Expressivity of creativity and creative design considerations in digital games

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.106206Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Player creativity in digital games can be categorised into three main themes.

  • Creativity as problem-solving involves novel solutions/approaches to challenges.

  • Creativity as appropriation involves customisation/adaption of gaming experience.

  • Creativity as affective change involves personally meaningful interpretations.

  • Expression of different forms of creativity depends on the type of game.

Abstract

Currently little is known about how creativity is expressed in digital entertainment games or what specific design elements may foster it. Using a qualitative methodology, this article reports on the findings of 24 semi-structured interviews and 14 narrative surveys with regular players of different types of digital games. Using a hybrid thematic approach to analysis involving both deductive and inductive phases, three main categories relating to the expressivity of creativity were discovered and one category relating to the specific game design considerations which give rise to such creative opportunities. Creativity was found to be expressed in terms of creative problem-solving involving the creation of novel strategies, solutions and approaches to problems; in terms of appropriation involving emergent play practices and how gameplay was adapted for alternative goals; and finally, in terms of affective change involving the personally meaningful insights and changes in attitudes/perceptions which games elicited. Design considerations were also identified relating to: freedom of play, environment, replayability, tools, avatar design and content creation. By shedding light on the grey area of creativity in digital games and illuminating how games may support and promote creativity in players, this article provides a basis for future research and can help inform game design practices in both digital entertainment games and games specifically designed to facilitate creativity.

Introduction

This paper explores how creativity is expressed within digital games and what design considerations may enable different forms of creative expression. It has been argued that “rather than quantifying creativity as a trait, process or outcome, creativity should be considered the assimilation of these factors and the integration of thoughts, ideas, and actions into new directions, solutions and viewpoints” (Bowman, Kowert, & Ferguson, 2015, p. 42).

A number of benefits have been argued to be associated with creativity. For example, the use of creativity to solve everyday problems has been suggested to contribute to positive psychological health and well-being (Richards, 2007), and that those who are engage in creative activities are more likely to be happy and active (Silvia et al., 2014). According to Forgeard and Elstein (2014) creative thinking may “enhance and strengthen psychological flexibility by allowing individuals to generate new and effective cognitive, emotional, and behavioral strategies on their own” (Forgeard & Elstein, 2014, p. 1). Furthermore, creativity has been argued to facilitate adaptive prospection by enhancing other closely related processes such as psychological flexibility which relates to effectively adapting emotions, cognitions and behaviors to different situations (Kashdan & Rottenberg, 2010). Similarly, creative thinking can help counteract a number of negative psychological tendencies such as repetitive negative thinking (Harvey, Watkins, Mansell, & Shafran, 2004) and aid individuals in creating coping strategies and adopting adaptive interpretations (Fresco, Williams, & Nugent, 2006).

Creativity has been widely investigated in areas such as work, music and education with findings suggesting a variety of benefits of creativity such as positive psychological health (Richards, 2007, Richards, 2010). Conceptualisations of creativity such as Big C approaches focus on “professional” creativity, or works of creative genius (e.g. Csikszentmihalyi, 1999, Gardner, 1993), while Little C approaches which argue everyone has creative ability which can be developed further by overcoming everyday problems and challenges (e.g. Maslow, 1968, Richards et al., 1988).

Approaches such as these have been criticised for failing to account for the many different categories of creativity between “genius” and “everyday” (Kaufman & Beghetto, 2009) and failing to recognise the multi-dimensionality of the nature of creativity. Works such as the Four C model of creativity (Kaufman & Beghetto, 2009) attempt to bridge this gap by accounting for Proc C creativity which refers to the progression from Little to Big C achievements, and Mini C creativity which explains the micro level, personally meaningful insights and affective change occurring in individuals. Other approaches such as the Person, Product, Press and Process Framework (Rhodes, 1961) attempt to account for the multi-faceted nature of creativity by examining creativity from various different perspectives. For example, the “person” perspective illuminates how personality factors such as intrinsic motivation facilitate creative behaviour (Amabile, 1990; Stohs, 1992), while the “press” perspective examines how situational influences such as time and autonomy impact creativity (Amabile and Gryskiewicz, 1989, Witt and Beorkrem, 1989).

Finally, there is the demarcation between creativity as a product and creativity as a process. The former includes definitions which refer to creativity as “‘making up’ something new and valuable by transforming what is into something better” (Young, 1985, p. 77), or more commonly as creating something which is both novel and appropriate (Ochse, 1990, Sternberg, 2006). The latter focus stresses that it is not so much the outcome which constitutes creativity but the imaginative process (Robinson, 2001). Additionally, creative thinking has been suggested to comprise of various creative cognition skills such as divergent, metaphorical and analogical thinking (Finke, Ward, & Smith, 1999).

