Asynchronous Collaboration is Motivating: The Positive Social Experience of Death Stranding
This is a guest post written by Sara Carbonneau, a fellow VR researcher and writer in Portland, OR. In it, Sara reviews the recently released video game Death Stranding and its unique and positive social dynamics.
In Death Stranding available on PS4 and Windows, Hideo Kojima has created a uniquely social single player experience. The player spends countless hours traversing expansive post-apocalyptic landscapes as a “porter,” or glorified delivery boy, carrying packages between cities. With only occasional glimpses of other living beings and a dark and moody atmosphere, the game could have easily felt bleak and hopeless. But because of the social elements of the game, you never quite feel alone. Everywhere you go, you are interacting with other players and the paths they have tread before you.
In the particular world that players inhabit, few people dare to journey outside of government compounds for fear of BTs (ghosts) and timefall rain (rain that speeds up time and causes organic life to grow and decay at alarming rates). But as the protagonist, it is your job to trek the wasteland and re-establish connection between the United Cities of America.
Interacting with other players is always subtle and indirect. The biggest button on the controller cues the protagonist to shout into the abyss, “Hello! Anyone out there?” without any hope or expectation of response.
You never see other players or speak to them face to face. The primary means you have of interacting with other people is through the structures they leave behind. Players will erect signs, post boxes, ladders, generators, or a host of other structures that others on their server can use in order to make it to the next destination. Some of these structures are meant to guide you in the right direction while others will help you navigate difficult terrain. But some signs aren’t informational at all — they are simply tokens of encouragement and solidarity.
Positive reinforcement for individual work
Every time you use a structure created by another player, it automatically gets a “like” as on social media platforms.And you’ll know when other players have used one of your structures due to the notifications that pop up in the bottom left-hand corner of your screen:
“A path you laid down was used by someone else.”
And if you make something more popular, it looks like this:
“Other players are pleased with you, you have received 7,000 likes.”
Building collaboratively is essential to success
Roadways are where collaboration becomes pivotal within the game. Traversing between the cities on the map can be laborious, especially when mountains, rivers, and canyons come into play. But players have the option to donate materials towards building highways between major cities, making it easier to get from destination to destination. This becomes increasingly important as the game progresses and some of your deliveries are timed. No one player could build all of the highways themselves (there simply aren’t enough materials), but with collaboration you can make getting between major destinations a breeze.
Being part of group success is motivating
As you play, you always have the option to bolster the experience of other players. And in general, you find yourself wanting to be of service to others. This desire comes not only from the gratification of getting likes from other players, but from the sheer weight of the journey that you (and you know other players) are undertaking alone.
Marking the map with signs that indicate where you can take shelter from the timefall rain or where you can expect to interact with BTs becomes second nature. These markers act simultaneously as reminders for yourself and a hand stretched out to guide your fellow porters.
A positive social media experience
Death Stranding is ultimately a game about connection. The goal of the game is to reunite a fractured America. And although the protagonist starts off the game apathetic to a struggling humanity, by the end he is the champion for humanity’s survival. The people of this post-apocalyptic America are stranded from one another by the looming threat of death, yes, but they are also being woven back together by the strands that connect us all.
In the darkest times, Hideo Kojima seems to say, the best hope we have is one another. The structures you erect, even if you only intend them for yourself, will benefit others. And you can’t help but be guided by your fellow porters along the way.
Some PC and console video games have harassment problems. But Death Stranding has shown one way to connect players that is supportive and up-lifting.
More about the author of this article: Sara Carbonneau is a futurist who is fascinated by the ways in which technology influences our social behavior and what it reveals about our hopes, dreams and fears for the future. She is passionate about storytelling as a means of cultural dialogue.
