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Understand Methods of Control and Forms of Feedback in GamesAssignment 2Dermot StrainCONTENTSINTRODUCTIONSECTION 1 – FORMS OF FEEDBACKSECTION 2 – INFORMATION COMMUNICATIONSECTION 3 – USER PSYCHOLOGYSECTION 4 – CONTROL METHOD DESIGNIntroduction With HCI in video games the feedback we get as players from the games we play is very important, whether it is received visually or through sounds, it gives players a more immersive and realistic experience when they play. Hearing sounds when a gun is shot and seeing an enemy fall down and die when you shoot them enough times is a vital part of ensuring that the video game stays realistic to how things work in real life. Developers have to take into account the audiences’ memory also, as it will make for a better game if developers add features that people are familiar with, such as familiar control schemes that they have used before or certain iconic colours that they have seen before. Adding these familiarities to video games makes the playing experience less confusing and easier to learn because players have experienced them before. In this article I will discuss these different aspects of the players’ experiences with video games; from what they see, what they hear and what they remember. Section 1 - Forms of FeedbackVisualIconic4629150236537500Video games have adopted many iconic colour schemes for certain actions and objects in the games themselves, for example, the screen typically flashes red in most video games to show that you’re being attacked or shot at or about to die, this lets the player know to take cover or heal and so on. Also the Red Cross sign has become very iconic as a notification to the player that the object is a health kit to heal your character with, although sometimes the health kit could be green, both of those colours are associated with first aid and players have familiarised themselves with this because it is used in so many video games and looks the same in pretty much every game. Icons help me as a player to understand and get used to what certain items and their colours represent, I, like many other players, have come to understand that any green or red coloured object with the cross symbol on it (as shown in the picture to the below) means that it is a health kit. It is a good idea used by many development companies to make the health pack in their games always distinctive by its look and colour; players have gotten so used to this now so it would not make sense to ever change it. In the image to the right we can see that green is one of the examples of the iconic colours used for health kits in games, when players see this object they will know exactly what it will do when it is picked up and used.Image reference: Colour PsychologyThe use of colour in games is very effective as notifications for the player. Players have come to learn that the colour RED means danger or blood, meaning that there are enemies nearby or the character is being attacked or almost about to die; this urges the player to either fight back and win (if they are able to) or to find some form of cover (or a temporary safe spot) until their health regenerates or to use a health kit, then when the character’s health has been raised to a certain amount, the player can have a better chance of defeating or killing the enemies. This is mostly seen in any game that uses combat with guns but is most popularly known and used in shooters such as ‘Call of Duty’. 3714750134429500The colour GREEN typically means safety, usually meaning the character has defeated all enemies and they are once again safe from danger, for now. The colour green is sometimes used as the colour of health kits in games, which also represents safety because health kits increase the character’s health, making them safer and harder for the enemies to kill. It is useful to think of red and green colours in video games as traffic lights, red meaning stop and green meaning go, this can relate to video games because with traffic lights when there is a red light that means not to proceed further because of danger and the green light means it is safe to travel forward, this is similar although not identical to how these colours are used in video games.In the image to the right we can see that red marks show up on the screen, this means that the player is getting shot at and damaged by the enemies.Image reference: Camera Techniques (Foreshadowing, Reveal and Lighting effects)Foreshadowing Foreshadowing is a good technique to give some backstory to the game character and can show what events are to come or what the character will become later in the game or film or TV show and so on, this technique becomes more obvious when “2 years later” or “2 years ago” (or whichever number is used) is shown as a transition on the screen. A good example of this is in the video game ‘The Last of Us’ as the game starts off in the past and gives some backstory into the protagonist’s life and then after a certain emotional event 387921554800500happens, the game transitions into the future and shows the protagonist being much older than he was before the transition, also the emotional event which happens to the protagonist in the past is brought into the light later in the game, so this is a good example of foreshadowing. Another example of foreshadowing (but is less related to video games) is the backstory of ‘Batman’ because when Bruce Wayne’s parents were killed when he was a young boy, it gave him a big reason to become Batman and he did that because he wanted to stop all the villains in Gotham from causing harm to anyone else. So Bruce Wayne’s parents’ death foreshadowed him becoming ‘Batman’. The image above describes the foreshadowing of ‘Bruce Wayne’ becoming ‘Batman’. Image reference: 388112020447000RevealThis describes how