tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23124984439884326802024-03-05T05:19:40.463-08:00Game EmpathyA place to explore ways games can encourage empathy in players--from design techniques and technologies to current news.Katherine Isbisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01174923937931854010noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312498443988432680.post-47869394504654375752010-11-16T11:32:00.001-08:002010-11-16T11:36:58.706-08:00Social Game Lab in wired.com<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1uXdcUCWIIYUmbBEeimzVozSABicBEc6FNeKshQjJJYNUtsE491JB-tisC1_Z7IFJmBSlUk2D324OhQq1GanrFuwTi8Xg6Kw_cfxpKF0Hpt7AR64A4x4NOJdFDKhvmQ2JBt2rCS86zE4/s1600/wired_crop.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 155px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1uXdcUCWIIYUmbBEeimzVozSABicBEc6FNeKshQjJJYNUtsE491JB-tisC1_Z7IFJmBSlUk2D324OhQq1GanrFuwTi8Xg6Kw_cfxpKF0Hpt7AR64A4x4NOJdFDKhvmQ2JBt2rCS86zE4/s320/wired_crop.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540233764062004002" /></a><br />My research home at NYU's Polytechnic Institute was featured today on the 'front cover' of Wired.com--very exciting!<br /><br />You can read the full article about our work on movement mechanics in games and how they create emotion and social connection--by following <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/wii-emotion/">this link to the full story</a>.Katherine Isbisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01174923937931854010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312498443988432680.post-36702610973788788222010-11-16T11:24:00.000-08:002010-11-16T11:31:23.383-08:00Future of game characters<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqBahAIi9hIIjucADdLb7kXhXfrMLlNhC-tjdEYDqd2OvxkjXjmEr53mkXAJDqPjL49Zyb5_vqQq9seyODMW6Q6mY4CTjv24dyUOM6qrxx9aEVPtgb4OnpqGlZEr5OKGNAG3EN08xWNMc/s1600/jesseuniteshoutout.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqBahAIi9hIIjucADdLb7kXhXfrMLlNhC-tjdEYDqd2OvxkjXjmEr53mkXAJDqPjL49Zyb5_vqQq9seyODMW6Q6mY4CTjv24dyUOM6qrxx9aEVPtgb4OnpqGlZEr5OKGNAG3EN08xWNMc/s320/jesseuniteshoutout.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540231895174881554" /></a><br /><br />Sad that I missed Jesse Schell's excellent talk on the future of game characters at this year's Unite conference in Montreal. You can <a href="http://gamepocalypsenow.blogspot.com/2010/11/future-of-virtual-characters.html">see the video here </a>(skip to minute six to go straight to Jesse). <br /><br />Definitely appreciate the shout-out that Jesse gave about my <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Better-Game-Characters-Design-Psychological/dp/1558609210/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289935818&sr=8-1">book on game character design</a> :) Thanks to Brian Winn of MSU for letting me know!Katherine Isbisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01174923937931854010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312498443988432680.post-50485380948754869342010-02-25T02:42:00.000-08:002010-02-25T07:50:56.933-08:00Blending the real and the virtual to create connectionJesse Schell gave a talk at DICE 2010 that has attracted quite a lot of attention:<br /><br /><object classId="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="480" height="418" id="VideoPlayerLg44277"><param name="movie" value="http://g4tv.com/lv3/44277" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed src="http://g4tv.com/lv3/44277" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" name="VideoPlayer" width="480" height="382" allowScriptAccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" /></embed></object><br><br /><br />The talk strikes a nerve for many, I think, because of its frank discussion of how things like Facebook have cause ripples in the game development community. And his disturbing day-in-the-life of a person embroiled in a sensor-enabled infinite set of point-collecting games that drive her behavior, even her dreams, is not to be missed. But I mention the talk here, because I think he makes some great points that get at what generates player empathy. <br><br /><br />In particular, two sets of examples. He discusses how Webkins was brilliant because it brings to life in digital form the imaginary animal that has always been a part of playing with stuffed animals for kids. And he points out a digital plant on the new Ford electric car dashboard, that flourishes to the extent that the driver saves gas. In both cases, the designer is forging a strong connection through the use of a digital being that responds to a person's actions in meaningful ways. And in both cases, the digital being is combined with relevance to real-world activities (playing with a favorite stuffed animal; driving responsibly). In my lab I've found that games which have player avatars tend to evoke more social exclamations and interactions among players who are playing in the same room. I believe avatars and characters are one of the fundamental innovations game designers have made in terms of generating powerful emotion in players, and Jesse highlights ways this innovation is making its way outside the realm of games and into applications that are meant to use emotion to create behavior change. <br><br /><br />Jesse also spends time talking about social networking games like Farmville and Mafia, and points out that a powerful reason these work is that they tie themselves deeply into our existing social networks, creating a game out of games we already have going on among us--who is 'the best', who takes care of whom and why... so the game leverages existing social connections to create a far stronger emotional resonance. In our lab we've been creating a series of experimental game prototypes that make conscious use of psychological research about what generates greater connection among people, with some very interesting initial results that echo the points he makes.