لطفا منتظر باشید ...
Context Shapes Interpretation
Context is a key component to our general definition of design. It also is a key component in the creation of meaning. Design is "the process by which a designer creates a context to be encountered by a participant, from which meaning emerges." This definition makes an explicit connection between context and meaning. When we speak of context in language we are referring to the parts of something written or spoken that immediately precede or follow a word or passage that serve to clarify its meaning. The phrase "I am lost," for example, can mean many different things depending on the context in which it is used. If a player of the text adventure game Zork says,"I am trying to install the game and I am lost," we understand that she is having a difficult time making sense of the game's installation instructions. If that same player were to say, "I am in the second chamber and I am lost," we can ascertain that she is actually playing the game, has lost her way, and needs help navigating the fictional game space. In each instance the phrase "I am lost" is given context by the words that follow. We can also understand context in relation to the idea of structure, which in semiotics refers to a set of regulations or guidelines that prescribe how signs, or elements of a system, can be combined. In language, for example, we refer to structure as grammar. The grammatical rules of a sentence create a structure that describes how words can and cannot be sequenced. We might refer to these rules as invisible structure, as we are not always aware that they are there. In games, this concept of grammar takes the form of game rules, which create a structure for the game, describing how all of the elements of the game interact with one another. Structure (in language or games) operates much like context, and participates in the meaning-making process. By ordering the elements of a system in very particular ways, structure works to create meaning. The communication theorist David Berlo uses the following example to explain how structure supports interpretation: Structure: Most smoogles have comcom
We don't know what smoogles and comcom are, but we still know something about them: we know that a smoogle is something countable and can be referred to in the plural, unlike, say, water or milk. We know that smoogles is a noun and not a verb. We know that more than one smoogle is referred to in this sentence. We know that comcom is a noun and that it is a quality or thing which most smoogles are claimed to have. We still don't know what is referred to, but the formal properties of English grammar have already provided us with a lot of information.[17]
Although the structure of any system does provide information that supports interpretation, context ultimately shapes meaning. In the following example, Berlo shows how structure and context work together to aid interpretation: Context: My gyxpyx is broken
From the structure of the language you know that gyxpyx is a noun.You know that it's something that it makes sense to refer to as broken. One of its keys is stuck
Now we're getting a bit closer-a gyxpyx is maybe a typewriter, calculator, or musical instrument; at any rate it's something that has keys. and I think it could do with a new ribbon, as well
Well, that pretty well clinches it. We're still left with the question of just what the difference is between a typewriter and a gyxpyx or why this person has the odd habit of referring to typewriters as gyxpyxes, but we can be reasonably sure already that a gyxpyx is something typewriter-like.[18]
Berlo goes on to note that the meaning we have for gyxpyx comes partly from the structure. We know it is a noun and we know it can be broken, that it has keys and a ribbon. But structure can only take us so far in our search for meaning; context must often be called upon to complete the quest. Consider the experience of playing a game of Pictionary with friends. Much of the guessing that occurs early in a turn relies on structure to provide clues. A player attempting to draw "Frankenstein" may begin by drawing a head and eyes, as a means of establishing the structure of the human form. This structure helps players to make guesses such as "eyes," "face," or "head," but it soon becomes clear that more information is needed. In response, the player at the drawing board may begin to create a context for the head by drawing a large body with outstretched "zombie" arms, stitch marks denoting surgical scars, and a Tesla coil crackling in the background. Although players might not initially understand what these marks represent (the stitches might just look like squiggly lines), the context created by the other elements of the drawing supply the marks with the meaning they would otherwise lack. Once the players recognize the context "zombie" or "monster," the stitch marks become "scars" and Frankenstein is brought to life. This relationship between structure, context, and meaning tells us that the act of interpretation relies, in part, on the movement between known and unknown information. Players of Pictionary, for example, will often come across a sign for which they don't have a meaning (stitch marks) within the context of signs for which they do (zombie or monster). The meanings that are known and familiar generate other meanings due to the formal relations between the known and the unknown signs. Keep in mind that the actual elements that constitute structure and context are fluid. The drawing of a head might operate as structure early in the guessing period (if it is the first thing drawn), but when it serves to help identify the squiggles, it becomes part of context. To design is to create meaning. Meaning that can thrill and inspire. Meaning that moves and dances and plays. Meaning that helps people understand the world in new ways. Designers sculpt these experiences of meaning by creating not just one isolated signifier but by constructing whole systems of interlocking parts. As Saussure points out, in language the value of one sign only arises in relation to other signs. In Rock-Paper-Scissors the concept "rock" has identity only in opposition to the concepts "paper" or "scissors."The meaning of a sign does not reside within the sign itself, but from the surrounding system of which it is part. The meaningful play you provide for your players emerges from the designed system of a game- and how that game interacts with larger social and cultural systems. What is it that game designers design? Systems. This is the key concept we introduce in the next chapter. [17]Ibid. [18]Ibid.
