Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
avatars in action games fit this description. Mario isn't a real plumber, he's a cartoon
plumber in the same way that Bugs Bunny is a cartoon rabbit rather than a real one.
Lara Croft, too, has more looks than personality; she's a stand-in for the player, not a
three-dimensional human being. Generally speaking, the more perfectly photorealistic
a character is, the more the players will tend to regard him or her as someone other
than themselves, an independent human being, and expect them to behave as such.
This isn't always a good thing, as it causes players to exercise more critical judgment
than we might want them to. Nobody objects to a cartoon plumber jumping on car-
toon turtles, but they probably would if both Mario and the turtles were photorealistic.
The Effects of Different Control Mechanisms
The way a player feels about an avatar depends somewhat on how the player con-
trols the avatar in the game. In the case of Nancy Drew and the avatars in all other
point-and-click adventure and computer role-playing games, the player's control is
indirect ; he doesn't steer the avatar around but points to where he wants the avatar
to go, and the avatar walks there of her own accord. The player feels more like a dis-
embodied guide and friend than a personal inhabitant of the game world.
Lara Croft and Mario, in contrast, are under direct control: The player steers their
bodies through the game world, running, swimming, jumping, and fighting as nec-
essary. The player becomes them and revels in the abilities that they have that he
does not. But he doesn't worry too much about their feelings. That's partly because
Lara and Mario are only partially specified, but it's also because exercising so much
control makes them more like puppets than people.
Male and Female Players and Characters
Early in the history of video games, some designers were concerned that male players
(who used to make up the majority of the market) would be unwilling to play female
avatars: Men might find identifying with a female character somehow threatening.
Lara Croft ( Figure 6.2 ) demonstrated that this is not a problem, at least as long as the
character is acting in a role that men are comfortable with. Lara engages in tradition-
ally masculine activities, so men are happy to enter the game as Lara. They might be less
comfortable with an avatar who engaged in more traditionally feminine activities.
Women, of course, are expected to identify with male heroes routinely, a state of
affairs predating computer games. Until recently, few books, movies, TV shows, or
video games about adventurous activities featured female heroes, and they're still
very much in the minority. Women justifiably get tired of playing male heroes, and
they appreciate the opportunity to play as female characters. At the same time,
however, women aren't that interested in playing male-fantasy characters like Rayne
from the BloodRayne series; such characters are so extreme that it discourages identi-
fication with them. Heather from Silent Hill 3 ( Figure 6.3 ) provides a better example;
she looks like a real woman, not a walking lingerie advertisement. The Appendix,
“Designing to Appeal to Particular Groups,” addresses this issue further.
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