HAZMAT : The Game

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Open Source – Make Your Own HAZMAT Game:

Background:

HAZMAT: The Game was made because of the developers wanted to encourage conversations around toxic masculinity and other masculinities. Toxic masculinity has become a highly recognized term nowadays, it can refer to “socially regressive male traits that serve to foster domination, the devaluation of women, homophobia, and wanton violence,” according to one study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology (Kupers, 714).

Toxic (or as we have been referring to them as: hazardous) notions of masculine identity persist and spread despite boys/men holding relatively more egalitarian views about girls/women than they did decades ago. Hazardous narratives of masculinity hurt those who hold those views and/or preform them as well as those around them: “Research shows that those who rigidly adhere to certain masculine norms are not only more likely to harass and bully others but to themselves be victims of verbal or physical violence. They’re more prone to binge-drinking, risky sexual behavior, and getting in car accidents. They are also less happy than other guys, with higher depression rates and fewer friends in whom they can confide” (Peggy Orenstein). 

Men also describe feeling like they have to repress their feelings and be “stoic,” that they feel social pressure to be ever-ready for sex and to get with as many women as possible, that they should control their female partners, should express homophobia and even engage in homophobic teasing as a pro-social interaction with their peers (Orenstein). They expect that their anger will be interpreted as combative and also that “at some point they must be violent, whether psychologically or physically, to prove that they are men” (hooks, 60). 

Masculinity however has not always been performed and defined this way and it is imperative that we interrogate how ideas of what constitutes masculinity has changed. According to Andrew Smiler, a psychologist who has studied the history of Western masculinity, the ideal late-19th century man was compassionate and a caretaker. But with industrialization and the move of paid labor to factories from the home and the land, these qualities lost favor. A backlash to feminism and the women’s liberation/rights movement saw a doubling down on the toxic/hazardous definition of masculinity typical of sexist patriarchy. Other iterations of masculinity in American culture include The Organization Man of the 1950s, the “delinquents” of the 50s and early 60s, The Sensitive New Age Guy of the 1970s, the macho guys of the 1980s, the Grunge rebels of the 1990s (Smiler). Masculinity has changed and is changing.

We can take the reins and intentionally contribute to shaping that change, or we can do nothing and sustain the patriarchial model that is hazardous to us all. It is one thing to make the mistake of conflating what is for what ought to be or what will always be, as the  Seduction/PUA movement does with  the (mis)use evolutionary psychology/biology, it is another to see what is and do nothing about it. 

The design model of Emergent Dialogue is a relatively new one that comes out of sustainability research and has been used primarily for social mobilization in support of collective behavior change in Serious Games (Tanenbaum et al.).  In the Emergent Dialogue model, the “message” is not communicated or encoded in the game; instead, the game interface or mechanics indirectly or the content directly motivates player dialogue and participation that leads to new understandings {Antle et al.). Information flows in a bi-directional manner between players, new and original content emerges through dialogue and the game providing a context and space to create new information and outcomes through the iterative process of ongoing engagement, feedback, negotiation, and reevaluation.  This model is concerned with the player’s personal history, attitudes and goals related to the game’s subject, the game provides situations and opportunities to explore, reflect, and discuss these and make meaning. There are no fixed win or lose goals, they can include learning outcomes such as socioemotional learning or other outcomes related to transformative gender, but they are primarily to support players to “determine their own game goals in line with their personal values” (Antle et al., 46).

Like our other game Fellowship of Fools: The (Friendship/Romance/Sexuality) Game, we have a single-player mode for players. Playing these more emotionally/ethically/socially fraught games with others can be extremely challenging, and players need the opportunity to become familiar with the game material by themselves, to interrogate themselves and “care for their selves,” use it for personal development and growth in the comfort of solitude. After all, the material they will face will be by turns explosive, flammable, corrosive or toxic in content. 

Gameplay in HAZMAT: The Game is based off an exercise from Stoicism. Stoicisim has been seen as akin to conventional masculinity’s repression of emotional expression, men’s need to act “tough” and hide their emotions, but this is actually a perversion of actual Stoic philosophy. One particular Stoic exercise, that of melete or meditation, can offer us a useful mechanism for expanding definitions and performances of gender and the practice and construction of ethics through ethical, imaginary experiences and conversation and friendship. 

Read more about the origins, inspiration and influences behind HAZMAT : The Game.

Credits:

Game Developers:

Casey O’Donnell is a queer CIS white guy [he/him]. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Information at Michigan State University. His research examines the creative collaborative work of videogame design and development. His book, “Developer’s Dilemma” is published by MIT Press. Casey is an active game developer, releasing “Kerem B’Yavneh,” in 2016 and “Fellowship of Fools: The (Friendship) Game” in 2018. You can find him on twitter @caseyodonnell.

Hermi is a non-binary [they/them] writer, game developer, farmer and witch. They have been farming for over 10 years, learning methods of sustainable and regenerative agriculture. They released their first non-digital game, “Fellowship of Fools: The (Friendship) Game” in 2018. They have worked on Fellowship of Fools, HAZMAT, After the Collapse, and Creative Dying. You can find them on twitter @hermionebanger.

Thanks To:

Concept:

We would like to thank Peggy Orenstein‘s article “The Miseducation of the American Boy” for depressing, infuriating, and inspiring us to make HAZMAT : The Game.

We would also like to thank Michel Foucault, in his writing we found the concept that became the foundation for HAZMAT’s single and multiplayer gameplay.

You can read more about the origin story of HAZMAT : The Game in this blog post.

Fonts:

Vladimir Nikolic for the font “World Conflict” for the HAZMAT game title.

Graphics:

Icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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