# MIT Questions the Relativity Theory with Computer Games ## Scientific Representation in "A Slower Speed of Light" > [!info] Metadata > **Teacher**: Mark Shannelly > **Title:** [A Slower Speed of Light](https://gamelab.mit.edu/games/a-slower-speed-of-light/) (2012) > **Developer:** MIT Game Lab > **Publisher:** Massachusetts Institute of Technology > **Genre:** Collect 'em all! > **Issue**: Can virtual technology help us better represent and understand concepts from fundamental science (such as the speed of light)? > ![[ATTACHMENTS/MIT_speedOfLight.crazy_Unity.png]] ### **Positive sides to the representation** - Designers made an obvious decision. They used *colour* as the main representation of changes in the speed of light. It quickly reminds of similar issues that instumentalise colour. One time I heard that colour is a litmus paper for the philosophers of mind. Admittedly, weirdly coloured examples (e.g. a blue lemon) can help clarify what we mean when we say "mind". ![[ATTACHMENTS/LitmusPeper.acid_base.png]] - And that's a new thing I knew from the game: the best way to represent the sacramental speed of light (and maybe space and time also) is the sensation and primarily colour. It feels like a regular thought that strikes as if I never though of it... ### **Negative sides to the representation** - It feels dizzy. And that can be a bad case of game "realism". [[Caillois Roger|Ilinx]] games -- *games of vertigo* -- can be hardest to make in the virtual environment. And I assume, another issue there is money. - The story doesn't feel as epic as breaking the reality down. Unclear religious under-assumptions, weird psychedelic side to it, and most importantly 100 orbs are required to collect in order to ascend to heavens. - What I did not understand about the issue, is the philosophical part of it. And without it, the whole experiment feels empty-headed. I see colours meddling with the time itself. But what happens in the subject's mind? Do they perceive an objective change? Or rather what they perceive exposes that time and space are not objective qualities of reality? ### **MDA** - *Mechanics* -- walking as sliding, collecting orbs, getting stuck in game textures. The most valuable feature is the alternative space-time physics put in convenience with experimental science. - *Dynamics* -- avatar's moves across the level to collect orbs. Their movement produces colourful distortions in the (virtual) reality's fabric. With 100 orbs, the avatar slows down the speed of light to zero. Then their mind explodes them to heavens. - *Aesthetics* -- due to a non-trivial issue, most resources were put in the *sensational* aspect of aesthetics. Colour, feel of movement. An interesting example of that is Images that moved slower than the RigidBody component when the speed of light slowed down (at least it felt so in my playthrough). Weird sensorial changes represent distortions in the reality's fabric. Another side to the game's aesthetics is *exploration*: how would the world look like if most fundamental natural laws were not real? A virtual environment facilitates the experiment. - Could it be that hard to simulate smells virtually, because the range of human olfaction is critically limited to vision (some even refuse to call computer games anything but *video* games -- see Vetushinskiy A. in references)![[ATTACHMENTS/MIT_slowerThanSpeedOfLight.UI_aesthetics.png]] ![[MODELS/GameModels/Debus_Goals-Feedb-Interpr/Pasted image 20241202044145.png]] ### **GFI** - *Goals* -- Imperative (smaller) goals are (1) collect orbs (2) move around (3) collect another orb (CORE loop). Ultimate goals are reduce the speed of light / break the world (end the game). The narrative goal is to help the spirit of a dead girl ascend to heavens. | Imperative goals | Ultimate goals | | ------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------ | | ![[MODELS/GameModels/Debus_Goals-Feedb-Interpr/Pasted image 20241202034606.png]] | ![[MODELS/GameModels/Debus_Goals-Feedb-Interpr/Pasted image 20241202034423.png]] | - Interestingly, the ludo-narrative structure assumes that when people die, their matter matches the speed of light, and that is the ascendance of a soul to heavens. What interests me there even more, is if the designers intentionally assumed the existence of a soul and divine heavens to be compatible with fundamental physics? Or did they mean that the theory of relativity is actually compatible with god; and that really means the theory is ludicrously wrong? Or did they mean that the idea of the divine is as fantastical, as the idea that one can slow down the speed of light by collecting [[MEDIA_W13_TwoTypes_of_Doors#human.door|impossible, fantastical, marvellous]] orbs? Here