<br><br /><br />It's great to see a prominent game designer and teacher taking up these fundamentally psychological approaches to understanding the transformation of what games are and how they function in our everyday lives, toward design innovation. I hope others are inspired to look more deeply into the psychological roots of powerful design choices to inform how they design and develop games.Katherine Isbisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01174923937931854010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312498443988432680.post-64329115364766188732010-02-17T12:03:00.001-08:002010-02-17T12:11:46.386-08:00When artists push buttonsIt's almost time for the Whitney Biennial here in NYC, and the main page for the show includes this intriguing gameplay interaction: <br><br /><embed src="http://blip.tv/play/hIwVgb%2BHHwI%2Em4v" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="330" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed>.<br /><br />Curator Carrion-Murayari is playing FIFA soccer with artist Ari Marcopoulos, who insists on a soundtrack of painful staticky noise for their play. The victor still stands up and shouts "Oh, yes!" when he scores a goal, but the viewing experience is nowhere near as uplifting and engaging and suspense building as the usual over-the-shoulder FIFA soccer viewing... <br /><br />In a way, Marcopoulous' intervention is removing a big chunk of the cinematic triggers for empathy in the gaming experience, leaving the triggers embedded in the gameplay itself (as well as, of course, the visuals). I wonder if it affects the over-the-shoulder experience far more than the play experience, based on their behavior, and I wonder if this somehow confirms the ruminations of game scholars like Jesper Juul, on the relative unimportance of the trappings for the senses that frame the core mechanics. Or perhaps the unpleasant noise creates some kind of physical tension in the players that in a weird way, enhances the build-up to the goal. <br /><br />This is why I sometimes feel that artists are the ultimate empiricists, putting social scientists in the dust, in the way they poke at key questions about experience.Katherine Isbisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01174923937931854010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312498443988432680.post-56244848617694318932010-01-07T08:48:00.000-08:002010-01-07T09:00:54.929-08:00The Darker Side of Social ConnectionI loved Jamin Brophy-Warren's <a href="http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/01/02/jamin-brophy-warren-et-tu-mario.aspx">piece on the perils of co-op play</a>. He talks about how his brother was always the aggressive, pesky, pain-in-the-neck player out for himself whenever they'd team up to play a game, and how he experienced this same behavior at E3 when trying out the new Super Mario Bros. Wii game's co-op play on the show floor. <br /><br />As a researcher and designer, I tend to dwell in a utopian vision of providing opportunities for people to co-create really cool and connecting experiences, and often underestimate the little devil in each of us that is in fact cultivated in the gamer ethos of competition and boundary exploration. <br /><br />The nicest people can take a turn for the worse when they play a game. I summarily refuse to play chess or Risk with my husband for this reason. But a little rough-housing and aggressive 'out-for-me' behavior can add spice to the experience. Our lab's game Wriggle! for example, seems to inspire friendly physical jostling for advantage,<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7h1umC0o4w"> even among lab members</a>.<br /><br />It's an interesting aspect of game design--creating fun co-op play, while anticipating (and maybe trying to ward off the least fun variants of) aggressive and undermining behavior.Katherine Isbisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01174923937931854010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312498443988432680.post-6129075187666488912009-08-18T09:57:00.000-07:002009-08-18T10:45:36.178-07:00Beetles: Rock Band--Music and Empathy<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/08/11/magazine/16beatles.7.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 600px; height: 338px;" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/08/11/magazine/16beatles.7.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />The New York Times magazine has <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/magazine/16beatles-t.html">one of the most thoughtful and insightful pieces of game reporting I've seen in a long time</a>, about Beetles: Rock Band. What was striking for me was the articulation by both the makers of the game, and by band members and their loved ones, of the deep appeal of performing/embodying the music making, and the great potential for turning music back into an active, performative, joyful part of everyday peoples' lives, as it was before the great era of recording. To quote the article directly: <blockquote>"'When you need to move your body in synchrony with the music in specific ways, it connects you with the music in a deeper way than when you are just listening to it,' Rigopulos went on to say. Paul McCartney said much the same thing when I spoke with him in June. 'That’s what you want,' he told me. 'You want people to get engaged.' McCartney sees the game as 'a natural, modern extension” of what the Beatles did in the ’60s, only now people can feel as if “they possess or own the song, that they’ve been in it.' “</blockquote><br />Or as Yoko Ono said in the piece: “It’s like dancing,” she said, or even “a very strong active meditation.”<br /><br />This reminded me <a href="http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4064/persuasive_games_gestures_as_.php">a column Ian Bogost wrote for Gamasutra recently</a> that dealt with the use of gesture and movement in games, in particular his comment that 'gestures, be they transitive or intransitive, direct or indirect, can also alter an actor's own thoughts or feelings about the world or himself. These sensations can be complex, and they can evolve.'