Fictional publicness: A possible way out of practice in game

Abstract

It can be observed that in recent years, through scientific communication and philosophical practices, various approaches to communicating with the public have emerged. Although these approaches have emphasized bilateral interaction, such as citizen consensus and deliberative democracy, various interactive media that introduce scientific knowledge, and numerous workshops or philosophical cafes that involve open discussion, these forms basically assume active good citizens and emphasize the formation of the public domain. These practices formulate objectiveness through a space of public discussion as well as assume discussion participants to be subjects capable of rational discussion. However, in many public discussions, the definition of social relationships is commonly observed to influence the style of discussion formulated. Whether the form of public discussion also limits the selection of discussion topics is debatable. French scholar Laurent reviewed the citizen conferences on nanotechnology. This question regarding nanotechnology is not only relevant to this topic. It reveals a fundamental question: how do citizens become aware of the relationship between publicness and their rights and obligations? Based on this question, a few concepts in philosophical practices can be referred to, using dialogue-based transformation and Foucault’s idea of viewing events as opportunities to inspire public awareness in order to conceive a mechanism that guides the public to engage in public affairs. Specifically, this study intends to explore a possible model that triggers actions through creative thinking. Here, we use gamification to discuss this possible mechanism. Regarding the implications of gamification as a theory of philosophical practices, we must consider whether games can serve as a field of practice for publicness. Thus, we explore whether it is possible to create game events for people to think about public issues, as well as to guide the public to further engage in discussions in the public domain, formulate decisions and actions to be implemented in the real world, and train themselves to be citizens capable of rational discussions.