Manifesto: Designing Empathy

As designers we need to take an active approach in creating systems that allow those who have
experienced trauma and overcome it, teach others how to overcome their own demons.

Gaming is a strong platform we must use for teaching, as it allows anyone to see your unique
perspective in a powerful way.

Games need to be more than just another social construct for people to be distracted by.

If we create a system that encourages jumping from one social media induced cause to the next
we are encouraging Slacktivism [not] Activism.

If we allow a society to develop where people care more Liking a sad image on social media
platforms than the person next to them who suffers in silence because people cannot recognize
that, we are failing.

We need to evoke true passion about something and not encourage a herd mentality, which is
far too easily manipulated by the next headline.

We must hold society accountable for its actions and inactions by holding up a mirror through
game worlds that comment on the failings as well as the success of humanity.

In these mimic worlds we must have the player feel like a Flaneur that wants to find out why
the constructed world is the way it is.

Doing so, gamers will become more self-aware and encourage others to experience what they
did, creating a viral effect that will make us all want to be better and more empathetic towards
each other.

Empathy is the one thing that will allow us all to compromise and find a balance to allow
humanity to move forward and not be doomed to repeat the past.

(274 words)

Thoughts from readings that encouraged my Manifesto :

Even though social media is a strong tool for making people aware of happenings around the globe,
When people partake in activism via social media, are they doing anything meaningful? (Rotman, D. et
al. 2011. p. 2) I wonder if it the person partaking in this kind of activism gains more for themselves via
merely feeling good about it, rather than actually making any difference.
The following line from the Flaneur Manifesto really resonated with me : I am obsessed with the idea of
staging knowledge allowing for the consumption of culture in a contemporary format of exhibition
design. (Lachmayer, H. et al. 2010) I feel gaming will serve as the format to truly showcase how society
has both failed and succeeded through creating worlds that mimic ours, but much more easily explored
by the Gaming Flaneur than by a real world one. This will allow the explorer to really investigate this
new world and once the connection is made, have a revelation about where their culture, society or
personal passion could be headed.
Gladwell, M. (2010) worries that social media and the relative ease of which it spreads a point of view
will make it easier for activists to express themselves, and harder for that expression to have

any impact. I feel the same. We need to make sure we dont develop too many ways for
people to be distracted from issues that have meaning related to them and not just something
that evokes a quick emotion.

References :

Rotman, D., Vieweg, S., Yardi, S., Chi, E., Preece, J., Shneiderman, B., ... & Glaisyer, T. (2011, May).
From slacktivism to activism: participatory culture in the age of social media. In CHI'11 Extended
Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 819-822). ACM.

Lachmayer, H. (2010) Flaneur and Flaneuse as Todays Urban Researchers: Reflections on the Experience
of Walking as a Lively Fetishism to Make Everyday Life Inspiring. in Noever, P., & Meyer, K. (2010). Urban
future manifestos. Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz.
Gladwell, M. (2010) Small change Why the revolution will not be Tweeted. The New Yorker. Obtained
from: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-malcolm-gladwell