<br /><br />Interestingly, the core emotional feel of the game is a departure from the typical frustration/fiero cycle that Nicole Lazzaro <a href="http://www.xeodesign.com/whyweplaygames.html">describes in her research</a>--as Harmonix's Alex Rigopulos says in the article: “It is subtle, and it is sweet, and it is very embracing. This game isn’t about winning. That’s generally not done in big mainstream games.” <br /><br />The reporter notes that the game isn't so much about competition, but is quite cooperative. Perhaps the musical performance paradigm is helping to drive a profound shift even from the AAA mass market side in the kinds of emotional experiences that games aim to provide to players. As Jenova Chen said in his <a href="http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24442">Develop 2009 talk</a>, "Sometimes hard fun is your enemy," said Chen, "but it’s too easy to try and make a hard, fun game, as it’s almost all we know."Katherine Isbisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01174923937931854010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312498443988432680.post-47939095465031525732009-07-08T04:14:00.000-07:002009-07-08T04:43:13.459-07:00Muto--haunting graffiti beings<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8jSktPwy-VIhbuOfuOzUM03rZ0RJTWlzkR3_4zrYp7gYZL8iI7f6Oe23tnEAltr6_Frpm6qtIa-Fj1P937K4De88mwOvXIDZXbK8TyhAcyT8WsX0sTGIzCLiOmh7Xl4MyxfmN4EUog5w/s1600-h/muto01.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 164px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8jSktPwy-VIhbuOfuOzUM03rZ0RJTWlzkR3_4zrYp7gYZL8iI7f6Oe23tnEAltr6_Frpm6qtIa-Fj1P937K4De88mwOvXIDZXbK8TyhAcyT8WsX0sTGIzCLiOmh7Xl4MyxfmN4EUog5w/s320/muto01.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356048618727997122" /></a><br />I visited the Bremen <a href="http://www.weserburg.de/">Weserburg Museum</a> yesterday, where I saw an exhibition called Urban Art. By far my favorite piece there was a video which was of graffiti that had been done on walls around Buenos Aires and Baden by an artist called 'Blu'. The figures transform, engulf one another, shatter, and otherwise crawl, scamper and squat against the walls of an urban landscape of decay and other graffiti. <br /><br />You can see the video <a href="http://www.blublu.org/sito/video/muto.htm">here</a>. The artist's work is lovely but also deeply disturbing. My daughter watched it and got very frightened (she is 2 1/2). This surprised me (I wouldn't knowingly frighten her) and in thinking it over, it seems to me that Blu provides a very bleak and disturbing vision of human nature. His figures are lonely and do not have much emotion--they are blank, hungry, scrabbling things. I find them beautiful but I cannot connect to them except as the mirror of a form of despair and isolation and blankness.<br /><br />What I especially love about them is the way they move through the landscape, magically, occasionally kicking over something in their way that is 'real'. It feels as though they would not register my presence at all, but would simply dance over me, leaving a white trail of paint, if I stood in the way.Katherine Isbisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01174923937931854010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312498443988432680.post-81772903390563030862008-12-02T07:09:00.001-08:002008-12-02T07:17:17.972-08:00Body Swapping and EmpathyThere was an intriguing <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/health/02mind.html">article in the New York Times</a> today about a Swedish research team that has been doing experiments with giving people the illusion of swapping bodies with someone else: <br /><br />"The technique is simple. A subject stands or sits opposite the scientist, as if engaged in an interview. Both are wearing headsets, with special goggles, the scientist’s containing small film cameras. The goggles are rigged so the subject sees what the scientist sees: to the right and left are the scientist’s arms, and below is the scientist’s body.<br /><br />To add a physical element, the researchers have each person squeeze the other’s hand, as if in a handshake. Now the subject can see and “feel” the new body. In a matter of seconds, the illusion is complete. In a series of studies, using mannequins and stroking both bodies’ bellies simultaneously, the Karolinska researchers have found that men and women say they not only feel they have taken on the new body, but also unconsciously cringe when it is poked or threatened."<br /><br />While they caution that people who are already mentally disturbed might be harmed by trying this out, they also point out that this is a very powerful way for someone to take another's perspective, and perhaps gain some insight.<br /><br />It's a fascinating validation of what we already see happening in video games. Players project themselves into their avatars, seeing through their eyes in the game world and taking actions within the physical constraints of this 'borrowed' body, reacting intuitively to what happens to their character as gameplay unfolds. It suggests that, once games have more powerful and nuanced social interactions built into them, we have an extremely powerful empathy generating medium on our hands.Katherine Isbisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01174923937931854010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312498443988432680.post-4218013479794618392008-11-24T08:46:00.000-08:002008-11-24T09:03:28.090-08:00Montreal International Game Summit 2008Just got back from this year's <a href="http://www.sijm.ca/2008/en">Game Summit in Montreal</a>. I gave a talk there based upon my recent edited book: <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Game-Usability-Advancing-Player-Experience/dp/0123744474/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227545384&sr=8-1">Game Usability: Advice from the Experts for Advancing the Player Experience</a></span>, and also hosted a roundtable on the theme of usability and games. The conference was well attended and there were some terrific talks--<a href="http://www.realitypanic.com/archives/382">Jason Della Rocca has photos and a bit of a summary up on his website</a>.