Saturday, March 6, 2010

CRITERIA FOR ANALYZING GAME EXPERIENCES

This is an assignment due later this week. First we have the blog entry about play and building in Second Life, and then this one. I post this to ask if anyone out there has a comment on ways of talking about gaming experiences. I am trying to get at the subjective experience of playing the game, rather than looking for a review of the game (although we will also look at those, too).


Assignment 7: CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF YOUR SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCE PLAYING 2 GAMES

This assignment asks you to reflect on and discuss your subjective experience of playing at least 2 games.

As a way of giving you some structure, think through the aspects of virtual subjectivity I suggest in the “Kino-Eye” essay:

1) Point of view

2) Self-design

3) Social relationships/interactions

4) Space and place

5) Agency


Also think about the INTERFACE, and how the game uses elements of text, cinema, and computer forms in it. (Manovich)

Finally, consider the kinds of immersion and interactivity that you experience in the game.

1 comment:

  1. This could possibly contained within social relationships and interactions but choice has become a major mechanic in many games for the past few years. These are often restricting in terms of what narrative the game then takes, limiting potential interactions and outcomes. Crafting balanced choices has, for some developers, become an art form and one which they are keen to showcase when demoing new products.

    Talking about choices and the way one finds their own path through a game has now become an entirely subjective part of the experience. A few examples are the morality choices in Fallout 3 (blowing up a whole city being the most obvious) and the dozens of small choices a player must face when playing Heavy Rain. In the case of the latter, every decision carries great weight, causing hesitation, doubt and even regret in more involved players. Thanks to a large number of varied outcomes, every gamer will have their own unique experience. These possibilities are added to when also including players who decide to act 'in character', making decisions based on how they want to affect the role, rather than translating their own feelings into the game.

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