Applying Transformative Game Design Theory to Competitive Debate

Sammanfattning

This thesis applies transformative game design theory to competitive debate, treat-ing major debate formats not as fixed institutions but as designed games open todeliberate redesign. Although forensics pedagogy has long documented debate’s trans-formative effects, no prior work analyses debate formats from a game-design perspectiveor brings transformative role-playing-game theory to bear on them. Working at thisgap, the thesis asks how such theory can be operationalised into a concrete format,and how participants respond to the format that results.Using Research through Design, and specifically an evocative design experiment,I develop and playtest Inside Out, a new role-playing debate format built to addressthree tendencies observed in World Schools and British Parliamentary debate: valueconvergence, information density, and competitive hierarchy. The format replaces bi-nary opposition and win/loss adjudication with several value-defending teams, a decid-ing Subject character, and a commendation-based system of evaluation. Two playtestcycles with experienced debaters were analysed through a pre-specified taxonomy ofbehavioural and self-reported clues.The contribution includes a documented design and an account of how its mechanicsshape the experience of those who play it, including emergent effects the design did notset out to produce. Beyond the artifact, the thesis debates intermediate-level designknowledge about how one might design for transformation in deliberative games byusing and the scaffold of debate.