<br /><br />During some downtime in the speakers lounge, I ended up talking with a fellow speaker, a notable game developer who I guess I'll protect by not naming, and we were discussing how fun it would be to play a game in which you could pit sumo wrestlers against one another who had the personalities and fighting styles of large corporations. You know, a head-to-head of say, Disney versus Verizon? Or maybe Microsoft versus Google? Where each is a personified, bouncing, ducking and weaving, maybe even 'diaper' wearing character. It could be cathartic to win an epic battle against a company who has frustrated you day in and day out. And fun to see the qualities that you've experienced in the corporate atmosphere of a place where you work, wrought into human form. <br /><br />Maybe I should try to convince <a href="http://www.bogost.com/blog/">Ian Bogost</a> to mock such a thing up. Who knows, maybe he already has?<br /><br />I guess this is the opposite of empathy, in a way, but it certainly speaks to strong emotional experience through characters.Katherine Isbisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01174923937931854010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312498443988432680.post-66016668971439509132008-11-04T11:20:00.000-08:002008-11-04T11:31:02.027-08:00Videogames and your soulNow that I'm settled in at NYU-Poly, I'm going to renew my efforts to post regularly on this blog. At the moment I've been doing a lot of reading about games and learning, because I'm part of the newly formed NYU Games for Learning Institute (visit <a href="http://research.microsoft.com/ur/us/gamesinstitute.aspx">here</a> for a description by the Institute's funders, Microsoft). <br /><br />So far my favorite book about the topic, is James Gee's book <span style="font-style:italic;">Why Video Games are Good for your Soul</span>. It came out in 2005. In it he really is able to put his finger on what makes gaming such a compelling experience for the player. I particularly like how he brings empathy into the picture. He talks about how physicists and other specialists learn to project themselves bodily into a complex model or system, in order to really get a feel for it and make progress in their ideas. He calls this 'embodied empathy for a complex system'. He feels that fusing with a game character through playing that character, is the same kind of process. He points out that good games always do this for players, and often end up teaching them complex things as a result (e.g. he has a rant on Deus Ex: Invisible War and how it allows the player to explore what it might mean to have a world in which abilities can be purchased systemically--e.g. parents buying smarts for their kids). <br /><br />Gee does a great job expressing the general feel of this kind of empathy, and its power, through tracking on several particular games and examples from them. <br /><br />I'm excited to use this book to ground some of my own design-based explorations of how specific choices impact player experience and empathy!Katherine Isbisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01174923937931854010noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312498443988432680.post-14442920525747899602008-02-25T21:42:00.000-08:002008-03-01T06:36:48.850-08:00The Real Story on Characters and Emotion: Taking it 'to the Streets'!Our presentation at GDC 08 went well! I know a lot of people were interested in seeing the slides and poster again or even peeking at the data themselves, so I've put everything live.<br /><ul><li><a href="http://rpi.edu/%7Enolanc3/GDCpresentation_finalKI.ppt.zip">Slides</a></li><li><a href="http://rpi.edu/%7Enolanc3/poster.pdf">Poster</a></li><li><a href="http://rpi.edu/%7Enolanc3/HTMLResponses/index.html">Data</a></li></ul>We got some interesting feedback as well! I'll just summarize some of the top responses:<br /><br />- Culture plays a big role in feedback. What makes the King of All Cosmos (Katamari Damacy) an amusing character here isn't the same in Japan, where he's funny for other reasons. The culture in our survey was mostly American/Canadian/European, which means of course that we are overlooking a big part of the market.<br /><br />- Almost all named responses were humans or humanoid characters. There were very few animals or pets, except in the favorite allies question where characters like pokemon and pikmin came up a few times. Expected, but an interesting analysis nonetheless.<br /><br />- Someone during the session asked about heroes vs. antiheroes, and which players felt more of a relation to. Looking back through the data, it actually seems the ratio was about even. My speculation here is some liked heroes for their positive, idealistic qualities, while others found the antiheroes more complex and real. I didn't check to see if this correlated with any demographics (age, genre, etc)... but the good news is, the data will be live as soon as I make this post =)<br /><br />Our next big topic of research is player-created avatars and player-generated stories. Check back with us soon for an overview and a survey link! =)<br /><br />This is Corey, signing off.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312498443988432680.post-52880252508851496502007-07-19T02:08:00.000-07:002007-07-19T02:32:52.096-07:00Cultural differences and touchOur family booked a train trip to see my husband's family in Bremen, and he was complaining about how crowded the train will be... this brought back memories for me of riding the trains in Japan. I remember one rush hour trip between Kyoto and Osaka where there really were men with white gloves shoving us all onto the train, similar to what you can see in this photo: <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/targets/images/pho/t028/T028954A.