, and deeply human character strengths (Honesty, Kindness, Love, Humor, and Fairness), you have a fascinating “profile” for a protagonist.
You aren’t just a builder; you’re a builder who cares about the social fabric. Here are three distinct concepts for a digital choose-your-own-pathway game tailored to your Ikigai.
1. The Green Horizon Architect
The Genre: Sci-Fi / Solarpunk Management Simulation The Premise: You are the Lead Engineer and Chief Financial Officer of the world’s first fully sustainable “Seastead” (a floating city). How your strengths play in:
- Engineering & Finance: You must balance the technical stability of the city (energy grids, water filtration) with the financial viability of the colony.
- Fairness & Honesty: When resources get low, do you tell the citizens the truth and risk panic, or sugarcoat it? You’ll face moral dilemmas where you must choose between “optimal profit” and “fair distribution” of resources.
- The Goal: Build a city that proves the world can adopt sustainable methods without sacrificing human connection.
2. The Kitchen Table Diplomat
The Genre: Cozy Narrative / Life Sim The Premise: You inherit a struggling community kitchen in a bustling, diverse city. By day, you are a freelance consultant (Finance/Engineering); by night, you cook for the neighborhood. How your strengths play in:
- Cooking & Task Management: You manage the “chaos” of the kitchen, delegating tasks to volunteers.
- Kindness & Love: The “gameplay” revolves around listening to the stories of your patrons. Your choices in dialogue—using Humor to defuse tension or Kindness to support a neighbor in need—determine the community’s “Trust Score.”
- The Goal: Use your professional skills to fund the kitchen while using your personal strengths to keep the neighborhood’s heart beating.
3. The Reclaimer: 2150
The Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Exploration / Mystery The Premise: The world has “ended” due to unsustainable practices. You are a “Reclaimer”—an engineer-explorer sent into the ruins of old financial districts to recover lost technology and records. How your strengths play in:
- Exploration & Sports: The game features high-mobility movement through ruins (parkour/climbing).
- Fairness & Humor: You travel with a small team. Your humor keeps morale high in the dark, and your sense of fairness is tested when you find high-value tech—do you bring it back to your colony to help everyone, or use it to secure your own team’s future?
- The Goal: Find the blueprints for a “Sustainable Reset” to ensure the new world doesn’t repeat the mistakes of the old one.”
I personally feel that the first game is very exciting for me since I get to be responsible for a city and thus would do my best to maintain and grow with the limited resources available. This seems like a sufficient challenge and I would feel that I would be good at that type of thing.
Game Ideas
- Life simulator where everytime you have to lie you pay money.
- Kitchen simulator where you cannot interact with the food itself but can only explain and delegate tasks at the beginning of the shift and see the results of your instructions after.
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