the camera moves to direct the player’s attention to a certain thing and at that point the camera reveals a character or a location and so on. An example of this is in the video game series ‘Gears of War’ when an important event is happening or when a character or location is being shown, the player will have the option to hit the ‘Y’ button on the Xbox 360 controller and when it is pressed, the camera will then zoom in and focus to that specific spot to reveal what is happening in the landscape around the player. Image reference: Lighting Effects Lighting effects add realism to video games, for example when a flashlight (or any other light source) is being shone through a window, you would clearly be able to see the projection of it through the window or seeing rays of sunlight shining through a window with blinds partially open, or through a roof with a hole in it and so on. This adds realism to the game simply because that is what these things would do in real life. Lighting effects also work well in games that are horror based because the entire area around the character is usually dark but using a light source helps them to effectively see where they are going. Seeing shadows of characters’ bodies or seeing shadows of buildings is also a good use of lighting effects in video games and adds to the realism because that also occurs in real life. More examples are seeing gunfire in darkness, having a light source light up the facing side of a character’s body but shades out the other side that is not facing the light source, this type of lighting and shading effect is used in many games to add more realism, an example would be ‘Battlefield 3’. 4164965-54038500In the image to the right we can clearly see the rays of sunlight shining through the gaps in the roof, this adds realism to the game in the image (‘Killzone 2’) because this is exactly the same as what would happen in real life in that situation.Image reference: PhysicalAudio (Ambient, Dialogue, Music)AmbientAudio adds atmosphere to games. Ambient sounds can come from wildlife, e.g. crows cawing, dogs barking, crickets chirping and so on. These features add realism to games such as ‘Red Dead Redemption’ which has different kinds of animals in it so the noises have to correspond with the specific animal. If the player did not hear any ambience in their games then the game would be so dull and would have no realism in that regard.Dialogue 4402455160147000Dialogue is essential in nearly every video game that has been made recently (especially in story driven games), dialogue helps to tell the characters story or the game story in general. Drama can be added to games with the use of dialogue which can build up excitement and anticipation within the player, dialogue can also be a big reason for keeping the player’s interest from the start to the finish of the game because of how the dialogue progresses as the missions do and makes the game more engaging and interesting. Most high profile games that the company ‘Rockstar Games’ have published are heavily driven by their story, the dialogue that is used and how it all progresses together until the very end of the game. Examples of these are most of the games in the ‘Grand Theft Auto’ series, from ‘Grand Theft Auto III’ to the newest instalment ‘Grand Theft Auto V’. Image reference: Music -600075173863000Music can fill an emptiness in silence in certain parts of a game and/or can make the player feel less tense when approaching certain dangerous areas and so on. For example in games such as ‘Fallout 3’ and ‘Fallout New Vegas’, the character’s radio can be turned on and music can be played, with a charismatic host who cuts in between songs. Listening to this can distract the player from the upcoming danger and/or can make them feel a little braver about the danger to come because when the radio is turned off then the actual in-game music is played which is usually quite grim, also when engaging in combat with an enemy the music becomes very intense which can sometimes scare the player. In the picture to the left we see that ‘Fallout New Vegas’ has a radio on the player’s character, on a device called Pip-Boy which is attached to the character’s arm.Image reference: my own experiences with audio I have found that playing certain types of music before entering dangerous areas did fill me up with enough adrenaline to have no problem with entering that area, normally it was heavier music (such as Rock music) that made me feel a lot braver to take on the danger head on. VibrationController vibration is a good source of feedback for a player because it vibrates in their hands when certain things happen in the game that the player should bring their attention to, for example, in shooting games when the player’s character is being shot or is taking damage in some other form, the controller will vibrate to immediately let the player know that they need to take cover or heal themselves; this feature also adds realism to the game. In ‘Silent Hill 2’, when the character is low on health or about to die the controller will vibrate in a way that resembles a feint heartbeat or pulse, this notifies the player that they will soon die if they do not heal up, which is a good example of realism and is a very unique feature for the controller to vibrate in that way. Although vibration features can be of use to players, it can also become an annoyance after a certain period of time, especially if the vibrations happen frequently and this could result in the players being drawn out of the game experience.419735010985500Section 2 - Information CommunicationInformation-Rich Game WorldGames can be used in other forms, meaning that games are not exclusively made for entertainment, especially in today’s technologically advanced world. Games can now be used for educational purposes, to teach people