Thank You: My Book Featured in Kazunari Yonemitsu's "How to Create Games That Change Your Life"!
I received a copy of the new book "How to Create Games That Change Your Life" from game designer Kazunari Yonemitsu, whom I met at a Juntendo University event in July. In the "Books You Should Read Next" section at the end, he mentions the book I co-authored with Takuya Ono, "Board Games Change Society".
In fact, shortly after that book was published, Mr. Yonemitsu featured it on his subscription program. I would like to express my gratitude once again.
I would like to return the favor by introducing his new book. What is most important about this "How to Create Games That Change Your Life" is that it clearly writes about the significance and philosophy of the prototype to playtest stage of game development.
I believe this is relevant not just to those who "aim to be professional game creators," but to everyone living their lives. In fact, Mr. Yonemitsu includes examples that readers can try and experience themselves using things like a deck of cards on hand.
For example, coming up with a "new card game!" and playing it with family or friends is a playtest for a new game. Well, usually it won't be that interesting compared to existing ways of playing (laughs). But if you reject such "trial play," new games will never emerge.
Here is a memorable piece of advice for such playtesting.
A prototype is a trial piece. Especially for the first prototype, please love it as if it were a baby. I tell my students this when they make game prototypes and show them to each other: "You wouldn't say to a baby, 'You're useless because you can't walk' or 'You're useless because you can't do math,' would you? Instead of saying what's missing or what's wrong, look at it with the
feeling of wanting to nurture it together. Love it by focusing on its good points, saying 'How cute,' or 'That's fun.'" Please try approaching your own prototypes with this feeling. And when you have others play them, convey this to them as well.
(Although I have never made a game) this is exactly it. I think the root cause of why Japanese society is at a dead end today is that there are too many people who do not acknowledge the prototype stage.
For example, social media was originally a place to show each other prototypes of what we were thinking and to polish them together. So, originally, positive comments like "Oh, that's interesting (even if it's rough)!" should have been flying back and forth.
However, that has changed. I once cited the observation of philosopher Masaya Chiba in my 2022 book, "The Society of Excessive Visibility."
In an essay from 2014 included in "Meaningless Meaning" (Kawade Shobo Shinsha), Masaya Chiba talks about the transformation of Twitter, which he had been using since 2007, using an interesting metaphor. Originally, Twitter was an "atelier" and a place for "transformation" where people would casually voice ideas that came to mind and
repeatedly revise them through mutual interaction to finish them into works, but that character has disappeared. Instead, it has become a rigid space where people just show off their fully completed ideologies or political stances like position-talk and clash with each other. (Omitted) I feel that a world is being born where the pressure to be in a completed form as long as you are "showing" it to others is increasing, and where not only is there no maturation, but even concepts like "growth" and "maturity"
cannot even be established
.
In this day and age, there is too strong a desire for "everything to be a finished product from the start!" Just as there is no baby who can walk and do math the moment they are born, that is impossible.
However, there are troublesome people in the world who insist, "I am a finished product from the beginning. Now everyone, retweet only my claims that have 100% correctness!" and think it will get likes, sell, and satisfy their desire for self-approval. It seems they just want to do business with such false advertising.
Such people will barge into other people's ateliers without being invited and complain, "This is no good!" or "It's unfinished and boring!" Of course innovation won't happen, because it gets crushed at the playtest stage.
Above all, if you do that, one day you will be retorted with, "Are you really that perfect? Is that perfection related to the current topic? May I check your track record?" (bitter laugh).
As I cited the reading theories of R. Hoggart and Takumi Sato in my previous article, the idea that there is some amazing person somewhere who will deliver a finished product pushes many people who aren't particularly amazing (= me and you) into a "world of spectators." In short, they lose the agency to try and err themselves, and in a bad sense, they just become mere consumers.
Instead, it is in "our world," where everyone finds enjoyment for themselves and shares the joy with those around them, that "more active, more fulfilling, and more collaborative kinds of entertainment" can grow. Gathering around a game to give each other advice and discussing the post-game analysis to see if it might be even more interesting if done this way is the simplest practice of that.
What is important is to reclaim the space for playtesting in this society once again. Mr. Yonemitsu's book is an excellent work that allows even those who are not interested in games to notice such a perspective! I hope many people will pick it up.
(The header is from the back obi of the same book. You can find the special page for Kazunari Yonemitsu's smash hit 'Say It! Game', which also reveals the secret story behind its development, here!)