For my project, I chose to intervene on a game of Valorant Deathmatch. Rather than determining success based on kills within the match, I would try to get other players to not kill me, whether it be they bad at the game, or they genuinely don’t want to kill me. Through my iterations, I realized that there are certain behaviors that I must adopt to get this message across. The first run that I have done with this idea didn’t go as well since the message didn’t seem to get across that I am trying to be a pacifist. After throwing myself in front of people with a melee weapon as well as use the in-game mechanics to get the point across. In the end, I even gained some people that ended up protecting me with in the match, killing others that would end up shooting at me.
Artist Statement:
The initial inspiration that I got for the project was from the Barbie Liberal Organization that was shown in class. I found it intriguing that altering the standards for a Barbie doll could lead to a message being pushed across as well as bring joy to those that comes into contact with it. Generally, activist movements tend to receive some form of backlash from the community, but BLO seemed to sparked more laughter compared to the anger that I was anticipating. I wanted to spark this joy within the FPS community, which is known for the toxicity and the negative player-base. By bringing this little wholesome moment to the game without any expectations, I hoped that I would be able to remind others that the experience of fun that players can have is up to them.
The behavior that I adopted to get the point across to other players was that similar to Yoko Ono’s cut piece. It was meant to make myself seem vulnerable to others within the game, that my intention is not to follow the standards that they are used to. By letting my fate be decided by other players within the game, it was fun to see how varied the reactions were. Some were caught off guard at first and decide to play along, while others killed me anyways.
Overall, it seemed that my point to bring fun back into the genre worked as it seemed like the players that played along enjoyed the concept enough to continue with it for the entirety of the match. If I were to bring this into other FPS games or game modes within Valorant, I hope to be able to keep the idea that winning or losing the game wouldn’t matter as long as the players are having fun within the game. As a result, by making these team-based games to be as enjoyable to others should be more prioritized as opposed to relentlessly putting others down for the self-satisfaction that one is better at the game compare to others.
Clips from playtests of this project:
https://youtu.be/ZioWrg21eU8