Room

Well I think my dissertation game is just about finished...

...

Faffing Around With My Dissertation Game

That is all...

Dissertation references

Some dissertation notes

After some reading my dissertation seems to have gone in a slightly different direction. These are a few of my notes.

Blue = Independent               Red = Dependent

Possible new question: How does the way a character is portrayed impact play style?


I will have to do further research into player types. >>>>>Richard Bartle<<<<<<<

I will create a pre test questionnaire to find out the users player types.

Using my research on representation and fiction I will create a simple game similar to Every day the same dream. It will only have 3 mechanics:

Move: Left and right only.

Interact: This is in the form of using objects and talking.

Destroy: This destroys or kills stuff or people (maybe change if needed or too extreme)

There will be 2 different versions of the game each with the same mechanics but different characters. One character will be presented as a ruthless murderer out for revenge. The other will be a scared farmer searching for her husband (these are just initial ideas).

Both characters will be able to do any of the things possible in the game but some activities will be more characteristic of one character than the other. The player also doesn't have to do anything they could just walk to the end of the game. At the start of the game the ability to interact and the ability to kill will be explained but  the player won't ever be told they have to do anything.

I hope to test whether or not the players react to the way the characters are portrayed and role-play the activities they think are appropriate or just try anything available in the game.

I will then conduct a post test questionnaire asking the players whether or not they felt their actions were appropriate to the character and whether or not they care either way.

How labelling of feedback, based on playable character emotion, effects player experience of a game?

This is the Blog post to go with my Dissertation proposal.

The overarching idea behind this project comes from the lack of a connection between a characters in game actions (e.g. killing); and the characters reaction to those actions (e.g. being largely unaffected) in most games. This project focuses in on the labelling of feedback (i.e. the information the game displays to the player). A traditional method of feedback given to the player is health; often in the form of a red health bar or numbers.

Health bar in Street Fighter 2.

The Getaway changed the labelling of health and when the character is injured they limp around covered in blood; to heal they lean up against a wall. This is an example of different labelling of feedback.

Useful Getaway Link (http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2010/10/07/lunchtime-discussion-injury/)

Other games such as Fahrenheit and Eternal Darkness use emotion feedback in some for or another.

Fahrenheit Anxiety bar.

Eternal Darkness.

Relevant games

Fable II, 2008. [Game] UK: Lionhead Studios

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, 2002. [Game] Canada: Silicon Knights

The Getaway, 2002. [Game] London: Team Soho

Fahrenheit, 2005. [Game] Paris: Quantic Dream

The Sims, 2000. [Game] California: Maxis

Call of Cthulhu, 1981. [RPG] Oakland: Chaosium

Power Kill, 1996 [RPG] John Tynes

Unknown Armies, 1998. [RPG] Atlas Games

Relevant games design texts

Saari, T. & Ravaja, N. 2005 Towards Emotionally Adapted Games based on User Controlled Emotion Knobs [online] Available at: http://www.digra.org/dl/db/06278.06445.pdf [Accessed 13/10/10]

Eladhari, M. & Lindley, C. 2009 Player Character Design Facilitating

Emotional Depth in MMORPGs [online] Available at: http://www.digra.org/dl/db/05163.50372.pdf [Accessed 18/05/10]

Lankoski, P. & Bjork. S. 2009 Gameplay Design Patterns for Believable Non-Player

Characters [online] Available at: http://www.digra.org/dl/db/07315.46085.pdf [Accessed 18/05/10]

Perry, D. 2009 David Perry on Game Design. Canada: Charles River Media.

Edwards, R. 2000 Sorcerer & Sword. Adept Press.

Edwards, R. 2004 The Provisional Glossary [online] Available at: http://indie-rpgs.com/_articles/glossary.html [Accessed 18/05/10]

Newman, J. 2002 The Myth of the Ergodic Videogame[online] Available at: http://www.gamestudies.org/0102/newman/ [Accessed 18/05/10]

Salen, K. & Zimmerman, E. 2003 Rules of Play. The MIT Press.

Relevant psychology (emotion) texts.

Frijda, N. 1986 The Emotions. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Oatly, K. 2004 Emotions: A Brief History. Cornwall: Blackwell Publishing.

Relevant methodologies texts.

Norman, D. 2004 Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things. New York: Basic Books.

Garrett, J. 2002 The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web. Berkley: Peachpit Press .

Kuniavsky, M. 2003 Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research. San Fransisco: Morgan Kaufmann.

Some links that may (or may not) be useful for my dissertation...

Well yup,... links yaaaay!!!

These are just a few links that relate to characters and narritive in games...

Christian Nutt: Characters, The Building Blocks of Your Reality. An article about why so few games have believable characters.

Emily Short: Character Creation, Gender and Fallout 3. A look at how the story telling and characterisation in Fallout 3 is presented and what does and doesnt work about it.

Emily Short (again): Homer In Silicon. Biweekly coumn's about story telling and narritive in games.

Andrew Vanden Bossche: What We Get Out of Choice in Video Game Design. A look at the morality choice in Infamous.

Anywho yeah maybe I'll add some more later... Here's another Japanese song I does like.