Creativity within the context of digital games has been granted little focus, with very few studies giving the topic undivided attention. Several studies have illustrated the benefits of digital games on creativity, for example, Moffat, Crombie, and Shabalina (2017) examined the effect of different genres of digital games on creativity scores (measured using Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT)), finding gameplay contributed to a more creative state of mind. Similarly, Blanco-Herrera, Gentile, and Rokkum (2019) used various creativity metrics such as the remote association test (RAT), alternative uses test (AUT) and alien drawing task (ADT) to examine the relationship between creativity and gameplay exposure using Minecraft (Mojang, 2011). They identified an overall positive correlation between self-reported gameplay exposure and trait creativity scores, with creativity scores being highest when participants were not given explicit instructions on what to do in the game (i.e. the game was presented in an open-ended manner). Cognitive flexibility, a key component of creative behaviour, has also been argued to be increased through gameplay, with findings suggesting that certain types of game genres such as Real-Time Strategy can increase cognitive flexibility (Glass, Maddox, & Love, 2013) and, also slow cognitive decline in older adults (Basak, Boot, Voss, & Kramer, 2008).

The propensity of digital games to contribute towards greater creativity can also be seen in terms of learning, where creativity is argued to be a highly transferrable skill and incorporates a variety of traits and abilities such as problem-solving (Carvalho et al., 2015, Mayer, 1989), openness (Rogers, 1961), adaptability and cognitive flexibility (Runco, 2004). The education system is increasingly focusing on transferrable skills which are argued to be crucial in the new digital age, with several frameworks such as the 21st Century Learning Framework (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2019), Knowledge Age Skills Framework (Clough & Ferguson, 2010) and the European Commission's Digital Competence Framework (Kluzer et al., 2018) highlighting creativity as an important skill for the growing economy.

The act of play is often viewed as an inherently creative process which allows us to approach novel and challenging situations in a way that is free from the constraints of our external milieu, allowing us to experiment with alternative solutions and approach problems in ways we would otherwise not have done (Basadur, Ellspermann, & Evans, 1994, Mainemelis & Ronson, 2006, Runco & Sakamoto, 1999) ; . Ill-structured challenges have been argued to be especially good at fostering creativity and contributing to intrinsically motivating flow experiences (Kiili, 2005). Games are apt at providing players with ill-structured problems while gameplay appears to aid the development of problem-solving skills and creativity by allowing players to link abstract concepts to concrete gaming experience (Leng, Zah, Ali, Mahmud, & Baki, 2010). Furthermore, previous findings have suggested that the positive emotions elicited through gameplay may also act as an important facilitator of creative performance (Yeh, Lai, & Lin, 2016).

While ill-structured challenges have been cited to facilitate creative behaviour in games, the concept of emotional challenge has also been examined, with findings suggesting that games which provide emotional challenges may facilitate affective change in players. Emotional challenges often present players with emotionally difficult themes, leaving parts of the game narrative ambiguous and open to interpretation from the player. Bopp, Opwis, and Mekler (2018) examined emotional challenge within the context of commercial entertainment games and found when players confronted emotionally difficult themes which mirrored issues they had experienced in their real lives (e.g. death, illness or war) they “could derive personally meaningful insights” (Bopp et al., 2018, p. 9). Despite the negative feelings such challenges provoked, players often rated the overall experience as enjoyable and positive, and said that such experiences prompted them to further reflect on their actions within the game (Bopp et al., 2018). A subsequent study by Mekler, Iacovides, and Bopp (2018) also found that games could provoke reflection in relation to the games themselves, and in the relation to the parallels to other aspects of life. However, they reported fewer instances of transformative reflection (e.g. reflection which resulted in the altering of behaviors, assumptions or views), something which could be attributed to the fact that the majority of participants did not play games which focused on prompting reflection outside the context of the game.

While the notion of challenge (both ill-structured and emotional) has been examined in relation to aspects of creativity, other work has looked at how players are able to appropriate their gaming experience. The term appropriation provides a broad overview of the ways in which players “adopt, adapt and incorporate technology in their practices, work, or leisure” (Herodotou, Winters, & Kambouri, 2012, p. 34). Game appropriation includes but is not limited to: the creation of game modifications, the creation of game (or game-based) content as well as how players are able to make novel, and often unintended uses of game mechanics and alter the overall rules of a game. For example, work by Jarrett, 2014, Jarrett, 2015 which on the notion of emergent play (Juul, 2002), found that players of Massively Multiplayer Online Battle Area (MOBA) games were able to combine multiple game variables in ways not foreseen by developers e.g. the “Fountain Hook” move in Dota 2 (Valve, 2013). Similarly, Aarseth's (2007) notion of transgressive play may illuminate how players are able to “exit the structure and rules of the game” (Van Vught & Glas, 2017, p. 3) and perform unexpected actions. However, emergent and transgressive forms of play are restricted to gameplay only, and it has been suggested that the term transformative play should be used instead as it applies to both play within the game and how aspects of play may flow from the game to other domains, such as the case of fan creations (Sotamaa, 2007).

