Opposites and Broheimification

Made by Many's Leila Johnston and Duncan Gough have launched a new game, F. U. S. I. O. N, a game taking place in the aftermath of nuclear apocalypse. Featuring a switchboard operator as the protagonist, she gains access to communications networks in order to satisfy her needs - whether for help, or something deeper.

Duncan:

A lot of what I've been designing recently has been as a reaction to the broheimification of the internet, the masculinity and the obviousness of it all. Where Foursquare is about visiting one place at a time, and witnessing multiple personalities active on it, bliss registers its own page loads, finds them in space, and plots them in a simple abstract way. The result is a fascinating, twinkling constellation devoid of 'friends' and ego – it's all about personality-free check-ins, but the result is a sense of a world full of life. If the opposite of foursquare is bliss, then bliss is a place where every check-in means something, and where every check-in disrupts the network. Where everybody means something.

Leila:

It's interesting how abstraction can emphasise presence more than location apps that let you talk to each other continually through 'tips' and messages. Maybe presence isn't as much about connecting as we're led to think. There's something very powerful in the idea of just sending a wordless beacon from where you are.

Leila and Duncan talk more on the Made by Many blog.