Games as moodpieces
Author
maybe concentrating on making the player ''cry'' etc is the wrong way to go about ''emotion'' in games, since it is trying to force a technique from inherently scripted mediums (books / films). Could it be that games would succeed better at trying to evoke ''emotion and feelings'' by being a sort of mood piece, where the gameplay / interaction and the sound and the graphics all combine to provide an experience. Ie. Exploration, being carefree, gloominess etc.
i think you hit near but closer of the actual problem
it''s my current interest, how to build drama with interactive element, ok but HOW, we don''t have the vocabulary and worst we don''t know what is drama exactly to encode it in gameplay, the best is to ask scripted medium about what they know about drama but not take their technic but create new one for interactive.
however to create such a moody piece of gameplay, one must stop think about external activities (doing) but focus on internal activities (being), interaction must be done not on space but in mind (whether the mind of the player or the mind of the npc), a good understanding about psychology of play is good
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
be good
be evil
but do it WELL
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
it''s my current interest, how to build drama with interactive element, ok but HOW, we don''t have the vocabulary and worst we don''t know what is drama exactly to encode it in gameplay, the best is to ask scripted medium about what they know about drama but not take their technic but create new one for interactive.
however to create such a moody piece of gameplay, one must stop think about external activities (doing) but focus on internal activities (being), interaction must be done not on space but in mind (whether the mind of the player or the mind of the npc), a good understanding about psychology of play is good
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
be good
be evil
but do it WELL
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Author
quote:Original post by Neoshaman
however to create such a moody piece of gameplay, one must stop think about external activities (doing) but focus on internal activities (being), interaction must be done not on space but in mind (whether the mind of the player or the mind of the npc)
Yes!
You need to be able to interact with the player and their imaginations.
Think about these two (game) experiences, they would feel very different.
1. Walking through an beautiful meadow full of flowers with your butterfly net and your dog. (and no likelihood of being attacked by monsters). With bright, bubbly music, and the sound of birds and insects.
2. Walking through an ancient overgrown forest at night with just a walking stick to protect you, and knowing that gruesome murders were committed there several days ago
. (it doesn''t matter that there aren''t any monsters about coz the player doesn''t know that!).And in terms of gameplay, if in one case your character can take lots of hits in combat, and the other can only take one or two. Then the feeling and way that you have to play will differ.
The inclusion of these kinds of feelings in games seems like a great idea, but whenever I think of how to do it I find myself unable to come up with anything. From what I can tell, it''s mainly because of the way I think we play the games, not what is in them. Yes, you can make a game scary having suspenseful moments, shocking surprises, a dark, foreboding atmosphere... but true fear, that is, the fear we feel in real life, is always detached when we play games. Our suspension of disbelief doesn''t go so far as to allow us to think WE might be in danger, which is really the strongest source of fear.
The same thing would go for a happy scenario too. What we experience in a game cannot go nearly as far to making us feel truly happy as what we experience out in the real world. Think of the end of a game, you beat the bad guys, the world is saved, you''ve lost a lot of blood, but what are you really thinking? The character in-game would be ultimately relieved, his world was coming to an end, not yours. He would feel proud and powerful, you feel like you managed to mash some buttons well. He gets to finally go home and see the ones he loves whom he has been away from for so long.... you get to.... umm.... have a coke? I dunno, imagination just isn''t enough to really spark feelings and moods into players.
Our immersion in games is only as sophisticated as our view of the relatively small square screen in front of us and sound from a few speakers surrounding us. Oh, and a veeerrry mild degree of force feedback in some cases. But to feel truly affected by a game and feeling strongly about it I think will require a great deal more interactive and effective sensory aspects. How much scarier would that walk through the dark woods be if you could feel the dampness in the air and a chilling breeze bursh past you. If could view a full 360 degrees around you and have peripheral vision, but STILL couldn''t see what was hunting you. If you could smell blood around somewhere and got the sense that there was a rotting corpse. If you actually feared for your life. That kind of thing can''t be emulated that well yet, but it would add SOOOOOO incredibly much to a game.
Tell me if y''all agree.
As ever,
*****Cosmic*****
The same thing would go for a happy scenario too. What we experience in a game cannot go nearly as far to making us feel truly happy as what we experience out in the real world. Think of the end of a game, you beat the bad guys, the world is saved, you''ve lost a lot of blood, but what are you really thinking? The character in-game would be ultimately relieved, his world was coming to an end, not yours. He would feel proud and powerful, you feel like you managed to mash some buttons well. He gets to finally go home and see the ones he loves whom he has been away from for so long.... you get to.... umm.... have a coke? I dunno, imagination just isn''t enough to really spark feelings and moods into players.
Our immersion in games is only as sophisticated as our view of the relatively small square screen in front of us and sound from a few speakers surrounding us. Oh, and a veeerrry mild degree of force feedback in some cases. But to feel truly affected by a game and feeling strongly about it I think will require a great deal more interactive and effective sensory aspects. How much scarier would that walk through the dark woods be if you could feel the dampness in the air and a chilling breeze bursh past you. If could view a full 360 degrees around you and have peripheral vision, but STILL couldn''t see what was hunting you. If you could smell blood around somewhere and got the sense that there was a rotting corpse. If you actually feared for your life. That kind of thing can''t be emulated that well yet, but it would add SOOOOOO incredibly much to a game.
Tell me if y''all agree.
As ever,
*****Cosmic*****
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