The Mechanic is the Message: A Post Mortem in Progress
Abstract
This chapter provides two entry points into Brenda Brathwaite’s series The Mechanic is the Message, a group of six non-digital games that explore difficult topics. Brathwaite writes from the perspective of the game’s designer, covering the inception of the series, its inspirations and the challenges inherent in working with content one might deem questionable in the game space. Sharp, on the other hand, writes from the perspective of a game designer and an art historian and critiques the game’s entry and reception into both the world of art and games.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The MDA model and Brenda Romero's pronouncement of the mechanics as the message exemplify 'Newtonian mechanics' in game design.
“The latter is as exemplified in the still popular MDA model (mechanics, dynamics, aesthetics) (Hunicke et al., 2004) as well as Brenda Romero's pronouncement of the mechanics as the message (Brathwaite & Sharp, 2010).”
From Interactive digital narrative (IDN)—new ways to represent complexity and facilitate digitally empowered citizens (2022) · cites this paper as Brathwaite & Sharp, 2010
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Koenitz, H., Barbara, J., & Eladhari, M. P. (2022) · New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia · doi:10.1080/13614568.2023.2181503 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
“The latter is as exempli fi ed in the still popular MDA model (mechanics, dynamics, aesthetics) (Hunicke et al., 2004) as well as Brenda Romero ’ s pro-nouncement of the mechanics as the message (Brathwaite & Sharp, 2010).”
Background
- Authors
- Brathwaite, B., & Sharp, J.
- Affiliations
- Savannah College of Art and Design (US)
- Venue
- Advances in Game-Based Learning
- Publisher
- IGI Global
- Published
- 2010-05-25
- Pages
- 311-329
- ISSN
- 2327-1825 (ISSN-L)
- 2327-1833
- OpenAlex
- W2489692605
- Cited by
- 29
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 5 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 4.43
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Advances in game-based learning book series (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Games and Media
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Educational Games and Gamification
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Visual Arts and Performing Arts › Art, Technology, and Culture
- Keywords
- game design, serious games, difficult topics, game-based learning, art and games, game reception
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
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