Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 4.21
Example of social contrast on regions in Second Life. Note how Mauve contains 23 visitors, while
Mocha is empty. Mauve has a large public sandbox that encourages social gathering.
the message you would like to deliver, the amount of game-like versus work-like contrast in your design will
sort itself out.
4.4.14 i
nTeraCTiViTy
C
onTrasT
In a 3D virtual environment, lots of magic things can happen. The environment can be scripted to sense
the presence of a visitor and respond by activating interactive visual or audible content, to be seen by all in
the area or speciically by the person who just arrived. You might think of this as “automatic interactivity.”
In contrast, there is “manual interactivity,” which requires that the avatar take action to initiate the interactive
behavior. A manually interactive typewriter design by AngryBeth Shortbread (a designer, scripter, builder
in the United Kingdom) is pictured in Figure 4.23. When you click your mouse on the keys of this giant
typewriter, written text appears on the page of paper above you, and the message also connects to a Twitter
feed. This kind of interactivity is obviously designed into an object, but there are other kinds of interactivity
that can emerge within the virtual environment. Consider a scenic landscape, a park, or forest. While such
a vista seems to provide no such built-in interactive connection with the visitor, do not think that kind of an
environment will never be used interactively. You will ind that, even with a modicum of accessibility to a
method that will change their environments, your visitors will respond interactively and “play” with the ele-
ments they can change. Interactivity, with its range of levels and effects and its close or distant relationship
to the actions of the visitor, is another powerful tool in your 3D design kit.
