Designing for Reflection and Appropriation

Player appropriation and subversive play-practices are often seen as phenomena that arise due to the creativity of players, not because of the games themselves, but despite their constraints. Even though the literature has evolved to the point where we can appreciate the interconnected forms of agencies, there is still a gap regarding how we can approach player appropriation through the frame of game design, which provides a potentially fruitful area of research where we can investigate alternative paradigms of game design. This project proposes to explore how we can invite players to appropriate the structures of play by investigating the relationship between player reflection and creativity and how certain approaches to game design can invite structural appropriation. Answering these questions could not only help us expand our understanding of design that is conscious and inviting of the multiplicity of play-practices, but it could also help players gain deeper hold of the potentials of their agencies which can provide well-being benefits such as having an increased sense of control in digital contexts and the ability to form personally meaningful play-practices.