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/targets/images/pho/t028/T028954A.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />We were so densely packed that there was no way to hold a hand rail. Instead you were held up by other bodies all around you. You had to sort of wriggle your way to the train doors one stop ahead of where you needed to get off the train. The experience was extremely overwhelming to me, as someone used to US notions of how crowded in it's acceptable to be. <br /><br />Wikipedia actually has an entry describing cultural differences in notions about how close we can get, which is termed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spatial_empathy">'spatial empathy'</a>. The idea being that in some cultures there's a notion that a person 'owns' a certain amount of space around him/herself, and others should not enter it. It's quite shocking to suddenly be pressed against strangers in a train if one is operating under these notions!<br /><br />Considering the space between people, and how it influences emotion, is hard enough when designing characters in a game for one cultural market. After all, there is a whole research field (proxemics) devoted to the understanding of interpersonal distance. <br /><br />There are some games that have explored proxemics in interesting ways (remember Ico's hand-holding game mechanic?), but designers have barely scratched the surface of the possibility space. <br /><br />When I'm supervising Ph.D. students, I tell them that the moment they realize how little they know and get a bit depressed is the moment when they've just started to become good at what they do. I think this may also be true for game designers hoping to create true empathy in games. There are so many facets to the experience to be mastered. It can feel overwhelming, but it is a worthy goal that is achievable...Katherine Isbisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01174923937931854010noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312498443988432680.post-83319555199812077792007-07-13T06:42:00.000-07:002007-07-13T06:56:34.373-07:00Building a canon of empathy examplesThis week's entry is really a pointer over to Grand Text Auto, where <a href="http://grandtextauto.gatech.edu/2007/07/11/lessons-of-indigo-prophesy-part-1/#more-1545">Noah made a great post</a> on the merits of <a href="http://www.mobygames.com/game/ps2/indigo-prophecy">Indigo Prophecy</a>, a 2005 release for the Play Station 2. <br /><br />Noah, and some of his respondents, discuss play mechanisms like the timed dialog choices and the forced switching of point of view between the murderer and the investigators, and the impact these design choices had upon their experience. <br /><br />In my classes on character design, I have students play through games that are known to have really well executed characters. I gather these examples informally by asking developers and players what they've seen and appreciated. But I think it would be great to have a more systematic and broader collection of examples. Something like Indigo Prophecy had some issues, but also had some very interesting innovations. All too often all the pieces don't come together for a game and yet there are some valuable insights for designers. <br /><br />We got at some of this at my round table at GDC this year, and hopefully Corey's survey (that I blogged about last week) will gather some additional helpful input. But a taxonomy of interesting techniques is yet another needed resource. <br /><br />Anyone out there know of such a thing? If not, maybe I should create one here...Katherine Isbisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01174923937931854010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312498443988432680.post-73664407382439498922007-07-04T02:45:00.000-07:002007-07-04T02:56:23.847-07:00Answer a few good questions?Corey (my undergraduate research assistant) and I have finally gotten together the survey that was discussed at GDC this year, about game characters and emotion. If you have a moment, <a href="http://128.113.106.142/BGCWelcome.htm">would you answer a few good questions?</a><br /><br />We'll share the results on this blog, so you'll be contributing helpful information to larger game development/research community.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/01/fashion/01vide600.1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/01/fashion/01vide600.1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />And when you're done with that, you might find <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/fashion/01video.html?_r=1&ref=fashion&pagewanted=all">this recent NY Times article</a> interesting--it's a meditation on how fashion and game avatar customization intersect. They quoted me as saying that competition could enhance men's fashion sense, which I'm not sure I really did say, or if I did, that I really did mean. But it is certainly interesting to consider how a player's identity and habits shift and meld with his or her in-game choices...Katherine Isbisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01174923937931854010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312498443988432680.post-48396111707878520162007-06-28T01:41:00.001-07:002007-06-29T01:18:46.231-07:00Ich bin ein BerlinerThis month and next I'm staying in Berlin, which, besides being a bustling, fascinating and very international city, also seems to have a stealthily growing games scene. <br /><br />Last week I gave two talks here based upon <a href="http://friendlymedia.sbrl.rpi.edu/bettergamecharacters/">my book</a>--one at the <a href="http://www.games-academy.de/?id=ga-en">Games Academy</a> for the <a href="http://www.games-academy.de/IGDA/index.php">local chapter of the IGDA</a>, and one at <a href="http://www.yager.de/">Yager Development</a>, which was hosting the annual meeting of the German Game Developers Guild. <br /><br />The Games Academy has been in business since 2000, and