With video games today, there seems
to be this push toward virtual reality, or in other words, as close to
immersive realism as possible. This means making the environments realistic and
colorful, the characters believable, the story interesting, and the gameplay
itself immersive. The more the player can get lost in this video game world,
the better. This is why there are some players that can play for hours on end. This is true for many different kinds of
games. Sports games, especially if the athlete is one of the players own
design, shooter games, action games, horror games , and even kids games all
work better if they are immersive and believable.
My favorite video game falls under
this category wholeheartedly. On the computer, I like to play the Sims. As the
name suggests, it is a life simulation game. You create your “sims” or avatar
characters, and personalize them highly. Then the player creates every aspect
of their life, from their The game is set up without a set
story line; in essence, the player creates the story as they go along. They can
make it various levels of difficulty based on how many sims they put in a
family ( as they have to monitor and keep alive all of them) and how much money
they start out with. Though the game only gives the player one set amount of
money (20,000 simmoleans) there are two common ways to play the game. The first
is to keep the money the game gives you, and play by getting your sim a job and
saving up, or giving the sim as much money as they need through a cheat code. 
The base game has many
possibilities and can be played for hours at a time, and more on its own, but
to open up more gameplay possibilities, there are expansion packs available.
These expansion packs do many things, some allow the player to build apartment
complexes, add a downtown area, or a
vacation world. Some add code to make the seasons change, others add items to
the game, and some add animal Sims to the game.
This type of near completely
immersive gameplay definitely supports the idea that media can be an extension
of the eye and memory. When playing this sort of avatar based game, whether it
is a simulation game such as the Sims 3 or any of the Tycoon games, or any
first person story game, it takes problem-solving and creativity to play. The player
must interact with the game by solving puzzles, and overcoming obstacles. These
puzzles could be literal puzzles, or riddles or even just tough scenarios. Regardless, they take brainpower and focus.
The gamer becomes attached and possibly even addicted. In this way, the video
game platforms of today are an extension of the eye and memory.
I loved sims as a kid! It was one of my favorite games along with pokemon and digimon, How might this game interface be different to you from other games like Flappy bird or Monopoly? Do you feel more involved with one than the other? If you do why is that? Do you think that the reading can apply to other interfaces besides video games?
ReplyDeleteWith video games I feel like the mouse and the keyboard are an extension of your hand. They are mediums that you are using in order to communicate and interact with the game. They are what allow you to go into the virtual reality and connect with your eyes and thoughts. I like how you mentioned the games environment, characters and story/ plot because all of those are very important. They are what make a game believable and pleasing to the eye. It’s harder to interact with an interface that is not fun to look at or is not very interactive. That is one of the reasons that I did not choose to play Papers Please, because of the older looking interface. The story line is also very important because if you are playing something that is to become an extension of yourself and your eyes you want it to be interesting and engaging because that is what gets people to play it.
ReplyDeleteOverall, how engaging and realistic a game is dictates whether or not I feel more involved in a game. Emotions play a big part because they decide how invested I am in a game. Flappy Bird for example has people dealing with more negative emotions as they struggle to move a bird forward through obstacles. I play Left for Dead 2 and those emotions of fear and excitement are only present when a game feels real to me. The visuals, the noises, and how smoothly the game operates all play a part in whether or not I feel like the game is worth interacting with.