Abstract

The cultural evolution research program is useful for quantitatively explaining complex creative processes such as design. From a design studies perspective, its variation generation process is particularly intriguing. However, cultural transmission theorists have long modelled the process as a random novelty invention, far from the real-life modern design process. Here we show an instance of such a deviation, examining how the design process and its resulting frequencies of Pokémon TCG variants deviate from a neutral model in which an agent randomly selects and introduces cultural variants to the population from the design pool.

Keywords

cultural evolution; variation bias; Pokémon TCG; neutral model

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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shortpapers

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Oct 9th, 9:00 AM

Are all Pokémons created equal? Assessing the value-neutrality of Pokémon TCG design process

The cultural evolution research program is useful for quantitatively explaining complex creative processes such as design. From a design studies perspective, its variation generation process is particularly intriguing. However, cultural transmission theorists have long modelled the process as a random novelty invention, far from the real-life modern design process. Here we show an instance of such a deviation, examining how the design process and its resulting frequencies of Pokémon TCG variants deviate from a neutral model in which an agent randomly selects and introduces cultural variants to the population from the design pool.

 

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