Roleplay, Policework and Learning From our Decisions
The module
Emile and I were an exceptional team for this project. We worked to our strengths to make the project a success without it feeling like an impossible task. Originally, we were going to work together to make a podcast based on a discussion we had about desensitization in one of our classes but were not fully sure we even liked the idea of it. Then at 8pm on thanksgiving, I was trying to nap and instead came up with the idea of a D&D style game designed to help police work through their issues and violent tendencies, and learn from experiences in a simulation where real people wouldn’t be harmed. I then texted this idea to Emile as a joke when they responded with information regarding roleplay in a real therapeutic environment, which we had discussed before. From there, the idea stopped being a hypothetical joke and was developed into a full-scale project which was bettered by the application of our knowledge from the class on bystander and bodycam footage as well as knowledge about the training of police via videos gained through our research apprenticeship. We decided to use the “divide and conquer” approach while also helping one another when we got stuck. This made it easier for us to sit together and trek through the creation of this project.
Emile and I play D&D on a regular basis and have played together multiple times over our relationship. I tend to be a player and find it as a great way to explore areas of myself and learn things I was never allowed to as a child. It has also helped me to work through my personality and shape parts of myself I don’t get to in real life due to the risks involved. I believe roleplay is an amazing way to learn about our decisions and why we are the way we are.
We gained valuable input and advice from professor Hobbs. She suggested we use the video on the Utah highway patrol to base our situation. My biggest struggle with this project was trying to take the interaction in the video and break it down into a playable format with room for alternate paths. Emile came up with the method to railroad the session to keep the player on track for the gameplay we wanted and rerouting to the main storyline. From this ideology, we were able to break down the video into moments which can be rerouted back to the main storyline. I also spent some time watching videos from the perspective of police officers and I wasn’t aware of how many factors police take into account when assessing a situation, even down to how a person is sitting. This class set me up for this project very well. It got me thinking about the ways police are represented in the media as well as the ways in which they interact with media. I think this project will give them a chance to explore their job and understand what motivates their decisions as well as give the public a chance to play from the perspective of a police officer. I would love to see other videos, such as traffic stops dealing with racism and more aggressive or defiant suspects, adapted to this format to make an interactive learning experience. I think the most important section of this piece is the debrief section. Even though it’s the shortest section, it will be the most memorable and influential part to players of this game. This section is where the player thinks over their actions and what motivated them to make the decisions they did. As we know from the writing we are doing right now, the best learning happens when we think about our actions after the fact.
