A couple of quotes:

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I had an epiphany of sorts while on the can. (This is starting to become a recurring theme in my life.) I had finished reading a section of my bathroom reading, Lisa Randall's Warped Passages, and realized that I had a hard time distinguishing between Standard Model subatomic particles through names alone. I considered writing up a table that listed their names and attributes for organizational purposes to make things easier to understand and recall. This led me to consider making a sort of DHTML version of the table where you could show/hide attributes to work your memory. That led me to consider making little cartoon characters for each of the particles and giving them each a personality of their own. Hell, you could make comic characters out of them. That got me to really thinking.

Why is it that metaphor is such a powerful utility? Specifically, why do we personify almost everything? I posit that metaphor is one of the most tried-and-true, powerful teaching tools known to man. From what I understand of things, this is due to how the brain stores information.

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I'm interested in knowing what you all think. How can we better leverage metaphor and symbol in games to better communicate ideas?

I remember seeing an old game design posted on here a while back, where I found it interesting that the different character classes were metaphors for different types of Christians.

I found metaphor to be a very interesting way to teach about prayer without necessarily having "prayer" being an action in the game.

Zookey, I know you guys probably can't tell us too much, but I've seen hints of artistry such as this in Shattered Soul. I don't want to speak too much more about it, but perhaps you can.

I just find this idea of metaphor and analogy to be interesting, and wanted to see what you all thought.

Cheers!

--clint

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Originally posted by HanClinto:
I found a neat-o blog post by Eric Robinson over at GG about anthropomorphizing concepts, and using metaphors and symbol recognition -- it was all just some interesting food for thought, and wanted to see what you all think.

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quote:

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I'm interested in knowing what you all think. How can we better leverage metaphor and symbol in games to better communicate ideas?

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He uses common phrases, themes, and ideas that most adults know to get his complaints/observations/perceptions across. Metaphors and analogies are usefull in situations where a person could get in trouble for portraying someone/something for what they/it really are.

I think it is quite usefull in games, where if the game creator mentions God vs Satan or Salvation their game might not reach a market or group of people who are turned off by just seeing those words. If the creators used metaphors such as Kind benefactor vs Evil terrorist the market/group of people might actually enjoy the game while they come into contact with Christian morals.

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[b]I'm not saying every game made by a Christian should omit the name 'God' or 'Satan' and replace it with something else, I'm just creating a fictional example to illustrate my thoughts.

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[This message has been edited by CPUFreak91 (edited June 28, 2007).]

quote:

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I think it is quite usefull in games, where if the game creator mentions God vs Satan or Salvation their game might not reach a market or group of people who are turned off by just seeing those words. If the creators used metaphors such as Kind benefactor vs Evil terrorist the market/group of people might actually enjoy the game while they come into contact with Christian morals.

I'm not saying every game made by a Christian should omit the name 'God' or 'Satan' and replace it with something else, I'm just creating a fictional example to illustrate my thoughts.]

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IMO both explicit Cristian games (i.e. the games that help kids the learn about the events in the Bible, etc. ) and games with implied Christian message are welcome.
A good example of using metaphors to deliver a Christian message is P.O.D. (rock band). They've received an impressive amount of secular prizes in spite of their hardcore Christian stance.

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[This message has been edited by calin (edited June 28, 2007).]