Mermaids is a massively multiplayer online game set in an underwater world in which players take on the roles of hatchlings coming to life in the ruins of a long-extinct mermaid culture. The over-arching goal and storyline are to rebuild the lost Mermaid culture and reclaim their various skills and cultural practices, while at the same time trying to avoiding the mistakes that caused the extinction of their ancestors. 'Mermaids' is designed as an experiment in emergent gameplay, with specific affordances designed to promote social emergence. This presentation will include a live demo of the game, plus a poster on the modular mermaid construction system currently being developed by an undergraduate student research team.
The Emergent Game Group {egg} was formed in 2006 by Georgia Tech Digital Media faculty member Celia Pearce to investigate the many facets of emergent cultures in multiplayer games and virtual worlds, and to explore design strategies that promote emergent social behavior. We frame our work as “design research,” which integrates outcomes from our sociological and anthropological research into design practice. The {egg} is housed within the Experimental Game Lab (EGL) in Georgia Tech's TSRB.
