Hello again, it has been too long . . . I cannot remember the last time I had a free evening (or, in this case a free morning!) to sit down and update SGP. I have three posts backlogged and handwritten at the moment, but putting them together is rather time intensive, and Academia tends to consume all my free time.
Here is the topic for this post: Immersion. It is discussed, debated, and sometimes villified on mass media sites due to its effect on the minds of players: It makes us want to stay in the game world, to relate to the heroes and villians from our favorite games, movies, and novels, in lieu of their real-world counterparts. Personally, I could argue on morality and subjective opinions all day, but for your sake I will avoid the inane banter that News channels tend to saturate themselves with. So!


Last term, I enrolled in a class titled "American Novel till 1900," with a professor fresh from grad school. For the sake of anonymity, I'll call him Professor Hydrocarbon. It is an appropriate name, since it is a pun on his surname and also on his near-explosive enthusiasm in literary discourse. In "American Novel," we suffered through the phallic symbolism and meglomania of Melville's Moby Dick, the spiritually-enriching monologue of Hawthorne's Scarlett Letter, and, most importantly, a little known text by a feminist writer named Mary Chopins. The text, titled The Awakening, deals with a young, well-off woman who awakens her intellectual and emotional curiosities by delving into art and sexual flirtation. Her eventual conclusion is that American society would constantly shun and suppress her individual desires for art and sexual independence, and she would be forced to live a lie for the rest of her life. So, in the text's closing chapter, the young mother simply walks out onto the beach, strips off her clothing, and swims out to sea, chasing the sinking sun until she can no longer swim, then submits to the sea and voluntarily drowns herself.


You can imagine how gruesome the concept of young mothers committing suicide was at the turn of the 19th century, and journalists criticized the shit out of The Awakening.


Now, you are probably wondering "Why the hell is this guy talking about a feminist novel that was published in 1900? I want a discussion on Immersion!"


We are getting to that point, actually. After finishing The Awakening, Professor Hydrocarbon turned on the assembled body of students and demanded an analysis of both the text and why the novel was a perfect example of several interlacing themes in American media at the turn of the 19th Century. We each stumbled through our notes, stuttered out half-thought answers and claims which sounded as if they actually ended in question marks, and in the chaotic jumble of voices I patched together a set of six points in The Awakening that signify Eda's progression from an ignorant housewife to a self-aware young woman with artistic and sexual curiosities. Hydrocarbon loved the list! He even asked for permission to include the listing in his next installment of the class (I gave him permission. I actually felt proud of my analytic skills for the first time in my academic career at the University).


During the same semester that I was taking the class, I also returned to my life of Console Gaming, going after several of my favorite games with a gusto born from Achievement-Lust. It wasn't until I started playing through Mass Effect 1 (Working for those damnable squad-mate Achievements!) that I realized I was playing through an interactive narrative which used the same six steps I had found in The Awakening as a structure for character devlopment! Even more shocking was that I honestly felt a need to point this connection out to others at the University.


I remember revealing my finding during a dinner discussion that night, to a table composed of theater geeks, card-collectors, and fellow video game enthusiasts (All of them highly intelligent, I might add!), and the resulting phrase from all of them was: "So?"


Those two letters (Perhaps more words were said) turned my enthusiastic discussion into a rather embarrassing monologue which ended with the phrase "You're excited. We don't care." Now I offer my findings up to you, the reader, to do with as you will.



Step 1: Open the character's eyes


This step is also referred to as setting the stage for the upcoming narrative. This Step is not necessarily synonymous with the term "Tutorial." Step 1 involves providing the character with an awareness of the world he/she exists in, while a Tutorial is generally regarded an an introduction to the mechanics of gameplay. Some games, like Mass Effect 1, achieve this with little-to-no player action required. See below:





Okay, so in that single intro cinematic, you (the player) are given a summary of your chosen background, a visual representation of technology which uses mass-effect fields (The big blue burst of energy. Remember that?), your character's name (Shepard), and even the freaking title of the game!
Mass Effect 1 : Step 1? Check.



Step 2: Distinguish the character from other individuals in the
             game world


This Step is simple: People like to think they are special. And we game enthusiasts are not different in that regard. We love when our characters are idolized, feared, respected, and even worshiped. The desire to be the center of the universe is an innate facet of being human, and Mass Effect 1 strokes the player's ego without fear of competition. See Below:





After you deploy a verbal and rhetorical barrage against the Turian ambassador, and after suffering through Ambassador Udina's failed argument for deploying the entire Council Fleet, you (The character) are appointed as the first Human Spectre (Quasi-secret agents of the Council). The Council just ranked you above their entire armada of futuristic war-ships. If that doesn't swell your ego and prod you on to greater glories, you might want to get your mental-health evaluated by a trained professional.


Mass Effect 1: Step 2? Check.



Step 3: Provide obstacles for the character to overcome en-
             route to the goal


This Step is actually part of a two-part process which entails the majority of actual gameplay. During this Step, the character is presented with several obstacles to overcome. Good games tend to provide the character with several paths to overcoming the obstacle, each with a different outcome and different rewards.


After all is said and done, the character should be rewarded with a tangibile reward: In the case of Mass Effect 1, Shepard continually gains rewards in the form of the development of your crewmembers.


