Computerspil II Reception and players (15/02/02)

a game audience? The Effects model The Uses and Gratification model (needs: diversion, personal relationships, personal identity, surveillance) Screen theory / Mode of address (relationship to implied reader) Encoding/Decoding model (preferred meanings) But... Is the game audience homogeneous?

pleasure The celebration of the active viewer or of possibilities of resistance through mass culture is still fixed to the idea that the consumption of (mass) culture has to be legitimated. Reading romances or watching a television serial is granted a legitimation by showing that it is somehow valuable or useful, or at least not totally harmful. (Alasuutari) and I’m not even going into pathology...

reception I Reception theory emphasizes the reader's consumption of the literary text over and above the question of the sum total of rhetorical devices which contribute to its structure as a piece of literature. -Historical (Canon, interpretive communities, particular histories of response, histories of reading, cultural context...) -Philosophical (Theory of literary communication, interpretation, aesthetic effect, phenomenology, blanks, implied reader, pragmatics...) -Sociological (Media Studies) sides

reception II Reception theory is an important part of digital aesthetics since it studies the processes through which digital art is experienced. It is also a part that is lacking from most of the literature, that has so far concentrated on formalist approaches as if the last 40 years of humanities research had never happened...

meaning the problem of reception theory is So what has the digital world contributed?

“Usability testing encompasses a range of methods for identifying how users actually interact with a prototype or a complete site. In a typical approach, users — one at a time or two working together — use the Web site to perform tasks, while one or more people watch, listen, and take notes.” (Usability.gov) usability testing

things you want to know: -Do users complete a task successfully? -If so, how fast do they do each task? -Is that fast enough to satisfy them? -What paths do they take in trying? -Do those paths seem efficient enough to them? -Where do they stumble?— What problems do they have?— Where do they get confused? -What words or paths are they looking for that are not now on the site? usability II

-Plan scope, issues, participants, location, budget -Develop scenarios (relevant tasks for users to try) - Recruit test participants -Conduct usability testing (at least two of you to observe and take notes, let people express themselves) -Make good use of the test results (fix problems! learn for next time!) Performance oriented usability tests

games “reception” process I started with adventure games, which are mainly narrative. –Identification with characters –Game-actions –Involvement in stories But people usually just apply narrative theories to all kinds of games without looking at the key difference...

you are... “You are Blade Runner Ray McCoy, engaged in an adventure uniquely your own. But what you don’t know each time you play is whether you --or anyone else-- is human or replicant.” Westwood’s Blade Runner official website Literature Reader constructs scenarios imaginarily. Theatre/CinemaViewer watches unfolding scenarios. GamesPlayer manages action in scenarios.

games with no characters It is probably true that the reader / viewer needs an emotional motivation for investingenergy in the movie or book; that we need a human actant to identify with. This is probably also true for the computer game, only this actant is always present – it is the player. The player is motivated to perform a cognitive analysis of the game’s situation because the game is a task that the player has undertaken as a real-world person. And this is why a computer game can be much mor abstract than a movie or a novel. (Juul)

we construct characters... through description through their actions –symbolic –naturalistic –relationship to reality through relationship to space through other characters’ view through a name

characters in games... - are part of a frame narrative (Final Fantasy) - are “the goal” of the game (any RPG) - “live” a story (adventure games) playercharacterRPG s LEVELS OF NARRATIVE DETERMINATION

who can you be? A non-descript actor (simulation, 1st person shooter) A god (Sim City / Age of Empires) 3 rd p. A character - a puppet-master (Monkey Island) 3 rd p. - actor (Titanic) 1 st p. - avatar (Myst /SPQD) “empty” 1 st p. Is identification straightforward?

all coterie members are dead, press ESC to load saved game “Our fixation on electronic games and stories is in part an enactment of a denial of death. They offer us a chance to erase memory, to start over, to replay an event and try for a different resolution. In this respect, electronic media have the advantage of enacting a deeply comic vision of retrievable mistakes and open options.” (Janet Murray) “The charm of a text is that it forces you to face destiny” (Eco) catharsis is impossible

- 25 interviewees (ages from 14 to 35) - 9 women / 16 men - each player tried between 2 and 5 games (ideal game session: 1hr) - information from 81 game sessions was collected a qualitative interviews field study numbers questions -What can you do in this game? -Who are you in the game? -What are you doing now? Why? -Where are you in the game? -Who is that (NPC)? What do you think from him? - How are you feeling now? - What have you learned from that action?

use against identification - The player wants to control de game world - The player sees himself as engaged with a multifaceted interaction The player sees himself as “managing” resources: thinking, deciding, acting.