seems to be thriving. They recently added a new degree focus on <a href="http://www.games-academy.de/index.php?id=prod0">Game Producing</a>, something that RPI's panel of experts on <a href="http://www.gsas.rpi.edu/">our own undergraduate degree</a> development spoke of as an educational gap, now that game projects are so huge and complex. <br /><br />The IGDA talk was well attended, and the audience had many great questions and thoughts about game characters and emotions. <br /><br />The next day's talk at the Game Developers Guild meeting was actually part of a 5-hour workshop among experienced designers/developers from all around Germany. After I spoke, the group discussed their own issues and insights around characters and emotion--from designing interesting and non-repetitive interactions with merchants in a big open-ended game world, to strategies for offering character customization in a classic RPG, to how to make a character feel alive and emotionally engaging in a point and click style adventure game while the player is mulling over what to do next. The common theme among all these dilemmas was how to handle limited resources to deliver emotional punch along with great game mechanics and all the other things that players expect. It seemed that everyone there benefited from the shared brainstorming, and I was impressed that the developer community here manages to find the time and to be open enough to share dilemmas and pool their insights. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmVRXzEcTegfniFYDEiLTNqoZZAMgMMuKovyzaiOM7pk1m6mq3qjtB-fpSBM5PRYXzpAMRrcqQmoEoTejy9j4NfMfseccbL10KNXx4CdvyQ6-sE8gREff3nsepqFX5SC4AM4cqMJf5hhE/s1600-h/uweandgun.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmVRXzEcTegfniFYDEiLTNqoZZAMgMMuKovyzaiOM7pk1m6mq3qjtB-fpSBM5PRYXzpAMRrcqQmoEoTejy9j4NfMfseccbL10KNXx4CdvyQ6-sE8gREff3nsepqFX5SC4AM4cqMJf5hhE/s320/uweandgun.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5081040389796312210" /></a><br />Several people had traveled quite a distance to be there, and were happy when the meeting adjourned to a local cafe/pub on a floating dock in a canal near the studio. Before we left, Uwe Beneke, one of Yager's founders and my gracious host at both events, brandished a full-size mock-up of a weapon that his art director constructed for their new game. It was huge and heavy, and could even be reloaded, after a fashion. They are using it for mocap for one of their games, to add a level of realism to the movement of the characters. Yet another of all the myriad details that go into making a game feel emotionally real...Katherine Isbisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01174923937931854010noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312498443988432680.post-2238398310935259382007-06-19T01:46:00.001-07:002007-06-19T02:35:08.410-07:00Empathy and identity<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/06/15/magazine/ava6.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/06/15/magazine/ava6.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />The June 17 <span style="font-style:italic;">New York Times Magazine</span> has a fascinating set of photos, showing players and their in-game avatars side by side.<br /><br />In some cases (as with the photos above), the avatar seems to exude a heightened version of the person's own fantasy characteristics. In others, for example this one:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/06/15/magazine/ava14.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/06/15/magazine/ava14.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />the avatar is quite different from the player at first glance... <br /><br />What drives people in their choices, when they have a wide range of options in crafting their in-game persona? How do we choose a social 'face' (in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Presentation_of_Self_in_Everyday_Life">Goffman sense</a>) in-game? These are important questions for game researchers that have increasing implications for game designers as the palette of player choices expands. <br /><br />Game designers have a chance now to do something that movie directors and novelists cannot--offering players a deeper fusion of the real and the fantasy worlds through the vessel of the player character. I can look different, I can act different, and I can be treated differently, moment-to-moment. As I play this alternate version of myself, I am experiencing my social self and my connections to others in ways I might never have access to in the 'real world'. <br /><br />A very powerful way to explore empathy.Katherine Isbisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01174923937931854010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312498443988432680.post-33215401741160748802007-06-12T00:34:00.000-07:002007-06-12T01:03:49.032-07:00Empathy and the body"Two women are walking over a bridge. One is afraid of heights, so her heart pounds and her hands tremble. The other is not afraid at all. On the other side of the bridge, they encounter a man. Which of the two women is more likely to believe that she has just met the man of her dreams?" This is an example from <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/316/5827/1002">a recent <span style="font-style:italic;">Science</span> magazine article on Embodying Emotion</a>. The author, Paula Niedenthal, explains that our prior physiological state gets intertwined with how we feel about experiences and about other people. She talks about ways that psychologists have demonstrated that changing how a person sits (slumping or sitting straight), or moves her face muscles (as if frowning or smiling), has a definite impact on the way the person feels afterward about whatever she's been doing. <br /><br />A game designer who wants to create really powerful emotions between a player and a character, then, should aim to get the player's body in the right emotional 'frame of mind' to connect in the right way... and should also think about