how to do things and so on. Therefore educators now make use of games as well as game developers but simply for a different purpose. Educational games that have been made more frequently in recent years now have their own genre of gaming as well, which is called Serious Gaming or Serious Games and the objective of these games are to learn specific content or skills. Serious Games also refer to games used for training, simulation and advertising which are normally designed to run on PCs and (in some cases) video game consoles. Flight simulators are an example of a simulation which gives pilots-to-be an almost real life experience of what it would be like to fly a real plane, some of these simulators can be performed in a one-seated booth which moves around according to how a real plane would move when a pilot is flying it, this makes the simulation more realistic and teaches the pilot-to-be the basics of how to fly a real plane which can also be quite an effective way to boost a pilot’s confidence when it comes to flying a real plane which could be a nerve-racking experience for any trainee pilot. A game example of this is ‘Microsoft Flight Simulator’. (Seen in image above)Image reference: User Needs, e.g. Rapid Data Analysis for Decision Making (Strategic and Tactics)Gamers use strategies in games to achieve their objective or to achieve victory in an online multiplayer mode in games like ‘Call of Duty’. Strategy describes how players skilfully plan out their method of attack to ensure their victory. Tactics are the strategies that are planned to achieve a specific outcome.Artificial Intelligence (AI) are usually programmed in the form of non-playable characters, as AI has progressed and evolved over the years, developers have been able to achieve almost lifelike representations of real life situations and people, for example, in war games like ‘Call of Duty’ the AI have been programmed to act as real army soldiers and employ tactics that real armies would use, it is all very realistic.Over time it is now understood that players’ expectations of how a game should be is very high, probably as high as standards have ever been for video games. Players expect the following to be of high quality: graphics (how the game looks), AI (how realistically the Non-Playable Characters or NPCs act), levels to suit different skill sets (meaning that the game will be fair on the player’s current skills sets), challenges (these ensure that the game won’t be too easy or boring) and the social interaction and multiplayer. Video games such as ‘Call of Duty’ require their multiplayer modes to be top notch because their multiplayer is a very popular feature for players, so if their multiplayer is bad then less people will play it and by 4142740128143000extension, less people will buy their game. However the developers of ‘Call of Duty’ are always adding new features to its multiplayer to ensure that players do not get bored easily and then go off and play something else.The image to the right shows a typical scenario in online multiplayer gameplay in ‘Call of Duty’, tactics and strategies are often used in these game modes.Image reference: Rapid InputRapid input is another gameplay feature that players expect to be realistic, meaning when the trigger button is tapped or held in on the controller, then (in shooter games), the bullets will fire out of the gun as soon as the trigger is pressed, if the trigger button is pressed and the gun fires a few seconds later then the players will be unhappy and it will take away from the realism of the game. However there can be other factors that attribute to this delay happening that is not the developers’ fault, such as when the game lags in multiplayer due to connection issues as online connection can be very poor for some people, players could get very frustrated in multiplayer games if they shoot first but the delay does not allow them to shoot for a few seconds, leading to them getting killed in the game. Frame rate issues also attribute to the slow response times, frame rate problems usually happen when there are too many things happening in the game at one time and it then slows everything down, this can sometimes lead to a game freezing or crashing which can be a big annoyance for players. In games like ‘Call of Duty’ the developers try their best to ensure that 3495675151828500everything is responsive and they do a very good job of it, they make their games very reactive and responsive which improves gameplay immensely because it makes the game fair and realistic.The image to the right shows a typical scenario when a person uses the triggers to shoot and kill an enemy in this game shown called ‘Call of Duty Black Ops’Image reference: Section 3 – User PsychologyMemory (Long Term, Short Term)When playing video games, the player’s memory can greatly affect how they interact with the game and what they assume certain aspects of the game will be like before they play or while they play it, this is especially – if not exclusively – the case for more experienced players who have a history of playing videos (as beginners will not have past experiences if it is their first time playing a video game). Developers have to take time to research into what players have become familiar with from their history of playing video games, such as control schemes and so on. They also have to be aware of new features that players have not seen before and they would need to ensure that players will be able to see these things as often as they like, an example of this could be things like a map of a new location or what weapons the player currently has on their character at that time, it is effective for players to have a convenient way to see these things.Long Term399732538100000With long term memory, the brain holds onto information for a long period of time. These