Comments on: My Elven warrior has PTSD This made me think of an article I read on gamasutra, You're have a very good point in that a simple game doesn't necessarily automatically avoid being stressful for the player, but I think that it's less of an issue for them to simply because of the fact that a simple game is much easier to understand and grasp. If the player can see what the rules are from the get-go, the decision-making process becomes a lot more transparent. With modern games, I think part of the issue that leads to decisions not being intuitive is that there are complex rules coupled with a tendency to try and hide them under layers of narrative dressing. The player is encouraged not to think about the game as a set of "if you shoot this type of guy, you get 10 dollars" mechanics, but as a fictional setting like "the sheriff says he'll pay a bounty for the heads of wanted felons". The latter is definitely more immersive, but also much more vague and prone to the player layers on (incorrect) additional assumptions or concerns ("but what if the guy is actually innocent?"). One example where I thought the developers had made a very good choice in drawing a story/mechanics line for the sake of comprehensibility was in Bioshock 2. For various reasons (both technical and story related), you can't backtrack into old areas, which means that if you miss a Little Sister and move on, you can't go back for her. Now, they <i>could</i> have wound some sort of narrative around that to forewarn the player, but in all probability that would have lead to misunderstandings and more stress. So instead they pop up a HUD message that says (paraphrasing from memory) "there are still Little Sisters in this area, you can't come back here once you leave, so if you go now you will lose them". This makes the rule obvious and clear, and whilst it breaks immersion for a moment, it's probably actually less intrusive than the hoops they could have jumped through to convey the same message "in world" each time. You’re have a very good point in that a simple game doesn’t necessarily automatically avoid being stressful for the player, but I think that it’s less of an issue for them to simply because of the fact that a simple game is much easier to understand and grasp. If the player can see what the rules are from the get-go, the decision-making process becomes a lot more transparent.

With modern games, I think part of the issue that leads to decisions not being intuitive is that there are complex rules coupled with a tendency to try and hide them under layers of narrative dressing. The player is encouraged not to think about the game as a set of “if you shoot this type of guy, you get 10 dollars” mechanics, but as a fictional setting like “the sheriff says he’ll pay a bounty for the heads of wanted felons”. The latter is definitely more immersive, but also much more vague and prone to the player layers on (incorrect) additional assumptions or concerns (“but what if the guy is actually innocent?”).

One example where I thought the developers had made a very good choice in drawing a story/mechanics line for the sake of comprehensibility was in Bioshock 2. For various reasons (both technical and story related), you can’t backtrack into old areas, which means that if you miss a Little Sister and move on, you can’t go back for her. Now, they could have wound some sort of narrative around that to forewarn the player, but in all probability that would have lead to misunderstandings and more stress. So instead they pop up a HUD message that says (paraphrasing from memory) “there are still Little Sisters in this area, you can’t come back here once you leave, so if you go now you will lose them”. This makes the rule obvious and clear, and whilst it breaks immersion for a moment, it’s probably actually less intrusive than the hoops they could have jumped through to convey the same message “in world” each time.

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By: snake5/2011/03/03/my-elven-warrior-has-ptsd/#comment-1200 snake5 Thu, 03 Mar 2011 17:32:36 +0000 Great post. I don't think you're the only one who feels like this: it's a phenomenon known as 'Analysis paralysis:' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis I'm particularly interested in the suggestion that a person might "fear making any decision which could lead to erroneous results" - that not knowing how to choose the <i>right</i> thing only matters because one is afraid of doing the <i>wrong</i> thing. And <i>that</i> is true, I think, because many games <i>do</i> punish us for doing the wrong thing. They might only be games, but they encourage us to invest ourselves in our characters, in our skillsets and storylines, and if we do that then they're able to punish us through those things. That you could make the wrong choice, suffer for it, then reload the game and make the right choice, doesn't remove the fact that you <i>did</i> suffer for it. Great post.

I don’t think you’re the only one who feels like this: it’s a phenomenon known as ‘Analysis paralysis:’

Good thoughts, Ben. I think that's why I gravitate to iPhone games more these days - they're simple, usually with 1 or 2 easy mechanics, but the good ones have deeper gameplay that can be understood gradually without sacrificing those first few minutes that make or break them. Good thoughts, Ben. I think that’s why I gravitate to iPhone games more these days – they’re simple, usually with 1 or 2 easy mechanics, but the good ones have deeper gameplay that can be understood gradually without sacrificing those first few minutes that make or break them.

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By: Amir H. Fassihi/2011/03/03/my-elven-warrior-has-ptsd/#comment-1197 Amir H. Fassihi Thu, 03 Mar 2011 15:54:55 +0000