unintended combinations (e.g. I meet a character I'm supposed to fall in love with after a relatively boring bit of game play). It's something that movie makers do all the time... what I like about this article is that it provides some of the 'why' behind how this works. <br /><br />With new ways of sensing player emotion (remember the Mindball game from Sweden? It now seems to be <a href="http://www.bio-medical.com/product_info.cfm?inventory__imodel=mindball&gclid=COP6hreO1owCFSWQGgodwnCbtg">a product</a>.), and ways to get player's bodies going (like the Wiimote), the possibility space is growing all the time. We just have to learn to use emotion state as a design constraint in a conscious way.Katherine Isbisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01174923937931854010noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312498443988432680.post-10111103536153333042007-06-06T06:08:00.001-07:002007-06-06T06:50:39.574-07:00Philip K Dick and EmpathyRecently got <a href="http://www.loa.org/volume.jsp?RequestID=252">a really wonderful Library of America edition of four Philip K Dick novels</a> which included 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.' In rereading it, I realized that the novel is in some ways a meditation on empathy. For whom one should feel it and why, and how technology plays into human nature in this arena. <br /><br />In the book, there is a religion called Mercerism. You hold onto handles on a black box and are suddenly climbing a hill as an old man, who is being attacked with rocks as he struggles to make it to the top. You can feel everyone else who is also holding the box at that moment, and thus you share the struggle and feel somehow less alone. It can be dangerous though, as you can actually be wounded by the rocks and step away from the box with cuts and bruises. <br /><br />There is also an endlessly running TV talk show in the book, hosted by a man(?) named Buster Friendly, who natters along cheerfully with guests who visit over and over again. They make the same old jokes and fulfill the sort of function of late night tv or early morning talk radio. Characters in the novel feel much less lonely with Buster's show running, but also feel annoyed by it. <br /><br />Finally, there is a machine that allows characters to 'dial up' a mood for themselves. The main character, Deckard the detective, gets into an argument with his wife as to why she has dialed herself a depressed mood, early in the novel. <br /><br />It struck me that all of these ways that Dick envisioned how machines could intervene in our emotions offer food for thought for game designers. Are we designing ways for people to viscerally share experiences of a shared world through avatars, like Mercerism? Are we providing distracting pseudo-company, like Buster Friendly? Are we giving people a way to modulate their mood for themselves, in both helpful and potentially not so helpful ways? <br /><br />I'm sure there are other excellent sci fi novels out there that provide inspiration and useful metaphor for thinking about games and empathy... would be great to collect a set of references for the game community.Katherine Isbisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01174923937931854010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312498443988432680.post-44733391146309714672007-03-16T08:31:00.000-07:002007-03-20T09:06:50.321-07:00GDC roundtable summaryAs promised, here is a summary of the notes I took at the GDC roundtable on emotion and characters. <br />Let me know if I missed anything (my laptop battery died toward the very end, and sometimes the conversation was flowing faster than I could type)...<br /><br />Who was there:<br />Looked like ~30-40 people, and was a good range of types--writers, developers, artists, creative directors, researchers/academics, students, working on a wide range of game experiences from educational to arcade to AAA titles. <br /><br />Some general points made about emotion and characters: <br />- Emotion can't just be a 'bullet point feature', to work well, it needs to be integrated into the core of game play and the overall experience. <br />- It doesn't necessarily take high realism (most agreed--some lively conversation here). <br />- It does take consistent and frequent emotional feedback to the player. <br />- Timing and use of space seem really important to creating emotion--you can see a drama between a circle and a triangle and if they move around in the right ways you'll feel tragedy or love or the like. <br />- A feeling of responsibilty and consequence seems key, and not often very present in many games. <br />- It's risky to try to develop new emotional experiences, but risk has benefits (e.g. Miyamoto's keynote). One idea was to design 20-hour games for more casual gamers; another is hoping to infuse arcade games with new emotional dynamics for players. <br />- Emotions can be very personal to players (e.g. some loved ICO, some found it an annoying and endless escort mission). Is there a way to design multiple experiences and allow players to modulate through play style? to uncover player emotional preferences in some graceful way early on to allow for different experiences? <br />- Most people's powerful emotional moments with characters revolved around dying. We discussed why that was (tied to consequence and responsibility) and that led to flushing out some examples that didn't fit this mold (see the examples below). <br />- We talked a bit about what kinds of emotions are in games today. One person said fear, another countered 'fiyero'. Another mentioned the lack of romance in games. Revenge came up, and the feeling of joy at rescuing trapped characters. Seems worth asking further: what sorts of emotions are desirable and possible? <br /><br />About player characters/avatars:<br />- creating resonance between the player and this character seems to be a powerful guiding principle here--from moment-to-moment to a high level feeling of moral responsibility... that I