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Emotions can be transferred by gestures. Through the gesture recognition of the Wii controller computers can understand human body-language. It makes it possible to interact naturally with the machine. A gesture like moving up makes the green point of your gun in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2009) move on the screen. This marks your shot. Now it is important to keep the gun steady while walking. While the green dot on the screen is embedded or situated in a virtual environment, this virtual environment acts on this object by showing you a different target when you move or shows the ground if your arm gets tired of holding the gun. Interaction between environment, body and expressing goal directed actions is vital for the Wii controller. Through sensors, the Wii device, a physical action is measured and translated to the screen. It needs a body that expresses a goal directed action and a virtual environment to show this action. Together they are the fuel that it needs to express yourself in a game world.

Expressing yourself in a game-world is experiencing a range of emotions. Emotions and games have always been involved with each other mainly because emotions that we feel are very much linked to the experience of what we think of as ‘real’. Emotions in games has manifested through the controller on many different levels. The feeling of control by moving the mouse cursor on the computer screen to navigate between different battles in the game SID MEIER’S CIVILIZATION V (2010). The button bashing effect on the XBOX 360 controller to strike with your sword as many times as possible in a short time limit to strike the enemy in FABLE II (2008). To execute a certain button combination on the PlayStation 3 controller to strike your enemy with a beautiful combo and see this happening on screen in the fighting game TEKKEN:DARK RESURRECTION (2007). Or to move your body as if your standing on skies to get down a mountain in Wii SPORTS (2006). All delivering a feeling of control, joy, amazement or excitement through the embodied mind.

In the CoD MW the performative act of the triggering on the controller is closely related to the affective involvement in the game. Especially the holding of the gun and the walking on screen effects the emotion of the player. The disorientation and the fast pacing of the game stimulates this effect. Especially during the first mission when the ship is sinking and you need to get out of the ship to the helicopter while everything is flooded with water makes you feel drowned. While the movement with the Wii is already hard, because it is sensors  and focused on the green dot on the screen, the disorientation of the level made it extra hard but also really absorbed you into the game. 

So, luckily in Left For Dead 2 you can be the zombie. Which means you have to jump on a person to kill him. That’s fun!

But this is not the only game I recently played. Deus Ex Human Revolution for the Playstation 3 was waiting already quite a time for me to play. And this game presents you with a interesting choice at the start of the game which presents the easy, normal or hard mode of the game. It asks you if you just play for the story, if you like the story but also a bit of a challenge or a real first person shooter challenge! 

Now some would already think, Deus Ex a first person shooter? Well, for the way I played it, it is. But I then played on purpose with a first person shooter perspective for the course Digital Game Theory. 

Now that I have wrote this let’s continu to the interesting choice at the beginning of the game. If we look at the player involvement model from Gordon Calleja it actually asks you as a player how you get immersed in the game. Is that because of the narrative involvement (easy mode), or a combination of the narrative, ludic and spatial involvement. Looking for hidden places to shoot your enemies from a distance. This is the normal mode which gives you satisfaction in the game on more dimensions then only one. The hard mode gives you more focus on the kinaesthetic involvement, the way in which you have to move the avatar and making a strategy how far or just how close the avatar is to the target determines your win chance. 

After I have explained this system of the game and after the lecture of last teusday about immersion, can we not say a little bit that the player on itself is responsible for his or her own immersion? The way the player structures the game for himself or herself within the game structure determines the likeness of the game.

How more open or randomness in the game, how more freedom and how more player attachment.  

While you can built on your own in the creative mode of the game in which you have all the materials the game has already in your possession from the start and start building what you want to build, for example a digital replica of the ITU. The multi-player mode is where the community of gamers playing minecraft talk about. In the multi-player mode people start building their own houses. BUT, when that is done for some people the fun part begins and for other people the frustrating part….

The grieving starts in the form of players starting to demolish other’s houses. Therefore protection in the form of traps are needed to make your house safe. Because once another player is inside your house and destroys your bed you are screwed because you cannot respawn and need to start over again. Also the stuff you have stashed in your chest inside your home is no longer safe. Some players decided that this is not how they want to play the game. They would like to stick to creative mode but then in multi-player mode.   

But how to do this? There are too many different players and the players who like to steal and destroy places can easily do that by joining the server. And here starts a form of realism then realism that is accomplished through the graphics of the game. Laws!

