Player Immersion

Player Immersion into our world, what makes it matter, and why its important.

Think of a book you've read (yes those ancient square bundles of paper bound together). When have you felt attached to the protagonist?

Did you feel sorry for them when a love one is killed, anger when they are betrayed, horror when they are nearly killed, and joy, or an epic feeling when they triumph over the bad?

This is the question that many of us ask ourselves. Most Game Designers are not writers, proof is in the games we see.

How many games have a great story? Great as in it stood alone compared to others.

If you are to sit down and picK apart any of the stories, you tend to notice a trend.

Your either in an Orwellian 1984'ish world, oppressed by the gov.
You're a lone person, betrayed by a friend/ally who kills your people/family/lover and go forth to avenge them.
Your a marine fighting for survival upon a deadly planet.

Stop me if this is feeling all to familiar.

A game that I will always present as a shining example of story and player integration is Deus Ex (least to me).

The game itself is only, ONLY a few days long in terms of in in-game time. To some of us it felt like weeks as we traveled the globe to uncover and stop the conspiracy that surrounded our character.

Does such a thing sell though?

Deus Ex became an underground hit first before blossoming out towards the gaming republic. Many other games try to create a story that pulls you in as well, Psychonauts, Thief, Bioshock, Half-Life, etc etc.

Only a few of these were truly truly successful in terms of marketing.

You may see it as an epic story, but a publisher merely sees money that may or may not be lost.

So lets begin with a few simple things first.

1)---> Its all history now.
First there was nothing, then there was light!

Or worlds take the same evolutionary path, the moment we think of it, its there, its alive, the world follows our rules.

As well this affects our character. Is her world technological? fantasy, apocalyptic?

Without the world, it makes it a little tougher to have a character. Because the world is what first affects the character.

If they grew up in an all magical town, would they be magical then? Or maybe just maybe, they would be the outcast for having no magic.

As they say, your world, your rules. Remember though, the same rules you apply to players, should be applied to everything else. I say "should" since there are story arcs that could involve the breaking of that worlds reality.

Players need a reason why reality is broken though, even something as simple as saying "its magic" can work. The more we want the player to know how and why something can be different, the more work is required in the story to explain it.

2)---> What makes a character tick

When building a character, what is the first thing you do? Do you write a background history, do you plot out their talents, ambitions, emotions?

I find creating a small personality map helps me. Generally a triangle, or diamond, with a trait placed upon each point.

/Faithful to his family \determined
\childish /impulsive
(Idea is credited to David Freeman)

this forms our character, he could be a child from the description, or a young adult, or even an old person.

Knowing what traits our character has helps us flesh out their history.

I suggest picking up a psychology book on human emotion and Trait Theory, not for all the babble, but for the list of traits that have been attached to people. (internet works also)

3)---> Emotion between characters

Jack and Aaron are guards who patrol a facility, they are willing to protect each other if necessary. This isn't so much love, as it his a friendship, a brotherhood of sorts.

Its why units of soldiers form a semi family with each other "Band of Brothers" as it were. They don't love each other but they care for each other, each one an important link to support the other.

When one character feels various emotions towards another they form something of a pyramid, or layers.

Jack is the new guy, he feels a sense of childishness, respect, and rebellion against the older veteran Aaron. Childishness because he's so new, respect because of Aaron's age and experience, rebellion because he may not want to agree with Aaron's traditional ways of guarding.

This helps build up our character emotions between one or more characters.

With these layers were better able to understand how our character would work with one other, or a group of others.

How would we explain love between two characters and still keep the players interest without losing them to boring dialog.

Show it in action, it doesn't require the two to slobber upon each others faces.
Maybe the girl who's a master thief sacrifices her chance to steal a rich diamond in order to come back and save you from a terrible fall into a pit.
Even the mere act of the girl shedding a tear as your being towed away to a show down with a boss shows emotion! She's worried, frightened, scared that you may never return, etc etc.

-!To be continued!-

But be happy to discuss and give your own character developing ideas!

 

I enjoy reading your insites dude!.... out of interest what do you do are you a writer?

 

I just do game design and simulation for the gov and military works. Anything from a simple animation to a full blown interactive e-learn media!

Course my heart is still with gaming!
I enjoy theory behind games, how they work and what makes them tick as well as giving others my thoughts and learning their views!

3D graphics is my biggest forte, writing comes second!

 

Wuthering Heights - Considered a classic of English literature. Didn't like any of the main characters. ditto Tess of the D'urbevilles. Gone with the Wind. Kagemusha. Could go on. Don't think that attachment is key to a great story, but when you are the main character that is different. It creates a challenge in games, to give that sense of attachment to the character while still catering to different personalities, and not falling back on stereotypical plots.

Big difference between what sells and what is good, and it's not the game designers fault. Do you buy a game because it has a great plot? Probably you don't know. Books have a much longer shelf life and are capable of being successful over a longer period of time. Games by virtue of changing technology may sell on the basis of more superficial aspects that people can get excited about up front, and be considered out of date by the time news of their amazing plot filters down.

By definition, not very many... or all.

 

Whew nice Alric, you pulled out a few big guns against me!

Yes an epic story doesn't always have the greatest of characters, least ones we connect to.

In Grand Theft Auto 4, does the player enjoy the utter brutality of blowing apart pedestrians and traffic, or the chores that put them through every day life. Does getting the phone call from your in game friends to join a party really make you feel like your immersed, or does it become a bothersome gnat buzzing you constantly.

As for what sells, to be honest a game designer can be at fault for making to big of a story with little interaction. (Xenosaga anyone! just joking!) But hey it can still sell right! As always its the target audeince that will buy your product!

Metal Gear Solid is another I'll pull out, its cut-scenes seem to multiply in length which each games sequel. Yet each sequel is anticipated by the fans. How is it people can enjoy a roller coaster that lets you get off to do something once in a while?

So then is it the name of the game that sells? Sometimes, it is!

Mario is still going strong, yet the plumber doesn't yet seem to have figured out his lesson! (Peach is having an affair come on!!!!!...joking)

As for great stories, I'll be honest, I think many of the games begin with truly epic stories but a few of their sequel titles lose that grip upon story telling, or the Devs notice that the gamers want more gun fights than they do dialog!

Thanks for some great incite Alric!

 

Two game examples that I enjoyed:

Neverwinter Nights 2 - The plot was very stereotypical and not especially well written. But I found the characters to be well written and I enjoyed the interactions. The main character did not have an explicit personality so you could fill in the gaps somewhat. As such I really enjoyed the story and felt a part of it. On the other hand a lot of the people found some of the characters really annoying, and much of it's popularity could be linked to the freeform D&D gameplay rather than the story elements.

Bioforge (going back a bit) - In this one there was very little character interaction as you were alone throughout the game. I didn't especially like the main character but sympathized with him. I found the story as you struggled to unfold it interesting and somewhat original. Behind it was an unremarkable point&click adventure/3D fighting game - but I thoroughly enjoyed it for one play through. It did not sell well.