Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
set of possible types: choice points, challenges, retainers, and routes. POs and the
perceptual maps built upon them are generic to all computer games and a wide range
of other interactive digital environments. This allows us to compare apparently
unrelated games in terms of the generic structures that POs bring to view.
POs do not give us the whole picture, but in conjunction with genre, activity
profi ling, and aesthetic analyzes, they do give us a coherent range of insights when
it comes to analyzing games. Just how complete will be the topic of Chapters 11
and 12, but we can make a few observations here. The pace of gameplay is very
important to games. For some it is fast and twitchy while for others it is more mea-
sured and thoughtful. POs do not allow us to model this but twitch factors give us
a good starting point.
POs also do not tell us everything about the nature of the virtual space in which
the player has to function. They don't tell us about the look and feel of the game
environment and the way this affects players. POs deal specifi cally with connotations
relating to agency and gameplay. This, in fact, is also the case with the genre, activ-
ity, and aesthetic theories we have been working with and the point was fi rst made
in Chapter 5 when we were discussing Rez and the work of the painter Kandinsky.
Chapter 9 will discuss these issues in more detail, and Chapter 10 will deal with the
solution.
More emphasis could be placed on skills and the skill levels needed to form
intentions and attempt to attain them. POs don't offer insights into the complexities
of the physical interface, the mapping between mouse and keyboard controls and
the perceptual interface of the perceived weapons and their usage, for instance.
However, it should be clear that a number of these issues are be covered by the other
theories we have already studied. Again, those that are not will be dealt with in the
fi nal three chapters of this topic.
However, in the next chapter we will carry on with our use of POs to analyze
games. One thing we should have learned from this chapter is that in many respects
the heart of gameplay, regardless of genre, is a very simple repeated pattern of
attractors giving rise to a choice of intention giving rise to actions giving rise to
perceivable consequences giving rise to rewards, and so on.
FURTHER READING AND TASKS
POs were developed to help teach VR design in the fi rst place and then led on to a
whole body of research, which in due course was applied to computer games. The
main reference to POs is Fencott (2003). A comparison of three games and two
virtual reality applications using POs can be found in Fencott (2001). The role of
POs in the context of designing computer games and interactive digital environments
in general can be found in Isdale et al. (2002) and Fencott (1999).
It's time now to see how your understanding of POs is developing. Go back to
Pac-Man and Spacewar and use POs to analyze their gameplay in more detail. Then,
because both games are from the pregenre era, try attributing genres to them based
on both the PO and aesthetic analyses you will have for both of them.
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