This is happening inside the server of cloudcraftfun.net. The administrator of the server makes up the rules which can be seen as laws seen in our daily life society. Also on the website of the community you can report when someone grieved you by breaking into your house and stealing stuff. These reports can be seen by everyone and everyone can add comments about who they suspect. If the one who did it is found this player is banned from the server. The administrator of the server is the one who will do this but the whole game community our ‘society’ is in charge of finding evidence and put someone to trial.

This play that focuses on building nice buildings instead of messing up each other’s houses. 

After my second play-session in minecraft I came to the conclusion that I have a hard time imagining myself being a builder. Also the total lack of seeing the avatar while on the field makes me feel awkward. You only see the builder’s hands. Of course the game is about crafting and the hands makes it more visible that you are actually doing handcraft work. Still not that immersive for me. Even though that I know that you can make your own avatar.  
  Second was that the exploring side of the game can also have a downside. When I builded my house and was exploring to find new materials I completely lost track of where I was and could not find my home on time. So I was eaten by the monsters and lost my life.  
And then I thought I should go for the creative mode. Then I can just explore and build whatever I want and take all my time. Now you can show-off!

This, or a glass house as Pippin build or, as I heard in the hallway’s of the university, building the ITU!

Playing minecraft for the first time can be a bit frustrating. Especially when you do it by just hammering around like I did. I thought, yes I will start by digging into the ground and make some flat surface so that from that I can build my own building or statue. But before I knew it I was lost in a endless maze. I saw some mushrooms gold and finally earth. When I came to the surface I felt like a dolphin because I was splashing around in open water.
         That’s when I thought that I should first look around, explore where I am and see what I can do. To look around was a good idea because that’s when I started seeing the blocked ‘tetris’ sky. More an open space in the game.
         The next thing I thought was, wow, my first experience in the game is feeling as if I am in prison, Then I am splashing around in the water and then I am staring at a beautiful open sky feeling so free! And that while I did not even really started crafting my own building to protect me against the monsters. Shall I dig into the ground and imprison myself again or shall I make an house on a island? Choices, choices!!

As can be seen in my previous post’s I am not playing alone. In fact I have two friends always hanging around at my place and playing games on my PlayStation 3. This has changed my perspective from a player to an observer. A lot can be seen when playing against each other or looking at the interaction between these two players. 

One of the games they play is the fighting game Tekken 6. And one of my friends is a male and he has his favorite character, the female character Lily. And the words ‘oh my Lily’ and ‘look how good she is’ and the laughter that follows when after the fight she is in a very feminine way mocking the opponent is hilarious to watch. But also shows a very interesting fact, gender is not important in the game. 

Not that it is a role-play for the guy, because the words ‘I fell in love with a virtual lady’ has been fallen a lot of times. Also the annoyment when the other character also chooses Lily and Lily is not for himself anymore is fun to watch. 

For me, the role of observer shows me the social engagement people have with a game and also the shameless confessions of people, the likes and dislikes of games and the sometimes aggressive stands that are brought to life in the living room when people loose. A game and emotions, love is one of them!

Playing Final Fantasy XIII-2. While Final Fantasy XIII felt more like a movie because of the realistic images and the linearity of the story, this second part has totally changed that! Still the photorealistic images but with the possibility to travel back and forth in time you can get a complete different story for each play-session because of the change of topics you want to talk about. 

Although one thing. My television screen is to small! I can’t even read the text from the game which is annoying. But anyway huh, you are a fan or you are not a fan and you will play it! Like I do now and have asked some friends with a bigger screen to play it at their house tomorrow. That will be an awesome experience!! Many thanx in advance ;)

And to think of it, is this bad design or just me lacking the right equipement :D

For now a first publish on my new blog which will update you on all the in- and outs of computer games and the theory that surrounds them. 

To be honest, my weekend was very enjoyable by just watching two people playing against each other in the old SEGA game SONIC 2 on the PS3. One finishes the level fast and thinks to win! Unfortunately for that player the system is more complicated then that. If the other one is still in time (it gets 60 seconds above the time of the winner) it can still win the round! the scoring in the game takes more in account then just finishing the level fast.

The other player gets dissapointed……. aahhhhhhh. Here therefore just a note to that player, SONIC 2 is not a racing game ;)