From the list of twelve themes I created last week, I wanted to explore all of them a little bit before paring them down to four to research further.
I thought the best way to discover the initial potential of my themes was by repeating an activity in last week's workshop, in which we generated research questions based on a keyword. Though my themes may seem solid, I wanted to make sure there'd be a lot of varied content I could uncover about them through research.
I tried my best to think past my initial instincts as to why I chose the theme and examine things from different angles. I'm aware that my attempts weren't always successful, and enlisted the help of people around me to incorporate varying perspectives on the same thing.
My thoughts on acceptance were fairly limited. Whilst the idea of acceptance evokes thoughts of peace, freedom, etc. I didn't feel like there was a lot to explore here in terms of in-depth research. This is not an idea I will be taking forward.
Though my reasoning for choosing manipulation was a psychological and behavioural one, I also started to notice it from a practical perspective. From a games design perspective I started appreciating how manipulation could be used as a mechanic, however, as I am more interested in telling a story than I am in making a mechanic-heavy game, I still leaned towards the psychological side. The idea of abuse via manipulation is a dark and unpleasant one, but having had experience with it in my life I found it easy to produce questions about it that delved more into the realms of psychology. Is there a positive side to this topic that I'm not appreciating?
I have a lot of questions about extremists and extremism, some of which link to the above theme of manipulation. But despite having a good deal of research questions, my interest in taking this forward dwindled. Whilst all stories have drama and antagonists, there is a hopelessness and anger I feel about this topic which clouds my ability to examine it well.
Whilst I came at the topic of distance from the perspective of a person well-versed in long-distance relationships, I started to think about it a little less emotionally, which subsequently got me thinking about it a little more practically. Something I touched on with a couple of questions was the the link between distance and power or prowess; the idea of "conquering" distance as an obstacle was almost universal across all sub-topics.
The sheer volume of my research questions on cats should be testament to my passion about this topic. I own five cats, and aside from being very interesting and intelligent animals, I have an emotional agenda in investigating them. Ignoring the melodrama of the statement, my cats literally changed my life, and are wonderful companions who relieve my stress and fill my life with endless joy and entertainment. If it's important to me to share stories about things that have made an impact in my life, it would be remiss of me not to include them in my final four themes. There is so much to research, but my focus will mostly be centred around the idea of companionship and the things about cats that cause us to form an emotional bond with them.
Adventure is a wonderful genre, yet there was something uninspiring about generating these research questions. Whilst I understand it as a genre, I'm not entirely sure it's a good start for research to generate an entire idea. It's more the package in which an idea would exist in.
I thought identity was an incredibly interesting starting point for research. I have a lot of questions that I want to explore, specifically about the difference between someone's personal identity versus how others perceive that identity. I would like to further investigate the psychological elements of what forms a person's identity, how culture, society, time etc. impacts this positively or negatively, and whether it's ever possible to truly understand others or even oneself. This seems like something that could be a very strong core theme that could manifest in different ways when it comes to ideation. It will be one of my final four themes.
My research questions for home uncovered an interest that leaned towards the emotional rather than the practical. I would really like to further investigate the why's and how's of home and the way that it makes people feel, and how I might be able to evoke the feeling of home with sufficient research into the psychological aspects of the theme.
Travel was a more complex theme than I gave it credit for when I chose to explore it. However, whilst my research questions unearthed a practical side to the theme, I'm still drawn more to the more psychological side of things. The more I asked questions, the more it occurred to me that I should have named this theme "journeys", which could also incorporate some of my vaguer, theoretical themes. After all, the thing that interests me about travel is the idea of the growth that it causes in people who do the travelling. The idea of a journey links well with the themes of distance, home, but especially with adventure. By combining the latter with the theme of travel and turning it into "journeys" I close off a lot of the avenues of research I could have gone down, but open my research up to a deeper meaning that's much more interesting to me. I will be taking this forward as one of my final four.
The topic of fables just seemed to bleed questions. As an actual form of storytelling, there are so many potential texts to study, so many artists who have created art for fables. I'm also really intrigued by the form itself, how it manages to tell a succinct tale in a short time with engaging, relatable characters and a moral to the story that transcends generations, cultures and society. I want to know which fables are most popular around the world, I want to examine some of the adult undertones to these games despite them being targeted at children. They are a timeless form of storytelling, and I am far too passionate about this topic not to take it forward to my final four themes.
When examining prohibition, the time period and the concept as a noun are equally interesting to me, especially the time period. But seeing as I haven't really focused on settings in any of my other themes, and cannot have both, if I were to take one forward from this point it would be the Prohibition era in the USA, circa 1920. There's depth in terms of politics, style and behaviour here that would be fascinating to explore, and the time period produced pieces of literature such as The Great Gatsby, as well as shaping a lot of modern culture. Despite loving this theme, I have chosen and am happy with my final four, however I would be interested to come back and examine this as a potential setting later in the ideation phase.
I love the idea of redemption, and the idea of including a redemption arc in a story. It could very well act as the driving force for a character, and I'm keen to find out why it is such an appealing trope/arc that we as humans love to see repeated, however I am not as compelled to create ideas out of this theme as I am with others.
So, with the research questions asked, my final four themes are as follows:
Cats
Identity
Journeys
Fables