Embodiment, Game Characters and Game Design

Embodied Cognition, Game Characters, and Game Design

Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University

Embodied Cognition ¡  Basics of understanding is based on action

possibilities ¡  Club affords hitting

¡  Seeing someone smile -> mirroring smile -> happiness & interpretation

¡  Someone raising a cup towards their lips -> drinking

¡  Mirroring actions

¡ Meanings are relations between an organism and environment


Game Characters ¡  PC = Player-character ¡  Player controlled character

¡ NPC = Non-player-character ¡  An agent, AI, narrated actor


Game Characters


Imm

ort

all

(Arm

or G

am

es)

Empathic Engagement


Revealing Character in Thief II


Revealing Character in Thief II ¡  PC action ¡  Sneak & hide

¡  Pick locks

¡  Knock out with black-jack

¡  Take items / steal

¡  Fight with a sword

¡  Death comes often with this option

¡  Shoot arrows


Revealing Character in Half-Life •  First-person view

•  Information about character is feed by •  Text

•  Dialogue


Recognition ¡ An interpretation of a character

¡ Depends of formal features in the game

¡  Information ¡  Perceived actions

¡  Appearance

¡  Reactions of other characters


Alignment


Allegiance •  Structure of sympathy (or

antipathy)

•  Moral / aesthetic evaluation

•  Relative to fiction & other characters


Beauty ¡  Positive evolution / emotion ¡  Simple

¡  Learned & prototypical

¡  Associative emotions

¡  If visuals or sounds are not relevant for a current task, visuals/sounds ignored ¡  Especially when cognitive load is high

¡  Unexpected stimulus (e.g., peripheral movement or sounds) trigger orientation response

¡  However, especially music can influence other evaluations


Goal-driven Engagement


Goals ¡  Regulating goals ¡  Goals that regulate progression in a game

¡  Player goals correlates highly with regulating goals if they want to progress

¡  Player-generated goals ¡  Not relate to progression structure

¡  E.g., can I jump from this rooftop to next with a car in Grad Theft Auto IV?

¡  Game structure needs to facilitate challenges


Regulating Goals in Ico 1.  A cut scene showing how Ico is brought

to the castle and put into a statue and how the statue falls letting Ico out. -> GOAL: Escape

2.  GOAL: Pull a lever in the first room to open a door.

3.  GOAL: go to the second room.

4.  GOAL: climb up a chain, jump to a window, and enter the third room.

5.  Ico sees Yorda on a gage -> GOAL: free Yorda

6.  GOAL climbed up to a tower and use lever to lower Yorda’s gage

7.  The gage does not get on the ground -> GOAL jumped on top of the cage, which breaks the cage.

8.  A cut-scene showing Ico’s and Yorda’s first meeting. And showing a black portal appears and shadowy creates emerges from it.

9.  OPTIONAL GOAL: pick up a wooden stick as a weapon

10.  GOAL: destroy all creatures; GOAL: prevent shadow creatures take Yorda escape via the portal

11.  A cut-scene where Ico says that it is too dangerous to be where they are and that they must escape, after which, Yorda opens a magically sealed door leading to the next room.


Goals and emotions Basic Emotion Goal status evaluation

Happiness Progression towards or reaching a goal

Fear Threat to self or goal

Sadness Failure of a valued goal

Anger A goal is blocked

Disgust Reaching a goal risks contamination


Goals and emotions… ¡  Primary emotions

¡  Secondary emotions ¡  As if reasoning triggers emotions

¡  Considering risky option leads fear

¡  Thinking about success leads to happiness


Example: Silent Hill 2


Example: Silent Hill 2 ¡  Limited perceptual range and awareness of monsters

¡  Fear & Worry

¡  Static noise warns about nearby monsters ¡  The sound gets associated with fear

¡  Attacking monsters threatens the player’s goal of keeping PC alive ¡  Fear

¡  Zombies rot & Zombie’s vomit attack contaminating ¡  Disgust

¡  Killing zombies ¡  Happiness


¡  Lankoski, P. (2012). Computer Games and Emotions. In Sageng, Fossheim & Larsen (eds.) The Philosophy of Computer Games. Springer. DOI=10.1007/978-94-007-4249-9_4.

¡  Lankoski, P. (2011). Player Character Engagement in Computer Games. Games and Culture, 6(4), pp. 291-311. DOI: 10.1177/1555412010391088.

¡  Lankoski, P. & Järvelä, S. (2012). An Embodied Cognition Approach for Understanding Role-playing. International Journal of Role-Playing, 3.


Thank you [email protected]

petrilankoski.wordpress.com


Embodiment, Game Characters and Game Design

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