Future of Gaming Prt.4
In this part I’m going to talk about emotions in games.
Now some know I would be the last person on earth to talk about emotions but I’m still gonna have a go at it.
Ill be talking about emotions in general and how they can function in games
Emotions are something that we experience all the time basically, you can for example be disgusted by a object or a person, or you can feel disgusted if you think about something.
These things can make you decide to do particular things, for example make you think twice before going into the scary forest because you will experience more fear if you go in.
There like a sort of reaction system that will have a big say in your live on the things you will do.
Using emotions in games is nothing new, there are big amounts of games that use fun, tension and fear as big selling points for the products.
Think about games like silent hill, they have a unique feel to them and connect you to emotions, like Anxiety, Fear and Horror and it can let people be trapped in places if there to scared to move on.
But not all people are into experiencing these emotions, so what if you can decide which emotions you want to feel?
If you can go deeper into the emotions of people you can use them to let people take a path they want to take and for example don’t go into a scary looking cave and take the blossomed flower path down the raindrop hill instead.
This way people can decide for themselfs which emotions they want to feel and the game can adapt to their feeling of that moment
A good example of emotions in development is Fable 2 by Peter Molyneux, he is currently working on making people experience Love in a game.
He is going to try and let people experience this with introducing a pet that will function as one in real life.
You will have to control him with your actions towards him for example if you kick him he will get mad and barks at you and leaves you if you go on with kicking him, so you don’t have to experience love if you don’t want to.
But if you pet him and give him food and water and cuddle from time to time he will stay with you and help you in combat.
Over time you will grow with your trusty companion and should, if we should believe Peter, love him.
To see if it’ll work we have to wait until the game is released, but looking at the B&W games I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.
He is introducing a dog that is not controlled by you and if you treat him right you will have him with you all the way as a companion.
He will respond to your actions and help you for example if you are attacked by enemy’s.
Peter’s idea is to make you love him over time like you would with a real dog.
Of course you can’t make him exactly like a real dog but you can make him interact and respond in the same way.
Many games don’t focus on working with emotions and thats partly because this won’t fit in every game.
But if you are actively working on getting people to experience certain emotions this could give a better feel about a game in the end.
And I’m sure we will see more emotions in the future, on a bigger scale and if people for example want to be hated by the world around them in a game this will be possible, but if you are sad a game could also cheer you up and make you feel good about yourself (see the options).
And looking at the list of emotions you can have as a human you can find lots of new ways to use these in games.
And if music can make people feel as if they were on drugs, people should also be able to feel love through a video game.
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