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I’ve thought about how best to do this, and I’m not sure I’ve come up with a good answer, but at least I have formulated some form of strategy.. We’ll have to see how it pans out! :P My new strategy is based on only making one point per post, which I hope will encourage more of a discussion on that one point at a time, and it should also keep my posts shorter. I appreciate that as little time I have to write these posts, you guys have even less time to read and comment on them!
So without further ado, here’s today’s point:
I’m trying to establish a set of guidelines regarding how to ensure appropriateness of adaptations, based on player emotions, to the game play. Today I’m considering this with respect to the storyline. In some games it may well be not just appropriate but downright exciting to adapt the storyline itself to the emotions of the player. Games such as Fable II and Fallout 3 could benefit from such adaptations, allowing the player to experience a new story every time they played through the game. This would also increase the life span of the games, as the replay value would increase dramatically. Unfortunately, adapting the storyline itself is tremendously difficult, and has yet (to my knowledge) to be done successfully (based on emotions or not).
Do you guys know of any games that does this successfully, or games that do something similar, hack it somehow?
What do you think about the concept of adapting the storyline to player’s emotion? Or adapting any part of the game to the emotions of the player?
Until next time!
Phew
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The concept of an adaptable storyline in gaming is not all that new. Many games developers have tried to provide alternate endings based on player decisions throughout the game.
ReplyDeleteNotable attempts were the somewhat revolutionary first-person RPG 'Deus Ex' which had an ending for each of the three factions and allowed the player to choose which faction they would fight for.
More recently there has been 'inFamous' which frequently offers the player a choice between good and evil and subsequently grants additional powers based on the hero's social reputation - good decisions leading to healing and calming powers, evil ones leading to rampant destruction.
Also of note would be 'Bioshock' with it multiple endings relating to player choice.
However, the biggest criticism of these and similar games is the black and white nature of the outcomes; you either become a saviour who is loved by all, or you become an eater-of-babies (metaphorically speaking in most cases!)
I would also consider more traditional role-playing games such as 'Baldur's Gate' which allows the player the choose an alignment (neutral good, chaotic evil, etc) and has various other non-player characters react in different ways based on this alignment - often routing the story via different quests due to the questgivers own perceived alignment.
To have a game that adjusts itself based on the emotional reactions of the player would suggest to me that certain decisions and and consequences are removed from player control in order to invoke an emotional reaction in the first place.
I am reminded at this point of Final Fantasy VII and the death of Aeris. The range of emotions felt by players across the world must have been phenomenal, but the game continued along its own path like a partially interactive movie.
In summary: it's an on-going line of development which has yet, as you say, to be perfected. Video gaming is a form of interactive entertainment which is has the potential to give so much more satisfaction than watching a movie, but the logistics of providing 'something for everyone' in adaptable gameplay are monstrous!
All the games to which you refer show interesting steps towards adapting to the player. However, they are all behavioural adaptations, not affective. They will make for interesting background reading in my thesis, I'm sure!
ReplyDeleteBut how do you feel about adapting a storyline to the players emotions? In a game you may do something evil, but then instantly regret it, and feel terrible (happened to me in inFamous). Does that not account for anything?
If your regretted decision was undone based on your reaction, you would not learn about consequences. So the next time you need to make a decision you would act without thinking knowing that a wrong turn could be negated.
ReplyDeleteOr if your remorse was transferred to your character in order to make him/her/it suffer directly the consequences of the decision, then it would potentially destroy the rest of the gameplay experience; I know that I for one would not be too keen to jump around rooftops firing off lightning if I was feeling a bit sorry for myself!