games interactivity click here for video version of presentation
TRANSCRIPT
GamesInteractivity
CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO VERSIONOF PRESENTATION
Types of Games• Arcade Games (Pac-Man, Missile Command)• Card, Logic, Puzzles, & Board Games (Solitaire, Monopoly)• Adventure Games: text, graphical, 3D
(Bioshock, Grand Theft Auto)• Simulation (Sims)• Strategy Games “Strats” (DrugWars)• First-Person Shooters (FPS)• Third-Person Shooters• Role-Playing Games (RPGs)• MMOs / MMORPGs (Massively Multi-player Online Role-playing
Game—e.g., World of Warcraft)• Sports Games• Serious Games (e.g., Newsgaming.com, GamesforChange.org)
Example
Third-person narrativefor self-esteem-buildingwww.josietrue.com by video artist Mary Flanagan
Chris Crawford says a game
• Usually has a “win condition” or at least a challenge and reward (there’s a difference).
Espen Aarseth says a game has:
• Rules
• A game world (material/semiotic systems)
• Gameplay (events resulting from application of the rules to the game world)
• Even nonnarrative games have this – solitaire)
Chris Crawford’s Tips
• What is interactivity?Playing with your dog?Reading a novel?
• “Act” is the key word in interact.It starts with verbs: run, jump, kill, build, feed, talk, die, etc.
• Allow the viewer to have inputAvoid too much “speaking” to the viewer.
Guidelines for Good Interactive Software Development
• Start with verbs. What can my viewer do? The more the better (example: Zoo project)
• Keep it fast.• Give feedback (example:
v1 Pieces of Herself)• Let player act and don’t tell
to much.• Don’t chastise your viewer
(e.g., “Wrong answer!”)• Make everything undoable
—they can try a different way and succeed.
(Cont’d)• Combine joyful play
(exploration) with competitive play (kill or be killed).
• Extremes don’t work: too boring, too intense
• Intensity does not necessarily mean richness (example, a ball is fun to play with as long as it’s going where it wants to go)
• Focus on process rather than facts (quizzes are deadly). Let people PLAY.
• What not to do: Math problems, quizzes, and meaningless puzzles that have to be solved to get to the next place or win.
• “Plan Your Future Park” in Gotham Gazette.First-person game used as a journalism storyabout public works and park development. Civic
Advertising
First-person narrative viral marketing game (promotes shopping and buying these toys)The Asylum: Psychiatric Clinic for Abused Cuddly Toys (e.g., see “Hippo”)
Interactivity in Learning
• Play is foundational to learning (interacting with material versus lectures)
• Interactivity engages the mind more profoundly than any other kind of expression (more than passive observation)
• The computer’s competitive advantage and artistic opportunity is this interactivity.
• Educational Games on the computer work for children under 10 (not advanced enough for older)
Bibliography
• The Art of Interactive Design: A Euphonious and Illuminating Guide to Building Successful Software by Chris Crawford, No Starch Press, 2002.
• First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game by Noah Wardrip-Fruin (Editor), Pat Harrigan (Editor), MIT Press, 2004.
Electronic Literature / Net Art
• To be thought-provoking
• To take us out of our everyday experience
• Political / Social Exploration
• Some of the same techniques
The Dream• I dreampt I saw you there
• my little one
• my precious child
• amongst the
• WOLF CRIES
• smoke and fire
• and as i opened my arms to call your name
• blackness overtook my vision
• mothers rage gripped me and
• as I reached to take you from that place
• the cameras flashed
• the sirens screamed
• and instead of lifting you out
• i pulled us all under
Where do you find it?
• Electronic Literature Organization(www.eliterature.org)
• Museums (e.g., Whitney Artport)
• Festivals (SIGGRAPH, ISEA, FILE)
• Web Sites (Rhizome.org)
• Lots more