This article addresses how game features are informed and shaped in and through the relation between different generations and backgrounds. More specifically, the co-play (involving two parents and their 8 years old daughter) of The legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Octopath Traveler has been under scrutiny
for three months collecting viewpoints, interpretations, and emerging heuristics. Such an observation drawn its cornerstones from game studies and critical studies, with the distinction between simulation and simulacra as a leading analytical key. Methods spanned critical auto/ethnography, game diaries, thinking aloud instances, and creative exercises as debriefing processes. The two video games were selected for their different and yet complementary approaches to digital entertainment past: Zelda is an updated re-interpretation of an historical brand, while Octopath is a new license mimicking old aesthetics and mechanics. Implications shed light on how gameplay and ludic mechanics change along with personal and generational traits, and on ways to harness shared play for triggering family reflection and communication.
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