№ 10 | Collaboration, the Futures Bazaar, Ladders of Participation, Level Design, and… a POEM?!

№ 10 | Collaboration, the Futures Bazaar, Ladders of Participation, Level Design, and… a POEM?!

Demystifying collaboration…

Collaboration is such a Rich and nuanced topic. I love posts like this one “Demystifying collaboration (pt 1): Decisions” that explore “emerging and evolving reflections on better ways of working together.” Lots of good conversation starters in this short post: Collective vs collaborative. Decision making vs problem-solving.  I'm looking forward to the rest of the series…

Host a futures bazaar?

I recall reading about “The Futures Bazaar” when I was researching the ‘Four Futures’ method, a few years ago. Fast forward: Stuart Candy is offering the Futures Bazaar as a free downloadable toolkit so anyone can now host a Futures Bazaar. What is it? It's “an event designed for creative teams, communities and classes everywhere to explore alternative futures collaboratively and playfully together.”

And, because we're all about critical thinking, here's a dissenting voice to challenge some of the fundamental assumptions baked into this activity.

Ladders—or petals?—of participation

I love a good curation article—it's the precursor work to synthesis, analysis, and the evolution of interesting ideas. This time, it’s a really long roundup of various 'ladder of participation' models, essentially “moving from consultation to co-design and ideally devolving power to citizens.” But it gets better: The twitter thread where I came across this article adds an interesting level of discourse about ladders of participation, with some critique of the ladder framing, suggesting instead something more like flower petals.

“Growth, Monetization, or Engagement?”

Gibson Biddle asks people in the audience, “If you were on the  executive team of Netflix, how would you prioritize [these] three goals?” Uh, wow. I think this simple classification explains a LOT about how most businesses operate. I might even map these three priorities to the evolutionary stages common to most organizations. [source]

Learning level design via twitter

Last week, I discovered Tommy Norberg (@the_Norberg) via Pinterest, of all places. He teaches—and freely shares—some really great nuggets of wisdom about game level design, all in succinct visual cards, like this one:

Here's a few more such tips/threads:

AND THIS WEEK,  A RARE 'EXTRA' FIND…

[POETRY] “Letter to Bruce Wayne” by Matthew Olzmann

Every now and then, a poem just hits me between the eyes, and leaves me pouring again and again over the words. Here's one such poem: “Letter to Bruce Wayne”

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№ 80 | Magical Gatherings, Dixit + A Canvas!, OuiSi Cards, The Hidden Curves of the Gartner Hype Cycle, Threshold Spotting, and Case Studies… with a Twist?!

№ 80 | Magical Gatherings, Dixit + A Canvas!, OuiSi Cards, The Hidden Curves of the Gartner Hype Cycle, Threshold Spotting, and Case Studies… with a Twist?!

Designing for Magical Gatherings So, interesting sidenote: I was in a webinar earlier this week where I was asked to reflect on especially memorable or meaningful gatherings I’ve been a part of. The common themes for me were things like adventure, discovery, challenge, fantasy, immersion, and so on. On

By Stephen P. Anderson
№ 77 | Branching Scenarios and eLearning, Surviving Design Projects, Ursula K. Le Guin on Growth, Quests (Not Goals), I’m Voting Postcards, and Levels of Automation

№ 77 | Branching Scenarios and eLearning, Surviving Design Projects, Ursula K. Le Guin on Growth, Quests (Not Goals), I’m Voting Postcards, and Levels of Automation

Branching Scenarios and eLearning In 2020, I did a deep dive into how narrative games could be used for learning purposes, which left me with a deep appreciation for (and small collection of) CYOA books, gamebooks, interactive fiction, solo RPGs, and similar experiences with branching paths. Anyway, this post on

By Stephen P. Anderson