Quarrel is an adversarial public debate game that encourages players to argue for topics and beliefs that they may not personally believe in so that they can win a game. In recent years democracy is increasingly being challenged by a rise in tribalism. This manifests itself in a strong fragmentation of society into demographic sections that rarely exchange ideas critically. The technologies that mediate our discussions and perception of society (social media, news) lead to echo chambers, where the whole world is interpreted through the lens of the tribal discourse, with little to no chance of challenging such assumptions.
Quarrel’s design is explicitly adversarial, to prompt the players to consider controversial issues from a point of view that they may not be used to. To “win” a game of quarrel, one must sharpen one's debating skills, but more importantly, players must debate in favour of a position that they may not even hold themselves, thus inviting them, and the audience, to appreciate the various arguments that can be formulated for and against their own opinions.
