Eyes and Ears - Learn to Play: Designing Tutorials for Video Games - page 91

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e yes and e ars
After decades of multimedia, games, film, and art studies crossing
disciplines, one thing has become certain; people parse visual infor-
mation and auditory information differently. Video games are blessed
with access to both of these channels, plus physical input through
a controller. It just so happens that the brain has separate handlers
for each of these things, and by learning how to take advantage of
that, we can promote flow and positive engagement in our games.
This chapter boils down research on multiple channel theories of how
the brain parses information into readable actionable tidbits, and then
demonstrates how visual and auditory elements are presented and
used in contemporary games. It finishes by linking this back to the
tutorial system, and how it can help players prepare for the images
and sounds to be used in the game in question. As usual, some talk
about the various parts of the brain and how they handle information
is going to be undertaken, and it is going to be a little heavy, so I will
finish the chapter with a cheat sheet review.
Visual Stuff in Games
As is the case with most media, we are obsessed with how things
look. Our eyes dominate our sensory perception in most video games,
and this preoccupation with all things visual often leads to us making
a mess of the screen in an attempt to cram in a lot of information.
This makes me think back to my World of Warcraft experiences.
Often times I would need so much information to perform my role as
a tank skillfully, that I would literally have to splatter the screen with
dials, indicators, icons, counters, and more. Any novice looking at
this screen would be completely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of
information that was presented to them. On top of that, I noticed that
I, as a skilled player, was starting to ignore some aspects of the visual
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