“The concept of agency is also discussed extensively in game studies, and it would really help if the final submission could provide a contribution to the area of research. What is at stake in playing-as-a-non-playing character? Can this process be represented without introducing a different form of action, as in the game designed by the authors? How could boredom and inaction be (differently) represented and made playable? These questions could help the authors when thinking about how to narrow down their video game eliminating other layers which are probably only distracting and unnecessary when confronted with the statement submitted in the written document.”
“There are in fact some interesting concepts that could be either articulated or just eliminated from the text. The notions of morality and ethics are mentioned at the beginning of the text, through the work of Sicart, but are not brought to their consequences, and the authors should consider whether these are really necessary. Is there really a question on morality in the game? The game could actually be seen from an ethical perspective, but only if the relation player-simulation is somehow put at the centre.”

“[When they write about the player being a NPC in a game] From what I have understood by playing the game, this is not immediately clear to the player. In fact, it was not clear to me until I read your text. You might consider if you prefer to make this explicit in the game, or keep it cryptic until the end (or until the player reads an explanation).”
“[When they write about the game aiming at being boring] This is extremely interesting and provoking, but it does not describe the game you have designed (so far). I found the game to have only limited moments of boredom, and I was killed almost immediately everytime the FPS started. I didn’t have much time to get bored. I believe that period of wait in the 3D environment should be much more central, it should last longer, be more clearly identifiable with the intentions what you have outlined here. It should give a sense of boredom and inaction. Moreover: does the player ‘arrive’, or activate/enact the NPC? There are nuances in your narrative of the relation player-NPC which are really crucial and you need to be more precise about what you intend to say.”
“[The last part, when they cite Galloway saying that the machine keeps working while the user is bored] More and more often, human beings are used to replace AI when the tasks given are too complex for a computer to solve, but easy for humans. Crowdsourcing is the name usually given to this practice. Amazon is one of the most important providers of crowdsourcing services through the Mechanical Turk platform. The slogan used by Amazon to define the service is ‘artificial artificial intelligence’, as the service simulates the presence of AI by actually using human beings to complete the jobs. The service is only available in the US and India, but many other platforms offer the same service in other areas of the world. You can see there how crowdsourcing is expected to be used as if the employees could think as machines: tasks need to be fragmented and presented as in a programming language. The workers usually take jobs that lasts only a few seconds and are paid through micro-transactions. I see a similarity with what you are doing here. In a future where AI is considered to be key in the development of NPCs, it is very likely that actual human beings will be used to pretend to be machine-controlled NPCs whenever the design of an effective AI is too challenging. Some experts are currently speculating that Facebook is developing an AI which acts as ‘Siri’ and ‘Cortana’ do in Apple and Microsoft software, but Facebook is also allowing Indian crowdsourcers to replace the AI whenever the conversation is detected to be too difficult for the AI to comprehend.”
“[when they write that the in-game questionnaire had an aesthetic inspired by job-application kiosks at Wal-Mart] It actually reminded me of online application forms for academic positions :-)”

Reviewer 2 – Paolo Ruffino, University of Lincoln, March 2016.