memories could stay in peoples’ minds for many years. Experienced gamers use their long term memory of previous video games to use a strategy or a certain method in their currently played game because of the possible similarity in gameplay between it and past games. Gamers also can use their long term memory to recall the control schemes of games such as shooters (because most of the controls for those games are identical), this means that experienced players can even become very easily familiar with the controls of a new game that they are playing for the first time because of their past experiences with video games that have similar control schemes. An example of this familiarity is seen in many different shooter games that have the same control schemes, many video games that are made today which implement a shooting feature use the triggers on an Xbox controller to aim and shoot their gun, with left trigger to aim and right trigger to shoot. These features are seen in many games such as the ‘Call of Duty’ series, the ‘Battlefield’ series, and ‘Grand Theft Auto V’. They all use the same control scheme because they know that players have become very familiar with them over time and they also know that players will automatically assume that the triggers are used to aim and fire a weapon because of their past experiences.In the image above we can see an example of how the left trigger is used to aim a gun and how the right trigger is to fire it in the control scheme of this game, the game that this image is taken from is called ‘Call of Duty Ghosts’.Image reference: 399097510922000Short TermShort term memory can only hold small amounts of information in the brain for a limited time. While playing video games, players would use their short term memory for things that they would not necessarily need to remember on their own, this would apply to maps and what weapons the player has at that time because the player can check those things whenever they wanted, meaning that they have a convenient and constant reminder of those items.The map in the image is from ‘Far Cry 2’ and can be seen by just a push of a button Image reference: in terms of video games affecting academic performance, a recent 2011 study has shown that “High arousing media such as films and video games can impair information processing, and therefore be detrimental to short term academic performance” (Source: Maas, Klopper, & Lohaus, 2011).CognitionCognition takes into account many different abilities of the brain, such as reasoning, perception, problem solving and decision making. Cognition itself defines the engagement between a player and their video game, typically when a player gets drawn in to the game experience they will wonder where the time has gone, for example hours could pass in reality but since the player was so drawn in to their game they will not have noticed that at all. Realistic feedback from the game can keep the cognitive flow going, nobody would want to hear the sounds of gunshots a few seconds after the trigger was pressed, nobody would want the controller to be ineffective and slow in times where quick actions are needed, basically to keep cognition flowing and to keep the player immersed for hours in a game, the developers would have to ensure that everything is in its right place and flows seemlessly together as it would in real life, having lifelike experiences in the game helps any player to stay focused and drawn in to the game play experience. An example of this is a game I personally played recently called ‘Dying Light’, I could find myself playing this game for hours simply because everything works how I expect it to, the audio feedback is effective, the gameplay is easy to learn and it flows nicely with little difficult, and there is so much to do and explore in the game world which makes the time fly because it is very difficult to get bored in that gameMetaphors Metaphors in video games are typically shown to players in ways that they have experienced before, these are shown in the form of iconic objects or colours that have been used in video games over and over again, the player will inevitibally get used to these iconic objects and will then always know what these objects are without being told by the game. Metaphors could be known to players in the form of unique features that certain critically acclaimed video games have used and have became popular over time, even developers take these into account by making references to these iconic characters or objects in their own video games, for example there have been several video games that have made references to the famous ‘hide in a cardboard box’ that was used to hide ‘Metal Gear Solid’s main character ‘Solid Snake’ from his enemies in the game. It is also useful for developers to add in certain objects to their game that will symbolise real objects that we, as humans, have seen many times before, this is especially useful and almost essential for games that are based off of real life, examples of this are things like chairs, furniture, trees, fields and so on that can be made in-game to symbolise the real life objects 453390040957500Section 4 – Control Method DesignPrototyping4628515125222000Prototyping occurs around the start of the development of a game, this happens when a developer designs a demo of the game that they are working on and they have different testers play the game to see what works and what needs to be added or fixed, the developer then takes this feedback and continues to work on the game and fix it until it reaches a good standard. Feedback from the testers can be gained by the developer watching them play to see what they find easy or difficult first hand or by interviewing them or asking them questions after they have played the game. The initial prototype of a game does not always include the features that are seen in the fully finished product, this is generally known as features that are “cut” from the final version of the game. Features that are cut from games are not unheard of at all, in fact it happens in a lot of different games, an example of this is the fact that the game ‘Super Mario Bros.’ – the famous 2D side-scroller – could have been a shooting game instead, in early design documents the main character ‘Mario’ was given the ability to carry guns to shoot his enemies with, (shown in bottom image) instead of killing enemies by jumping on them or by defeating them with power-ups as he does today, in which he clearly does not ever wield a gun. (seen in top image)Image reference: example of a game that went through a major change from its intended original setting was a game called ‘The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’ which is famously known and remembered today as a third person perspective game for the most part, however in the earlier stages of development the game was planned by the creator of the series to be formatted as a first person shooter game but this idea was eventually scrapped due to the fact that the developers wanted players to see the main character Link’s face and body that they had spent so much time on but players would not have been able to see that if the game was set in a firstperson viewpoint. Heuristics AnalysisHeuristics analysis is a method of review and evaluation where a group of people test a game that any developer has made and write notes on certain problems that might come up or bugs that need fixed, they make a written report and can give the developer feedback either as a group or as individual reviewers so the developer could notice if there is any patterns that have come of in every reviewers’ report. The developer then takes this feedback and makes the necessary changes and fixes any problems that the game might have. The advantages of this method is that the developer of the game will get solid feedback from multiple sources which will provide more likelyhood of finding problems with the game that some of the other reviewers might have missed and can bring common problems that are written in each report to the developer’s attention, leading for them to deal with the problems as a higher priority, as well as looking into other problems that have been written in each report, all of this gives the developer an outside perspective of their game which can ultimately be a big help in making the game better in several ways through making the necessary changes to do so. Disadvantages of this method could ultimately be in terms of if the developer is able to make these changes or not, they might not have enough time, money or resources to make these necessary changes, meaning that the feedback would be useless to the developer because they would not be able to make these changes to the game, leading to the analysis being ineffective in its efforts from the reviewers.Context Sensitivity Context sensitivity makes the user interface easier, it does this by reducing the amount of commands that the user has to use and remember for the future, also by reducing the number of clicks that have to be hit to find a program or browser, context sensitivity also reduces the number of options that appear on the screen at one time to prevent the user from getting frustrated with an unnecessary clutter of options on their computer screen. In terms of video games, context sensitivity is important for console and PC gaming because the number of available buttons on a console controller and a computer mouse are limited, which means a video game has to be made with those limited buttons in mind because it would be pointless to make a game with more options than a controller or mouse can handle at one time, so it is important that the controls are as easy to understand as possible for these types of game controlling devices, which then prevents the player from being overwhelmed by too many controls at once. This is why in-game tutorials and on-screen button prompts are very useful to new players because it helps them to understand the controls at an early stage of their played game.39325551524000The image to the right shows an example of an on screen prompt in the tutorial of the video game ‘Modern Warfare 2’ for its Xbox 360 version, the developers made sure to only make the click of the right thumbstick to be the control for a melee attack in the game to avoid a frustrating clutter, this means that players will always know that this one button only controls the melee attack. We can also see that there is not an unnecessary clutter of commands or instructions to perform all at once, the developers have kindly made each action show up one at a time so all players could have an easier time remembering the controls.Image reference: ConclusionTo conclude I believe that everything I have talked about in this article helps to enhance a video game and makes it more unique, these features help players to feel more immersed with their game and would also keep players interested for hours. I also believe that it is very important for game developers to understand their audience and to be aware of what they want and to implement what more experienced gamers remember from past experiences with video games into the game being developed, such as the controls that they remember, an example of this is how many developers now use the left and right trigger on an Xbox controller to aim and shoot a gun, I believe that they do this because players have gotten used to these controls thanks to popular shooters like ‘Call of Duty’ and ‘Battlefield’ so it would make sense for other developers to copy these controls to make it more convenient for players to remember.Sources ................
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