Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
As we saw in Chapter 9, most of the time we perceive these haptically, but they are
often also represented iconically in the game world. The red A is regularly used to
signify the possibility for interaction—with people and doors, for instance—and all
the four colored buttons are represented iconically in the quick time events.
There are then a large number of signs that Ryo can affect:
• The various doors
• Furniture such as cupboards and chests of drawers
• Objects we fi nd in drawers and on shelves in shops
• The inventory of objects we have collected
• The actual objects we have collected
• The notebook
• The actual view we have into the game world
• And more.
There are also signs that can affect Ryo: the characters he fi ghts, the people who
give him information, and so on. There are yet other signs that affect Ryo in a less
dramatic way: walls, roads, sidewalks, lampposts, and other street furniture all
conspire to constrain his movements. Some signs are neither affected by Ryo nor
can he affect them; shop signs and advertisements on shop windows, the packaging
of items to be found in the convenience store, and so on. We the player are affected
semiotically, but the playable character is not. There also might be other types of
signs that we have not noticed yet. We need a theory that allows us to characterize
the signs of interaction and the signs of intervention more rigorously, in a more
fundamental way. We could use POs, as these can be used to analyze individual
signs as well as groups of signs, but there is a ready-made theory we can put
to use.
THE MECHANICS OF INTERACTION
Peter Bogh Andersen is a semiotician who fi rst put forward his theory of computer-
based signs (CBS) over ten years ago (Andersen, 1997). CBS specifi cally address
the characterization of individual signs—in interactive media in general and games
in particular—from the point of view of what they contribute to agency. We will see
later that CBS and POs complement each other quite nicely.
Before going any further, we should point out that CBS are used in a particular
and focused way in this topic to support the general theoretical model being devel-
oped. Andersen (1997) should be consulted for the full and intended theory of CBS
theory and its in-depth application. In particular, signs of intervention are not part
of CBS but have been added by the authors.
The basic approach taken by CBS is to identify just four characteristics of signs
with respect to interaction and then to use these to build up profi les of a range of
signs. The four characteristics are:
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