As a quick refresher from Alli’s article, she discusses the power dynamic in games. In the vast majority of games, especially the AAA sector, we see a main character who is an unkillable machine that has the power to overcome anything by brute force. In the end, we, as the protagonist, do nothing different than those we fight against and glorify the power fantasy that allows us to do so. As this becomes the standard, we see less games break that mold and thus then leads to an interesting discussion on what this means on a broader scale. She makes a lot of interesting points and again, I would definitely read through her article to get what she’s saying first hand.

So with all of that said, let’s dive a little deeper and see just what we could do to lean into an alternative experience. Two examples are listed in the article through Citizen Sleeper and Sky: Children of Light. Both of which offer their own unique alternative. In Citizen Sleeper, for example, you are a powerless escaped worker who has to survive through learning skills and making friends to help get away. It's not focused on destroying the people who lead you there, but rather working to survive and escape your past with the help of people around you. Given the state of the world now, the previous concept happens to hit very close to home.

The other example is Sky: Children of Light which is self-described as a social MMO. It's about connecting with people and the world around you as opposed to fighting monsters and doing raids to get the best gear and compete for total domination. I love the idea of having more experiences to help you learn and lean into being yourself. Life is so easily filled with ways to escape who you are or the questions you aren’t asking yourself. Obviously, you, as the consumer, have the choice to pick escapism through your media choices. And I personally support that! Life is tough and sometimes we need a break. With that said, I would love to see more mainstream attention on games that make you view the world in another lens as we so quickly become more and more divided.

Those are just two, quick examples of games that break the mold on the traditional power fantasy. But what else can we do? What other possible games or even mechanics would make this interesting to delve more into? That’s what I want to contribute to in building on Alli’s article. Before I dive into this, however, I want to mention that I do not inherently believe that the power fantasy in games is a bad thing. What I do believe is that critical thinking and media literacy very heavily influences the impact of the traditional power fantasy. And while you might know that video games are sometimes just an outlet to do things you wouldn’t be able to do, the larger public media outlets have had a long running history with blaming games instead of social trends. At least, this has been my analysis from living in the United States and studying game design. So as you continue through this article, just know that I want this to be the bigger picture you take from these words. Waxing poetic done, let’s jump into some game theory.

Theoretical Game 1

The first thing that comes to mind when considering what mechanics to go off of, stealth comes to mind. It becomes a puzzle to find a way to make it around different obstacles to achieve your goal. I would then further abstract this to relate to my life as a trans woman. I watch as those like me suffer. I watch as those like me have to hide and hear hateful things in order to keep going about their days. So if I wanted to take a political element to things, I would base it around playing as a character who has to “sneak” about their day to day life, then at night they get choices about different things they can do to achieve a life goal of sorts. You know how The Sims gives you an option at life goals that contribute to their happiness? Start the game off with a little bit of a personality quiz and then give them a goal that fits their possible interests. Then, after the narrative starts, give the player the outline of their life and the person they are. After walking them through the first phase of the game, the second phase is where you introduce some more mechanics that help them achieve their larger goal. So you can almost gamify the desire to make it through the day at the chance of doing something bigger like most of us desire. While possibly heavy narratively speaking, it could open the eyes of someone that no matter how hopeless things are, power can come in many forms. Nobody may know your name or who you are, but making it through the day when life is scary is a form of power that can bring dictators to their knees in its own right when it's you they want dead.

Theoretical Game 2

On a less heavy note and abstraction of the life that I and my fellow oppressed groups have to deal with, would fit more into a MySims or Stardew Valley kind of vibe. The player comes into a new town that has recently been on the decline. However, as you get to know people, you find ways to help revitalize the passion that had left them. Make friends, learn about them, lend them an ear and give gifts in order to know they’re thought of even when stuff isn’t going great in their lives. Let it parallel the way that a lot of us have unresolved traumas whether it be from this year or decades ago, we all have something holding us back. It could be a way to open the player’s eyes that maybe just taking a second to do something nice for someone could be a way to build a sense of community and give more power back to those who feel like they have none. It is easy to get rid of one person, however, not as easy to get rid of larger and larger groups of people. Eventually, that ill will catches up and comes back to throw the whole system off balance.

All in all, I believe that there are a lot of directions to go with this concept of avoiding the traditional power fantasy. I’ll be honest, I love the way an RPG or FPS gives that strength, however, I am aware enough to know what the limits and takeaways are. Strength is so much more than mowing down large groups of baddies that threaten to take everything from you. Strength is about surviving what is thrown your way. It's about bringing the people around you up with you. It's about giving people better than what you got. Sometimes it's even about being nice to people who might not have earned it but aren’t necessarily undeserving either. Video games are an art medium meant to put the player in control of another’s destiny. Which means that we, as developers and artists, can find ways to create something that gives people more options or hope than they might have otherwise had before.