meaningful play 2014 chris yap slides pd fv_01
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(Presented at the International Academic Conference on Meaningful Play 2014, Michigan State Univ. Oct 17, 2014) The concept of emergence--that a certain thing may emerge from several distinct (and not necessarily related) parts, which is different, larger in scope, and mostly originally unintended or expected--exists in many fields such as Philosophy, Information Science, and biology. With respect to the modern video game, emergence can potentially manifest as emergent narrative and/or emergent gameplay. Furthermore, emergence in games can potentially manifest through true technological, procedurally-generated gameplay and/or a game design which encourages emergence from the game elements within the mind of the player. In this paper, we engage in a critical discussion about what it means for an interactive video game to have emergence. Firstly, we will be briefly discussing what emergence means to other scientific disciplines, and in doing so delineate specifically how we will be using the term "Emergent" in reference to interactive video games. We then frame the discussion of Emergence in games by considering a range of recent video game examples, and a close critical look at the indie games Papers, Please and Gone Home. From these analyses, we propose a concept of "Player-side emergence in games," in which emergence in the form of narrative is expressible and observable in games as the result of the current technological capabilities of games, which relies not on the game software itself, but rather upon the complex system of the human mind for reconstruction of the game experience and a subsequent expression of emergence. In this proposed concept, the constituent narrative pieces offered by a game can be expressed emergently as a unified, overall game narrative experience by the player mind. Based on this concept, we propose that emergence in a game need not wait or rely upon the advent of a truly, technology-based procedurally-generated platform, but rather can be an expression of player-side experiential reconstruction. We conclude that emergent narrative between video game and player can manifest so long as a human player can be encouraged via the game's mechanics towards an overall narrative reconstruction whose blueprint does not wholly originate from the source game, and we also contend that such an emergent design consideration can be potentially useful for designers who are trying to deal with the trade-off of Ludo-Narrative Dissonance in their games.TRANSCRIPT
Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games: Between
Hardcoded Software and the Human Mind in Papers, Please and Gone Home
Christopher Michael Yap
Youki Kadobayashi
Suguru Yamaguchi
Nara Institute of Science and Technology
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
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Acknowledgements
C. Yap
Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
This research has been crowdfunded on IndieGoGo
http://igg.me/at/gamestudies/x/8379762
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Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
Alessandro Arena-Derosa
Tom Blessington
Amar Husejic Dan Paredes
Luiz Sampaio Dr. Daisuke
Miyamoto Kevin Nelson Jason Baguio
Iimura Takuji Jon Hood “Prometheus” Anthony
Gallo
Major Contributors to Video Game Studies “The Patriots!”
Outline
C. Yap
Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
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1. What is emergence?
2. How might emergence occur in games?
3. Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence
1. Papers, Please
2. Gone Home
4. Discussion
5. Conclusion
emergence is the idea that a surprising and novel
thing can "emerge" from a complex system
1. What is Emergence?
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Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
Results often do not exhibit those characteristics
Results difficult to predict
Computer Science
Biology
Philosophy
Biological example of the concept of
emergence:
1. What’s Emergence?
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Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
sufficiently-
wide state
space
sufficiently-
intricate;
many
moving
parts
Key Factors for emergence
1. What’s Emergence?
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Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
Complexity
Ambiguous Design
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Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
2. How might emergence occur in games?
• Two non-mutually-exclusive approaches
Tech
Artificial
Intelligence
Procedural Generation
Design
Ambiguity
Non-interference
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Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
2. How might emergence occur in games?
Tech Approach:
Graphical
Photorealism
Computer Dungeon
Master
• We’re not there yet
• We’ve come pretty
close, but arguably
game innovation
stagnates
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Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
2. How might emergence occur in games?
Design Approach:
Indicate/guide player
indirectly
“Sleight of hand”
• Current examples indicate that a kind of
emergent experience can still be rendered
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Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
3. Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence Key factors for emergence in games
sufficiently-
wide state
space
sufficiently-
intricate;
many
moving
parts
Complexity
Ambiguous Design
Fixed elements from the game software:
Characters
Events Audio/visual
Arrangement of elements to indicate or
suggest an experience or interpretation
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Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
3. Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence
The need for a complex system:
Emergence is encouraged if the system is complex.
Current Industry tech cannot render emergence in the essential sense
Through careful balance of tech and design, we can invoke another system, extraneous to the game software
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Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
3. Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence
I can do that!
Invoke a complex system, extraneous to the game software
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Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
3. Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence
The brain is always looking for patterns
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Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
3. Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence
Sometimes the brain
contextualizes things for you
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Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
3. Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence Player-side Emergence Concept:
Game Elements + Ambiguous Design
Software-side
Emergent Experience
Player-side
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Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
3.1 Player-side Emergence in Papers, Please
Lucas Pope 2013 (PC)
Paperwork Simulator
Highly-acclaimed
Interactions are morally-implicit
Effects/Outcomes are stated as simple facts with
little to no emotional indication
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Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
3.1 Player-side Emergence in Papers, Please
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Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
3.1 Player-side Emergence in Papers, Please
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Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
3.2 Player-side Emergence in Gone Home
The Fullbright Company
2013 (PC)
“Story Exploration”
Highly-acclaimed
Explore an empty house—find out where your
sister went
Story construction is free-form, but the end is
unified
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Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
3.2 Player-side Emergence in Gone Home
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Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
3.2 Player-side Emergence in Gone Home
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Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
3.2 Player-side Emergence in Gone Home
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Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
3.1 Player-side Emergence in Gone Home
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BUT,
The game is not a horror story.
Rather, this is how the game encourages/suggests the construction/interpretation of its narrative
Empty House
Ghost Story
Bloody Bathtub
Horror Story
3.2 Player-side Emergence in Gone Home
Player-side emergence, as a design
consideration/principle, can potentially be
helpful in addressing Ludo-Narrative
Dissonance
Allows the player’s own mind to account for
discrepancies in mechanics and narrative
Designing towards Player-side emergence
also allows players to interpret centralized,
directed/embedded game narratives with their
own subjective tones/inflections
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4. Discussion (1)
C. Yap
Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
However, the balance between reliance on
tech vs. reliance on design, as well as the
degree to which designers can be ambiguous
with their designs while retaining the integrity
of the overall gaming experience is still being
investigated in terms of Player-side
emergence.
As games become increasingly more
sophisticated, immersive, and interactive,
considerations for Player-side emergence will
also change significantly.
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4. Discussion (2)
C. Yap
Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
The examples of Gone Home and Papers, Please
show that a kind of Player-side Emergence which
invokes the complex system of the player mind to
render the emergence can be crafted utilizing
current technology if the design space is
sufficiently ambiguous and the contextual direction
is effective.
Future work:
Test and select an appropriate theoretical
framework for this concept
Analyze other games to see how this concept
applies/doesn’t apply (ARGs)
Devise and experiment with ways to both observe
and show Player-side emergence in action
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5. Conclusion
C. Yap
Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
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C. Yap
Conceptualizing Player-side Emergence in Interactive Games
Meaningful Play 2014, Oct. 17th, 2014.
www.chris-yap.com