Now It’s Impersonal: On Player Decentered Design

Abstract

This paper presents Player Decentered Design as a design approach that actively opposes and subverts Player Centered Design. Arguments against Player Centered Design are that it restricts the possibility space of videogames, through a focus on player needs and desires above all other concerns. These criticisms are explored through an experimental game design documented as autoethnographic text. Player Decentered Design is presented as deriving from a reflective design process in communication with the literature and personal play history of the author. The approach is determined by a set of constraints that can then be utilised in future exploratory game design.