Abstract
We propose a methodology for the co-design of role-playing games based on analyzing surprises. Surprises are understood by researcher-designers as unexpected and significant occurrences during game sessions, often resulting from players appropriating or circumventing the rules. Our objective is to understand to what extent the analysis of surprises in a role-playing game session reveals key mechanisms of the socio-ecosystem under study that are sometimes difficult for researcher-designers to tackle. We assume that analyzing surprises during game sessions enables us to reconsider our hypotheses, gain a better understanding of the socio-ecosystem studied, and support the co-design process. Based on the literature, interviews concerning the social-ecological context and participatory observations, we pre-designed an initial version of a game, which was then co-designed in participatory workshops with two communities in the central Altiplano of Bolivia. We distinguished three types of surprises: (1) misunderstanding or disagreement with a rule or game mechanism, (2) circumvention of the rules, and (3) improvisation and appropriation of the rules. We also identified different facilitator behaviors in response to these surprises. Addressing the first two types of surprises is essential in both the game's co-design process and its underlying conceptual model, as it favors the integration of different kinds of knowledge about the socio-ecosystem. The third type of surprise revealed a paradoxical attachment to the community, between family economic strategies of diversification and migration and those of community obligations, participation, and investment. This complex relationship between the individual and the collective revealed a lack of community cohesion that could have been difficult to understand through individual interviews alone. Finally, based on our analysis of surprises in game sessions, we discuss the capacity of role-playing games to surprise productively. We advocate for player freedom as the main condition for the emergence of surprises and argue for the relevance of this approach in integrating diverse knowledge in the co-design process.