my ability to interpret collapses. - Another example of the interpretation fallacy: does it feel high because I've been high? Is it intentional that it feels high? Has the designers ever been high? | The highest speed of light | Higher speed of light | High speed of light | | | --------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | --- | | ![[ATTACHMENTS/MIT_slowerThanSpeedOfLight.mushroom0.png]] | ![[ATTACHMENTS/MIT_slowerThanSpeedOfLight.mushroom1.png]] | ![[ATTACHMENTS/MIT_slowerThanSpeedOfLight.mushroom2.png]] | | - *Feedback* -- Sensory environmental changes indicate reaction to the player's actions. When avatar collects 100 orbs (the imperative goal accomplished), the speed of light slows down to zero (the ultimate goal), and their mind reaches heavens (the narrative goal) - ![[MODELS/GameModels/Debus_Goals-Feedb-Interpr/Pasted image 20241202041722.png]] - *Interpretation* -- The game develops a perspective for a player (opinion-building interpretation outcome). is intended to facilitate new interpretations of real physical phenomena (light, speed of light, etc.), and encourage revisions of paradigmatic physical theory (see references for papers prompted by the MIT game). ![[MODELS/GameModels/Debus_Goals-Feedb-Interpr/Pasted image 20241202043957.png]] | **EXAMPLE** | **APPLICTIN** | | ------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------- | | To [[REMOVE.goal]] Bowser, [[REACH.goal]] AXE | A relation between *goals* and their *interpretation* | | ![[MODELS/GameModels/Debus_Goals-Feedb-Interpr/Pasted image 20241202035253.png]] | ![[MODELS/GameModels/Debus_Goals-Feedb-Interpr/Pasted image 20241202044124.png]] | | | | ### **Reference** - [A Slower Speed of Light](https://gamelab.mit.edu/games/a-slower-speed-of-light/) (2012). MIT Game Lab - [Afterlands](https://gambit.mit.edu/loadgame/afterland.php) (2010). GAMBIT: Singapore - MIT Gambit Game Lab - Another case of the experimental game design intended to explore games and how to make them: "Afterland was developed as a tool to study recursive learning processes in videogame players. It is meant to explore how players' expectations can be challenged through subverting common design patterns" - [MIT Scheller Teacher Education Arcade](https://education.mit.edu/). MIT Laboratory - Zachary W. Sherin, Ryan Cheu, Philip Tan, and Gerd Kortemeyer, (2016): [**Visualizing Relativity: the OpenRelativity Project**](http://scitation.aip.org/content/aapt/journal/ajp/84/5/10.1119/1.4938057). American Journal of Physics 84, 369-374 - Gerd Kortemeyer, Philip Tan, and Steven Schirra, (2013): [**A Slower Speed of Light: Developing intuition about special relativity with games**](http://www.fdg2013.org/program/festival/openrelativity.pdf "A Slower Speed of Light: Developing intuition about special relativity with games"). FDG 2013, FDG ‘13 Proceedings of the International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games. ACM New York, NY, USA p. 400-402 - Gerd Kortemeyer, Jordan Fish, Jesse Hacker, Justin Kienle, Alexander Kobylarek, Michael Sigler, Bert Wierenga, Ryan Cheu, Ebae Kim, Zach Sherin, Sonny Sidhu, and Philip Tan, (2013): [**Seeing and Experiencing Relativity – A New Tool for Teaching?**](http://gamelab.mit.edu/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Seeing-and-Experiencing-Relativity.pdf "Seeing and Experiencing Relativity - A New Tool for Teaching?"). The Physics Teacher - Hunicke R., LeBlanc M., Zubek R. (2004) MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research. AAAI Workshop – Technical Report, 4(1), 1722–1726. URL: https://aaai.org/papers/ws04-04-001-mda-a-formal-approach-to-game-design-and-game-research/ - Cardona-Rivera, R. E., Zagal, J. P., & Debus, M. S. (2023). Aligning Story and Gameplay through Narrative Goals. Entertainment Computing, 100577. URL: doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.entcom.2023.100577 - Vetushinskiy A. (2019) Video Game Platforms Imagine Instead of Us: The End of Imagination in Video Games. Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie (New Literature Review), Vol. 158, #4. URL: https://www.nlobooks.ru/magazines/novoe_literaturnoe_obozrenie/158_nlo_4_2019/article/21374/ (Russian). - Vetushinkiy [ResearchGate](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alexander-Vetushinskiy) says computer games are nothing but video games. I disagree and say this claim misses the accessibility issues and ignores computer gaPmes' successful attempts to transgress the frame of mere software (the ultimate example is ARG - alternate reality games such as Who's Lila, Tunic, Fez, Animal Well, and then even Pokemon Go). ![[ATTACHMENTS/MIT_slowerThanSpeedOfLight.the_end.png]]