end up twitching the controller when something scary or surprising happens to my character; that when my character makes an evil choice (e.g. KoTOR assigning a character to kill another in cold blood) I feel responsible, and like I 'turned to the dark side'. Rather than relying on the backstory and cut scenes to carry the emotional weight. <br />- helpful to create traces of the player's movement through the game space that help to reveal his/her emotions to others playing (e.g. WoW, one can see a player's hesitation at entering a chaotic situation through the fits and starts of the player character's movements on-screen). <br />- creating a feeling of consequence and responsibility (as mentioned above) through possible actions for the player is a path to emotion. <br />- the debate between relatively blank and deep back-story player characters was discussed a bit, without a clear preference in terms of creating emotion. some suggested offering multiple paths (e.g. the KoTOR good/evil split) that were more nuanced and involved, and linked to different modes of play with different emotional tonality. <br /><br />About NPCS:<br />- as with player character, the most powerful feelings are evoked through using game play to generate emotion. relying on a character, being thwarted by a character... <br />- NPCs are much less like 'pez dispensers' or 'mister men' (mister happy, mister grumpy, etc) if they have overlapping motivations and actions rather than just one per NPC. this adds emotional complexity and power to player interactions with them. <br />- controlling the space was mentioned as a way for NPCs to create emotional reactions in players (like being really in your face, or not)<br />- there was discussion about how much backstory to build in for players--some thought it added depth and emotional potential, others were cautious about overloading with story. <br />- procedural animation was seen as a tool to create more real feeling and reactive NPCS<br />- adding 'dirty organic noise' to AI tactics for NPCs was also seen as a powerful way to add emotional richness (randomness can be good sometimes because we interpret it in unexpected and rich ways)<br /><br />Examples of powerful emotional experiences with game characters:<br />- Aeris in FF VII and Floyd from Planetfall (mentioned in the lecture). One participant noted though that the Aeris example was frustrating as a player because in game play he could have easily brought her back to life, so it didn't really ring true. This was part of the theme among the group about the importance of melding game play and story well for players. <br />- Hotel Dusk was mentioned as an example of a game in which you can see your character reacting to others on screen in a way that helps build emotion. <br />- Sly Cooper: Thievious Raccoonus were mentioned as examples of a game that creates a powerful moment-to-moment experience of connection and consequence between the player and his/her avatar, because of the ways that Sly reacts to noises and elements in the environment. <br />- Salvatore in GTA 3 was mentioned as an example of a powerful feeling of betrayal on the part of the player, and a nice combination of game play and story to create an emotional impact. <br />- Gears of War's reload feature--where if you don't press the button right you load slower and the character gets frustrated just like you are, creates a feeling of synergy for the player with the player character. <br />- Army of Two's AI that travels with you does more than cycle through idle animations, but reacts to what's happening in game play. <br />- In Beyond Good and Evil, one player mentioned how he felt Jade's loss of will much more powerfully after he 'betrayed' the lighthouse and orphans by not going there through about 6 hours of real game play time. He felt guilty for not having been back there--for getting immersed in the conspiracy. <br />- KoTOR--several people mentioned how they tried to play through evil and couldn't do it; especially the part where you cold-bloodedly assign a character to kill another. One person said it was the best game play translation of 'turning to the dark side'<br />- A player mentioned how fun it was to steal other people's stuff in Ultima Online<br />- Ron Humboldt's experimental game (from EGW at GDC) "the marriage" was mentioned as an interesting attempt to create a very different emotional play experience. <br /><br />Examples of not so powerful emotional experiences with game characters: <br />- Silent Hill--how it totally broke your feeling of involvement when the characters didn't respond to scary things. <br /><br /><br />Next steps as a result of the roundtable:<br />I plan to...<br />- Set up a place to post about helpful tools and resources for creating emotional characters<br />- Set up a place to contribute stories about people's most powerful emotional experience with a character in a game. <br />- Use the latter to do some follow-up analysis of what's going on 'under the hood' from a psychological point of view based upon the stories people share.<br />- Will probably do a follow up post on what kinds of emotions people think games should aim for, and why, and ask for feedback about this... <br /><br />Thanks to everyone who made it and contributed to a great discussion!<br /><br />KatherineKatherine Isbisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01174923937931854010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312498443988432680.post-55821845310075982142007-03-14T08:47:00.000-07:002007-03-14T08:49:35.591-07:00WelcomeThanks for stopping by--this blog is meant to serve the game developer and research community as a forum for discussing how to bring stronger emotions and empathy into game design and into the player experience. <br /><br />I'll be posting regularly about empathy in games and related issues, and am seeking other interested contributors.Katherine Isbisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01174923937931854010noreply@blogger.com