Sky: Children of the Light, a game for iPhone and iPad, takes place in a world in which the stars have fallen from their constellations, leading to some collapse of the fantasy world. It is the job of the player to collect the stars and return them to their constellations, thereby restoring the world. As the character finds the stars, they interact with nonplayer spirits as well as other online players to level up and develop new flight and communication abilities. Communication abilities are not a given in this game. Rather, players must level up their friendship with other players, following a proposal using a candle to become friends, in order to unlock new abilities, including the permanent ability to chat and the ability to hold hands. Through both game play, including missions with nonplayer spirits, and increasing friendship, players are able to unlock new gestures, allowing them to communicate nonverbally with other players, which seemed to be the main method of communication between players.

 

A nonplayer spirit after I completed his quest

In Sky: Children of the Light, the most interesting questions surround the ideas of communication and self-expression. Because avatars are not able to be customized, at least at first, how do players express themselves and build communities between themselves and others? It may also be interesting to study how players use the various mechanisms for communication in general.

Communication in Sky: Children of the Light is complicated. The ability to communicate is earned gradually. In the beginning, the chat function is only available at very specific times, including on benches designated for chatting for the time a candle is burning. There is one table near the beginning where there is no time limit and multiple players can chat, but this is not the norm. There are also candles where players may leave anonymous messages for other players who happen to pass by. Players have to unlock the ability to chat with friends outside of these contexts by leveling up their friendship.

My avatar with a candle message anonymously left by another player

The game does allow for nonverbal communication. Players start out with only a few gestures and begin to gradually unlock more. These seem particularly prevalent in brief interactions. The game also required some group actions, including several people lighting candles at once, which often forced interaction between characters who had not unlocked the chat functions, so players were often gesturing to each other. It would be interesting to study how players use these nonverbal forms of communication, which the game potentially favors even over chats.

 

It may also be interesting to study the forms of nonverbal communication as a type of self-expression. At least early on in the game, it seems as though there are few options for customization and self-expression. Each player begins with the same avatar. There is some ability to customize later by using in-game currency to purchase instruments, but many players do not. Players do not even choose names for their avatars. When a player becomes friends with another player, the other player comes up with a nickname for them. Despite these limiting factors affecting self-expression, strong communities seem to form within the game, as shown by quotes from reviews on the google play store including “gave it 5 stars for the wonderful community” and “adore making new friends and unlocking hand-holding, piggy back rides, etc.” It would be interesting to see how communication between players, particularly nonverbal communication, allows for the formation of communities and relationships between players, especially in the absence of other personal identifiers and methods of self-expression.

Unlike many players, one of my friends did take the opportunity to customize their avatar. The keyboard on their back is not standard. Also note the use of the handholding function, a gesture acquired through friendship

While I had many brief interactions with others, involving both verbal and nonverbal forms of communication, there are some things I would change should I engage in participant observation in Sky: Children of the Light again. I now know more about the mechanics of the game, including the chat function, so it may be beneficial to spend more time around chat benches and tables. I would also probably try to engage in more nonverbal forms of communication myself as well. I was often hesitant to use many of the gestures, but perhaps it would have been beneficial to see how players reacted. If I chose to cry in the middle of a task, how would players react? Would they understand it as a request for help? It would be interesting to experiment more with these gestures. It may also have been beneficial to give myself more time to learn the controls and other aspects of game play, but this should be better should I enter the game for this purpose again.

 

The main question I am left with unsurprisingly revolves around issues of consent. Verbal communication is difficult and limited in Sky: Children of the Light, so how could it be possible to express that I am doing ethnographic research? There is no bio or name I can put it in, nor am I able to customize my avatar in a way that could express what I am doing. The benches only allow for brief interactions, so it would be difficult to explain what is happening in that short a time. It may be that the only time it would be possible is when I have leveled up my friendship with someone enough to chat outside of the context of benches. At that point, though, it may be too late and be very harmful to the relationship we have formed, as well as the emotional wellbeing of the informant. How is it possible to navigate this ethical issue of consent in this world, which makes it very difficult to obtain informed consent?

 

*sorry for photo quality. the device I was on was having storage issues so I was taking photos with another device