Shepard starts off with five members on his command staff (Kaiden, Ashley, Garrus, Wrex, and Tali) and is given command of the most advanced stealth warship in the Alliance armada (The SSV Normandy). The Council then points out three leads on Saren's involvement on three planets scattered across the galaxy (Noveria, Therum, and Feros) and the player is allowed to pursue whichever lead he or she desires.


These are the three obstacles (The last two obstacles are revealed when Shepard finds clues that lead him to Virmire and Illos) that prevent Shepard from defeating Saren. In Mass Effect 1, Step 3 is presented in the form of five unique planets, each with different information on Saren and his plans.



Step 4: Assimilation of experiences and/or resources in
             response to overcoming obstacles in Step 3


This Step is the second step in the two-part process which entails the majority of actual gameplay. During this Step, the character recieves rewards for overcoming an obstacle. In some games, the rewards are as crude as "XP & Gold." While it is true that characters have a better chance of overcoming future obstacles if they have Health (Progressive improvement of the character, through gaining abilities or increasing statistical attributes) and Wealth (Form of in-game capital, not necessarily currency, which can be used to artificially decrease the difficulty of specific obstacles or sub-obstacles. Buying better weapons and armor may make it easier to overcome an obstacle, but they are simply supplements for actual power in the game world), these two forms of rewards do not alter the character from who he or she was before the obstacle. Health will only increase the character's exisiting status, and Wealth can only be applied in limited instances to supplement for a lack of character growth.


[[Steps 3 & 4 can be repeated until the character is ready to face the final goal.]]


I had a hard time finding any kind of video which could give an accurate depiction of this process. I feel that this is the best option on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbht77i82Pc&feature=related

I apologize for including an off-site link. YouTube has an option which prevents public videos from being embedded in blogs.

>>>

Wow, I only got to Step 4 of 6. I will post the final Steps soon, but at the moment I need to get the visual metaphors for the 6 Steps finished (I am trying my hand at Gimp, and it is not going so well). I have always loved graphs, diagrams, and other visual metaphors because they make explanations simpler, albeit less precise.

Until next time!

PROCESSING . . . PROCESSING

Hello hello, and thanks for checking back!

If you have been checking the site frequently, we apologize for the lack of updates: We’re based out of Florida, and as you may (or may not) be aware, Comcast has an iron grip on the flow of internet in this state. As such, our internet connection has fallen out of graces, and tends to skip off to the beach to woo the ladies and sip fine congac while we push through the drudgery and humidity of daily Floridian life. Fear not, though! When secondary jobs are secured and our sleeping schedules have reverted from their current nocturnal cycles, posts will be more consistent!

Future posts will occur biweekly, although they will be longer, and possibly even include actual words (if we are feeling adventurous, there may even be sentences!); several readers have complained that, although the site maintains videos and documentaries on both Star Wars: The Old Republic and Halo:Reach (In 720p High Definition, no less!), we have failed to actually comment, lament, or ferment discussion on either game, or anything else, for that matter.
The first week will cover gaming events, releases, or social commentary, while the second week will be commentary or observations aimed towards particular games, situations, or companies in the game development industry.


::Game Reviewing – The S.I.M.P.L.E. System::

During a recent trip to the sunny (and stormy!) Emerald Coast, located on the Panhandle of Florida, we spent several lazy boat rides formulating the gaming review system we discussed back in our first post.

S.I.M.P.L.E.

Story & Setting: Fittingly, Story & Setting is the first category we evaluate. The art of storytelling is one of the most essential skills for development teams: without it, your characters don’t have names, they don’t know what they are doing, and the world in which the game takes place has no context or history. While early game developers were able to get away with simple simulations and scenarios (Wolfenstine, anyone?), current generations of gamers take more satisfaction in playing games where the girl gets her man (or vice versa), the villain escapes to plot in the shadows, and the kingdom is returned to normal . . . then again, those are what scholars of literature call CLICHES . . .

Immersion: A good game needs to hold the player’s attention, and remove them from their role in reality. A player needs to feel like they are in the game, that their actions in the game will have an effect on the virtual realm, and that in the end, the sense of achievement rivals that of an equivalent pursuit in the physical realm. This is a rather high hurdle to clear, and very few games will get good reviews from us on this point. We’re picky.

Music & Graphics: Always a key part of game design, Music & Graphics are essentially bells and whistles when it comes to games. They can create moods, stir the player’s emotions, and awe them (First trip to Outland, anyone?), but in the end they are just accessories when it comes to gameplay and storytelling.

Progression: How fast do players advance their characters, either through skills or the story? Does the game start out slowly, but pick up the pace after the tutorial (FFXIII), or does the player learn how to play intuitively (Star Wars: The Force Unleashed). Progression is essential to keeping the player going, and needs to evoke a sense of urgency in the player.

Leveling: How do players improve their characters in the game? Is it all based on earning new items and equipment (Legend of Zelda & Sequels), or does it include a complex system of traits, items, deeds, and skills (Lord of the Rings Online)? Leveling adds a depth of character development, and, while not essential to actual gameplay or storytelling, it adds to the player’s sense of accomplishment in the end.

Expansion: How much room is there for expansion, by the end of the game? Is the ending simply a paved path towards a sequel, or will future releases require the developers to invest in original stories and new characters?