Bargaining

  BARGAINING

EMOTIONS

When something bad happens, have you ever found yourself making a deal with God? "Please God, if you heal my husband, I will strive to be the best wife I can ever be, and never complain again." This is the bargaining. In a way, this stage is false hope. You might falsely make yourself believe that you can avoid the grief through this type of negotiation. If you change this, I'll change that. You are so desperate to get your life back to how it was before the grief event, you are willing to make a major life change in an attempt toward normality.

Guilt is a common wingman of bargaining. This is when you can experience a seemingly endless string of "what ifs": What if I had left the house 5 minutes sooner? The accident would never happened. What if I encouraged him to go to the doctor six months ago like I first thought? The cancer could have been found sooner and he could have been saved.

Going through a similar method as the previous stages of grief that I've researched I will go onto look at synonyms of this emotion to see if they can open up the exploration of the feeling to develop unique mechanics and environmental assets that can be integrated into the project though I do already have some interesting ideas that I will discuss and develop afterwards.

Strongest synonym

Strong synonym

Weak synonym

GUILT

Culpability, Disgrace, Indiscretion, Liability, Regret, Remorse, Responsibility, Shame, Sin, Stigma.

Answerability, Blameworthiness, Contrition, Crime, Criminality, Delinquency, Dishonor, Error, Failing, Fault, Infamy, Iniquity, Lapse, Malfeasance, Malpractice, Misbehaviour, Misconduct, Misstep, Offense, Onus, Penitence, Self-condemnation, Self-reproach, Sinfulness, Solecism, Transgression, Wickedness, Wrong.

Malefaction, Peccability.

SHAME

Confusion, Contempt, Guilt, Humiliation, Irritation, Remorse, Scandal, Stigma.

Abashment, Blot, Chagrin, Compunction, Contrition, Degradation, Derision, Discomposure, Discredit, Disesteem, Dishonor, Disrepute, Ignominy, Infamy, Mortification, Obloquy, Odium, Opprobrium, Pang, Reproach, Self-disgust, Self-reproach, Self-reproof, Shamefacedness, Smear, Stupefaction, Treachery.

Bad conscience, Ill repute, Loss of face, Pudency, Skeleton in the cupboard.

HOPE

Achievement, Ambition, Anticipation, Aspiration, Belief, Concern, Confidence, Desire, Expectation, Faith, Goal, Optimism, Promise, Prospect, Wish.

Assumption, Buoyancy, Daydream, Dependence, Endurance, Expectancy, Fancy, Fortune, Gain, Hopefulness, Reliance, Reverie, Reward, Rosiness, Sanguiness, Security, Stock, Utopia.

Bright side, Castles in air, Fool's paradise, Greedy glutton, Light at the end of tunnel, Pipe dream, Promised land, Thing with feathers.

REGRET

Anguish, Annoyance, Apology, Bitterness, Concern, Contrition, Disappointment, Discomfort, Dissatisfaction, Grief, Heartache, Heartbreak, Misgiving, Nostalgia, Qualm, Remorse, Repentance, Sorrow, Uneasiness, Worry.

Affliction, Apologies, Care, Compunction, Conscience, Demur, Dole, Lamentation, Pang, Penitence, Ruefulness, Scruple, Self-accusation, Self-condemnation, Self-disgust, Self-reproach, Woe.

Regretfulness.

FRUSTRATION

Annoyance, Dissatisfaction, Failure, Grievance, Irritation, Resentment.

Blocking, Blow, Bummer, Chagrin, Circumvention, Contravention, Curbing, Defeat, Disgruntlement, Downer, Drag, Fizzle, Foiling, Hinderance, Impediment, Letdown, Obstruction, Setback, Vexation.

Bitter pill, Nonfulfillment, Nonsuccess, Old one-two, Unfulfillment. 

Two things to notice during this research are the religious tones present within both the synonyms of the emotions well as during the breakdown of this stage of grief, especially with looking to a higher power to find answers as to how this event has occurred - this potentially comes from the powerlessness we feel during this period. One therapeutic way to overcome feelings of loss that are suggested by therapists is the observation and understanding of what is and isn't in our control during life after a grief event to allow us to pay more attention to what we can control and let go of everything else before achieving peace by not getting frustrated by attempting to control every aspect of our life - which we may potentially do by bargaining with ourselves, others or a higher power. This process could be reproduced within this game through the player attempting to interact with mining controls within the planet during this stage but being unable to do so, relying on the secondary player being an AI component that could interact with controls to allow the player to progress as they have interacted with environmental assets previously in the game.

In other games dealing with grief, a bargaining stage can be observed. If we take Gris for example. The player character comes across little creatures who by using an earlier implemented ability to turn into a block and smash objects can do so upon tree-like structure to release some sort of food that the creature enjoys and in doing so befriend the creature which in turn will open up new pathways to allow progression. 

We can see some eaten fruit to the left to suggest that they can be used to elicit a response from the NPC if we can deliver some more to them.

Once a level of trust is developed between the player and the NPC they will follow the player through the stage, offering assistance and pathways as you progress.

With my idea to have the planet be unmanned this sort of interaction may not be an ideal mechanic to implement, though the use of non-verbal bargaining allows for a more 'show don't tell' approach to the narrative that is much more impactful to the player rather than giving them a quest to bargain with an NPC to get there help.

One alternative mechanical and artistic approach I have pondered on for this stage is the removal of abilities from the player to contrast how most games will add skills and power-ups to allow them to progress. In Gris you don't start with the ability to turn into a block and in most side-scrollers you learn things like double jumps or wall grabs to allow the player to reach areas previously unattainable. If I turn this on its head I could envision the player delving deeper into the mines (a representation of digging deeper into oneself to find answers) and having to remove parts of their own space suit to fit into more cramped areas or reduce mass to achieve the weight limit that they previously exceeded to use certain mechanical equipment like elevators. This in itself is a referral to the parts of ourselves we feel we lose when dealing with grief, the parts that had been developed and grown during our time with the person, object, or circumstance that we have now lost. It fits well with my current iterations of the player character being an unmanned space suit where with further development of that character design can show how parts of the suit can be removed as they develop and progress along the journey, something to certainly pay attention to when furthering the character design. It also fits with the narrative model of the hero's journey having gone to a strange world filled with chaos and returning having changed as when the player reaches the end of the game having returned to the surface at the other side of the crashed shuttle they won't appear the same as they started to visually show the player how the journey has changed them yet they have survived and gained knowledge along the way.