Why Don't People Play Games - Game Invaders: The Theory and Understanding of Computer Games - page 56

Figure 6.1 Activity profi le and twitch factor for Resident Evil. (See color insert.)

enhancement, and stunts. All in all, a very typical action adventure profi le. From
the twitch factor score we see that there is a range of non-twitchy AGs which
signify the game is not all twitch by any means.
And now a brief overview of aesthetics for Resident Evil. Other than the shooter
aspect of the game, requiring players to shoot and pick up items, although you can' t
strafe as in a normal shooter , a surprising amount of the action is carried through
button prompts; quick timer events and the like. This is largely due to the cinematic
style of the game: part game and part horror fi lm. This is why this is one of the few
games that people enjoy watching others play.
Moving on briefl y to other aspects of our aesthetics we can see that narrative
potential plays a major role in Resident Evil on a number of levels. We have the
overall back-story and its manifestation in the rampant zombies, the quick timer
events, and the cut scenes. We also have the realization of narrative potential through
the player's choices of how to tackle enemies and puzzles and so on.
Transformation is strong because most of us don't spend a lot of time fi ghting
for our lives and our civilization in zombie ridden cities. In the game we are defi -
nitely co-present with others. In fact being co-present with others who want to kill
us is all part of the pleasure of many computer games. Presence is related both to
the quality of the interactive content and our predisposition to enjoy particular types
of games. This relates in general terms to genre and also to emotional patterns of
play and player types; the latter two will be introduced in succeeding sections of
this chapter.
Okay, that was a very brief overview of Resident Evil using the three interrelated
theories we have been working with. Let's move on.