Games Interactivity CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO VERSION OF PRESENTATION

In the Beginning... First electronic game: pong (nonnarative, developed on oscilloscope)

Types of Games Arcade Games (Pac-Man, Missile Command) Card, Logic, Puzzles, & Board Games (Solitaire, Monopoly) Adventure Games: text, graphical, 3D (Bioshock, Grand Theft Auto) Simulation (Sims) Strategy Games “Strats” (DrugWars) First-Person Shooters (FPS) Third-Person Shooters Role-Playing Games (RPGs) MMOs / MMORPGs (Massively Multi-player Online Role-playing Game—e.g., World of Warcraft) Sports Games Serious Games (e.g., Newsgaming.com, GamesforChange.org)

Narrative and Non-narrative Example of narrative game

Example of non-narrative board game below

Nonlinear Narratives

Controlling the Narrative

Example Third-person narrative for self-esteem-building by video artist Mary Flanagan

Chris Crawford says a game Usually has a “win condition” or at least a challenge and reward (there’s a difference).

Espen Aarseth says a game has: Rules A game world (material/semiotic systems) Gameplay (events resulting from application of the rules to the game world) Even nonnarrative games have this – solitaire)

Chris Crawford’s Tips What is interactivity? Playing with your dog? Reading a novel? “Act” is the key word in interact. It starts with verbs: run, jump, kill, build, feed, talk, die, etc. Allow the viewer to have input Avoid too much “speaking” to the viewer.

Guidelines for Good Interactive Software Development Start with verbs. What can my viewer do? The more the better (example: Zoo project) Keep it fast. Give feedback (example: v1 Pieces of Herself) Let player act and don’t tell to much. Don’t chastise your viewer (e.g., “Wrong answer!”) Make everything undoable—they can try a different way and succeed.

(Cont’d) Combine joyful play (exploration) with competitive play (kill or be killed). Extremes don’t work: too boring, too intense Intensity does not necessarily mean richness (example, a ball is fun to play with as long as it’s going where it wants to go) Focus on process rather than facts (quizzes are deadly). Let people PLAY. What not to do: Math problems, quizzes, and meaningless puzzles that have to be solved to get to the next place or win.

Serious Games For Purposes Other Than Entertainment

Educational

Education

News Games

“Plan Your Future Park” in Gotham Gazette. First-person game used as a journalism story about public works and park development.Plan Your Future Park Civic

GamesForChange.org

Social Change

Electronic Literature

Public Relations

Advertising First-person narrative viral marketing game (promotes shopping and buying these toys) The Asylum: Psychiatric Clinic for Abused Cuddly ToysThe Asylum: Psychiatric Clinic for Abused Cuddly Toys (e.g., see “Hippo”)

DivaStarz third-person narrative to encourage shopping behavior in young girls.

Interactivity in Learning Play is foundational to learning (interacting with material versus lectures) Interactivity engages the mind more profoundly than any other kind of expression (more than passive observation) The computer’s competitive advantage and artistic opportunity is this interactivity. Educational Games on the computer work for children under 10 (not advanced enough for older)

Questions? Group Work

Bibliography The Art of Interactive Design: A Euphonious and Illuminating Guide to Building Successful Software by Chris Crawford, No Starch Press, Chris Crawford First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game by Noah Wardrip-Fruin (Editor), Pat Harrigan (Editor), MIT Press, 2004.Noah Wardrip-FruinPat Harrigan

Additional Resources

Electronic Literature / Net Art To be thought-provoking To take us out of our everyday experience Political / Social Exploration Some of the same techniques

Jess Loseby – The Dream

The Dream I dreampt I saw you there my little one my precious child amongst the WOLF CRIES smoke and fire and as i opened my arms to call your name blackness overtook my vision mothers rage gripped me and as I reached to take you from that place the cameras flashed the sirens screamed and instead of lifting you out i pulled us all under

You might not expect...

subRosa

Where do you find it? Electronic Literature Organization ( Museums (e.g., Whitney Artport)Whitney Artport Festivals (SIGGRAPH, ISEA, FILE) Web Sites (Rhizome.org)Rhizome.org Lots more