The game that I played for my critical play was skribbl.io, published by ticedev on Crazy Games in 2017 available on browser platforms. This game is a multiplayer game playable by anyone old enough to read and draw and can be seen as a family game, similar to that of charades or pictionary. For my critical play, I played this on my PC browser. I see skribbl.io as a combination of judging and getting to know you, depending on the context in which it is played. In regards to the judging aspect, players are given points based on how quickly they can guess a drawing. For getting to know others, I believe that if played on call or in person, this game would be a good way to facilitate conversation in an indirect, casual way (similar to an icebreaker).
Skribbl.io is a game that incorporates judging by relying on the players’ skill for drawing quickly under pressure to motivate them. Since the artist in each round is also given points based on the people that guesses the word right, players must balance making their drawing difficult to guess by the majority of players, but still making it easy enough that at least 1 person can guess it right. There is also the added dimension of the artist having to pick between 3 words for the theme, meaning that they must also make quick judgment on which of the three they can draw within the time frame.
There are two unique features of skribbl.io that affect the gameplay and foster the environment surrounding the game. The first is the fact that all guesses are public. During my games, one of the most common ways that everyone guessed the word was when a player would guess the word correctly but type it incorrectly or spell it wrong, then immediately get the notification that they guessed the word once they rewrote it. Since everyone can see the incorrect guess and the “Guess correctly” ping, all players are able to “steal” the guess. The second feature, similar to the first, is that the guess panel serves as an informal chat. In the chat, players can write comments about the drawings as it is happening. This feature brings about both trolls, who type random, often offensive, phrases in the chat, and people who make general comments about the drawing such as, “What is this supposed to be” or “Nice drawing!”. With players able to comment in real-time, this puts additional pressure on the artist who feels like they are being judged with every brush stroke.
Because skribbl.io relies directly on the artist’s skill, this also introduces the factor of judgment based on skill. Throughout the games I played, I came across people who were extremely good at drawing–to the point where people assumed they were using a tablet– to people who used stick figures and arrows for every drawing. One interesting thing I noticed was that the more skilled artists would usually pick easy to guess words while the less advanced artists seemed to pick hard to draw words. This made me wonder whether those who felt they had something to prove automatically became drawn to easier to draw words so that they could be judged more positively and reinforce the the skills they had.
One interesting feature that skribbl.io also incorporates is the vote-kick feature. At any point in the game, players can easily click on a player’s profile and vote to kick them from the game. This feature can be done regardless of reason, meaning innocent players can be kicked for no real reason. In one game I played, someone was vote-kicked solely because they were in the lead with points. In another game I played, artists were kicked for drawing too slow or drawing in a way that made the word impossible to guess. I believe this can be seen as another “meta” version of judgment in which the mini-society created within these small games can decide to kick people on their whim.
I believe that the combination of the individual skill/creative aspect and the social/chat aspect result in a very interesting social environment where if people play skribbl.io with their friends, they will have an extremely different experience than playing with a random lobby. When playing with friends, I find that this game relies much more heavily on the social aspect in that players can utilize inside jokes and take advantage of their prior relationship with the other players, while in public matches, people are judged much more harshly on their guesses and their drawings. Since anyone can see your guess in public matches, people may hold their guesses out of fear of embarrassment or shame.