Creativity has also been examined from a social innovation standpoint in how players challenge and reproduce the rules of social interaction. For example, Wright, Boria, and Breidenbach (2002) found players of the game Counter-Strike (Valve & Turtle Rock Studios, 2000) created a variety of innovations in verbal dialogue and non-verbal expressions such as word plays, logos, and borrowing from popular culture (both in verbal references and map creations). Similarly, Ferguson (2011) looked at the how teenagers in the Schome Park Programme within the world of Teen Second Life (LindenLabs, 2005) were able to blend and reconfigure ideas and collaboratively develop a creative vision of their intended project (Ferguson, 2011). Similarly, from a storytelling perspective, Banks (2013), who focused on World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 2004), found that players constructed stories about their characters, including how their gaming experience influenced said character's behaviors and emotions.

While creativity can take place within the game itself, players also create a multitude of artefacts around the game such as fanfictions, after action reports (AARs), game guides, game art and modifications. Burri (2011) defines User Created Content (UCC) as “all forms of expression made by users [which] range from contributions to chats, email or instant message exchanges, shared links, texts, videos and photographs created from scratch authored stories and films” (Burri, 2011, p. 3). She highlights the distinction between games where the developers allow and even encourage forms of UCC (e.g. Minecraft, Second Life) and games where it heavily restricted (e.g. World of Warcraft).

Previous work has examined some aspects of player creativity in digital games such as ill-structured and emotional challenges, emergent, transgressive and transformative play, social innovations and player creations based on the game. However, questions remain in relation to how player creations may differ depending on the level of restriction for UCC and whether players of different types of games view creativity in different ways? Not all games are created equal in their allowance for player created content though players appear to still able to be very creative in even the most restricted games. Thus, the research questions this paper seeks to address are twofold:

RQ1: What expressions of creativity can occur across different types of digital games?

RQ2: What design considerations of these games facilitate player creativity?

This study aims to add to the under-researched area of creativity and digital games and lay groundwork for future studies which explore more explicitly the different forms of creative expression by players. Additionally, through illuminating how creativity in expressed in digital games and what possibilities the medium may offer for creative behaviour, a greater understanding may be gained in terms of how digital games could be used to foster creativity in both entertainment games and educational games. This could apply to both games designed with the intent to encourage creative behaviour, as well as the use of commercial entertainment games in educational settings.

Section snippets

Methods of data collection

Creativity has been argued to be highly subjective and dependent on a variety of other factors such as personality, past gaming experience and preferred playstyle and as such qualitative studies are aptly suited to explore it. For example, Jarrett (2014) used an ethnographic method to examine emergent play in MOBA games, while Wright et al. (2002) and Ferguson (2011) analysed chat logs. Studies such as these provide a rich and detailed insight into how players appropriate and adapt their gaming

Results

Themes were divided into two categories, the first of which related to the different types of creative expression within games, and the second relating to the design considerations which supported creativity. See Table 2.1 for expressivity of creativity theme descriptors and Table 2.2 for design considerations theme descriptors.

Expressivity of creativity

In creativity as problem-solving, participants referenced creating strategies and approaching problems in novel ways. Problem-solving has been argued to be a core component of creativity, where the problem represents a gap in knowledge and creativity represents the strategies or actions required to overcome it (Treffinger, Selby, & Isaksen, 2007). This view of creativity requires two conditions in that the solution needs to successfully solve the problem and the solution needs to be novel in

Implications

The implications of this study are fourfold. Firstly, the findings add to the currently under-researched area of creativity in digital games. Previous studies have focused on the problem-solving (e.g. Kiili, 2005) and appropriation (e.g. Jarrett, 2014, Jarrett, 2015, Wright et al., 2002) aspects of creativity in digital games. The findings from our study confirm previous research in these areas, but also categorise these forms of creativity into main and sub-categories. Several additional

Conclusions

A qualitative methodology was adopted consisting of explorative semi-structured interviews and a narrative survey to explore what expressions of creativity occur across different types of digital games, and, what game design considerations facilitate player creativity. Participants who took part were regular gamers and played a variety of different games on various gaming mediums. In total the data from 24 interviews and 14 narrative surveys was analysed using a hybrid thematic approach

Declaration of competing interest

None.

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

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