Games that reflect reality
Today I was at Bold at work, and as part of one of their projects in partnership with the MOH Office for Healthcare Transformation to create movements of health, we played this game (seen in pic below). The objective of the game was to get as many points, the winner is the person who first obtains 9 points.
It’s interesting to note that as much as this game seems like a ‘level playing field’ for people, where we get to roll our dice (of life) each turn and build bridges, there’s also hidden power play behind the scenes. One of my friends, who has some experience in game design knew how he could strategically win in the game by locating a good starting point. As much as we think luck plays a role in us succeeding in life, having a good starting point (placing your initial block near 6s and 8s where probability of these numbers being thrown are higher) enables ease of access to resources to win the game. Just like how families with stronger networks naturally would have access to a greater pool of jobs, experiences and support.
Another player who was near the outskirts didn’t manage to obtain much resources as the rounds progressed and he was pretty much ‘stuck’. Only when the facilitator announced that it was the final round, a fellow player felt like he may be feeling left out, and decide to build a bridge towards him - what was interesting was how this mentality parallels to people who are near the end of life: they tend to only donate vast amount of their assets when they are about to die. Because it doesn’t matter how much we have anymore, it’s all going to end anyway. Perhaps it only occurs to us at our deathbed that if we could make a difference with what we have - that’s the choice we’d ultimately make. But we tend to not make such choices when we think we still have time left.
For myself, though I didn’t have a good starting point, I could be considered lucky as I had items to trade, and there were players who were willing to trade resources with me, and that gave me a sense of security. But what I thought was luck, when viewed under the lens of the system - it was possible as I had awareness of what others around me had what I needed, and i had something i could offer to trade with them with. Of course, I also trusted that they would reciprocate.
But for people who are just struggling to survive with their own means, they may not even have time to pay attention to what resources are out there, and they may feel like they don’t have anything to offer to trade. Our facilitator, Yoek, prompted if we felt like we were in this position before. The feeling of loneliness and disconnection was something we could connect with.
Largely the gameplay was towards amassing individual wealth. It did occur to us that we could perhaps win together, but that would be kind of boring. As a collective we think we did pretty well and are satisfied (we all rated satisfaction at 7/10). Though we all thought that if we could reach out to the player whom was separated/’marginalised’ earlier, it would have been more satisfactory.
The game was designed in a way that all players could have an awareness of what’s happening at a system level (how each player is doing, how many points each player has). But I guess what happens usually is that we don’t know what’s happening in the systemic level, and we may not know how to strategically play the cards we are dealt with (access to knowledge/experience) to ‘win’ this game called life.
The hypothesis would be that - if more people knew about social issues and the marginalised, would they care more? If our media had pulled more attention to where it rightfully needs, would our society be better off? Yet, who decides where the attention goes, and who decides the rules of the game in the first place?
It’s inevitable to talk about power. How co-creation tends to be conflated with ‘consulting’ or ‘consensus’ where the government decides? True co-creation implies that stakeholders have similar levels of power, but this is often not the case. How then can we equalise power? The notion of empowerment was brought up again. To give another person power, presupposes that one is still more powerful than another. How is that empowerment when power still resides in the supposed ‘giver’?
What’s the solution? I don’t know. But i think that a crucial piece may be about creating access to a range of resources, building bridges to connect people, so that we can better empathize with each other and realise that winning together is much more satisfying that winning alone.
post reflections: I realised in my past 2 years of working, there are moments (or should i say, months) where i found myself drifting away from openjio and social issues, It’s just so easy to get caught up in work if i’m not intentional, and especially so if i’m not plugged in to a community.
I think one main reason I can still do this community/volunteering work is because of the openjio team, and the community i’m plugged into, friends who i can connect with in the social space. But i realised most of my colleagues aren’t in such communities. Not that it’s a bad thing. But yea, my organisation doesn’t have a strong culture or structure that facilitates volunteerism. Like most organisations, everyone is just focused on doing their own work. Nothing wrong with that either.
I think what helped me is that I started openjio before I joined the workplace (about a few months after my graduation). Reminds me that having a ‘good’ starting point is really important, it could really have a pivotal influence in the way we live our lives. Honestly, i am not too sure where i’d be without openjio because it occupies a significant part of my life and identity right now, and has opened up opportunities for me too, such as meeting with people i would have otherwise not met. (including this!)
Perhaps the hypothesis here would be that school volunteering experiences are crucial in affecting our volunteering experiences as we adult. Volunteering rates drop dramatically as one reaches the working adult stage. I wonder what was the starting point that led us to this journey in the first place…
A friend shared with me that sustainable volunteering requires one to see, empathise, and hold space for pain and the feeling of helplessness. Perhaps it’s in accepting this helplessness, sitting in what’s uncomfortable - and knowing that if I were in the same position, I would have made the same choices - that allows us to connect with each other (not individualise blame) and move forward together. That we see this pain and continue to connect with it, and use it as a driving force for good. Pain in that sense, could be the greatest motivating factor?