How Games Move Us: Emotion by Design

165 Pages·2016·3.5 MB·English

by  Katherine Isbister

Playful Thinking
Jesper Juul, Geoffrey Long, and William Uricchio, editors The Art of Failure:
An Essay on the Pain of Playing Video Games, Jesper Juul, 2013
Uncertainty in Games, Greg Costikyan, 2013
Play Matters, Miguel Sicart, 2014
Works of Game: On the Aesthetics of Games and Art, John Sharp, 2015
How Games Move Us: Emotion by Design, Katherine Isbister, 2016
How Games Move Us
Emotion by Design
Katherine Isbister

The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© Katherine Isbister
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical
means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in
writing from the publisher.
This book was set in Stone Sans Std and Stone Serif Std by Toppan Best-set Premedia. Printed and
bound in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN: 978-0-262-03426-5 (hardcover) eISBN: 978-0-262-33324-5
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to my stepfather Anthony Falcone, who has been an
enduring and devoted fan—ever willing to lend an ear, send a reference, and in
general cheerlead the myriad efforts that are necessary to get such a project
done. And also, to my Ph.D. advisor Clifford Nass, a brilliant, enthusiastic
mentor who is sorely missed.
Table of Contents
Series page
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication
On Thinking Playfully
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 A Series of Interesting Choices: The Building Blocks of Emotional
Design
2 Social Play: Designing for Multiplayer Emotions
3 Bodies at Play: Using Movement Design to Create Emotion and
Connection
4 Bridging Distance to Create Intimacy and Connection
Endgame: A Few Last Thoughts
Ludography
Index
List of Illustrations
Figure 1.1 Jenova Chen’s diagram of the “flow zone.”
Source: Jenova Chen, “Flow in Games,” MFA thesis, University of
Southern California, 2006,
http://www.jenovachen.com/flowingames/Flow_in_games_final.pdf
Figure 1.2 Brenda Brathwaite Romero’s Train.
Source: Train (exhibited only, 2009); photo courtesy of Brenda Romero
Figure 1.3 Players project themselves more deeply onto game avatars than
protagonists in other media because avatars offer action possibilities at
multiple psychological levels.
Source: Katherine Isbister, Better Game Characters by Design: A
Psychological Approach (Boca Raton, FL: CRC/Morgan Kaufmann, 2006);
image courtesy of CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group
Figure 1.4a, b In Waco Resurrection, the player inhabits the role of cult
leader David Koresh. In gallery installations of the game, players wore
David Koresh helmet-masks that had embedded speakers and microphones
(Eddo Stern, Waco Resurrection 2003–2004, web video, 2:49,
http://www.eddostern.com/video/wacobroadbandlow.mov).
Source: Waco Resurrection (c-level, 2004); image courtesy of Eddo Stern
Figure 1.5a–d Cart Life: (a) overview, (b) introduction of Vinny (one of
three player character choices), (c) buying supplies, and (d) preparing bagels.
Source: Cart Life (freeware, 2011); image courtesy of Richard Hofmeier
Figure 1.6 The NPC in my dissertation research making suggestions about
changing rankings of items in the desert survival task.
Source: Katherine Isbister, “Reading Personality in Onscreen Interactive
Characters: An Examination of Social Psychological Principles of
Consistency, Personality Match, and Situational Attribution Applied to
Interaction with Characters,” Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University, 1998
Figure 1.7 In Hush, the player must soothe a baby to keep it quiet and safe
from soldiers outside.
Source: Hush (freeware, 2008); image courtesy of Jamie Antonisse and
Devon Johnson
Figure 1.8 Love Plus, a Japanese dating sim released on the Nintendo DS
platform, has three female characters with whom the player can attempt to
forge a relationship.
Source: Love Plus 3DS (Otaku Gaming/Konami, 2009)
Figure 1.9a, b The courting phase of Love Plus, in which the player chooses
daily actions toward successfully wooing a particular girl.
Source: Love Plus 3DS (Otaku Gaming/Konami, 2009); bluemist, “Love
Plus: Impressions,” bluemist, September 5, 2009,
http://bluemist.animeblogger.net/archives/love-plus-1/; image courtesy of
bluemist anime blog
Figure 1.9c Scenes of a player’s courtship with Nene.
Source: Love Plus 3DS (Otaku Gaming/Konami, 2009); bluemist, “Love
Plus: Impressions,” bluemist, September 5, 2009,
http://bluemist.animeblogger.net/archives/love-plus-1/; image courtesy of
bluemist anime blog
Figure 1.9d Kissing is simulated in Love Plus with stylus caresses to the
character.
Source: Love Plus 3DS (Otaku Gaming/Konami, 2009); bluemist, “Love
Plus: Impressions,” bluemist, September 5, 2009,
http://bluemist.animeblogger.net/archives/love-plus-1/; image courtesy of
bluemist anime blog
Figure 1.10 Sal 9000 with Nene, a character from Love Plus. They were
married in Guam in 2009.
Source: Know Your Meme/Boing Boing video, 2009,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsikPswAYUM
Figure 1.11 Character creation system from The Sims 3. Players can choose
the character’s name, gender, age, weight, facial features, coloring, clothing,
voice qualities, some key traits (such as light sleeper, dislikes children,
schmoozer, or slob), a few favorite items, and a lifetime wish (such as
becoming a chess legend or a superstar athlete).
Source: The Sims 3 (Electronic Arts, 2009); image taken from Wikipedia
Figure 1.12 Screenshot from the original The Sims game. The player queues
up actions for the Sim (at top left) by pointing and clicking on objects in the
environment and on the Sim, making sure that the basic needs of the
character are met. Here, the Sim is about to go and play the piano.
Source: The Sims (Electronic Arts, 2000); image taken from Will Wright
Fansite, http://www.will-wright.com/willshistory12.php
Figure 1.13 Characters from The Sims trapped by a player for several Sim
days until they “died.”
Source: RanDumbVidz, Sim’s 3 TORTURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, YouTube video,
1:52, July 6, 2009, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ocOmA0hpqA
Figure 1.14 A trailer park crafted by Sims 3 players, and uploaded for others
to use as well.
Source: Sims3Addicted, “The Trailer Park,” Mod The Sims, August 31,
2009, http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=367387
Figure 1.15a, b Story created by prettyone27 and posted to Sims 3 online site,
titled “The Beginning: I’m Anorexic”
Source: prettyone27, “The Beginning: I’m Anorexic,” The Sims 3
Community, July 4, 2010, http://www.thesims3.com/contentDetail.html?
contentId=231419
Figure 2.1 Little Big Planet players coordinate avatar actions to solve
puzzles.
Source: LittleBigPlanet 2 (MediaMolecule, 2011)
Figure 2.2 Little Big Planet avatars are built upon a base avatar body known
as “Sackboy.” Players have a great deal of latitude in customizing the figure
with costuming elements and “stickers.”
Source: LittleBigPlanet 2 (MediaMolecule, 2011); image taken from
Wikipedia
Figure 2.3a, b Happy, very happy, sad, more sad, saddest, and angry
expressions for Sackboy, which can be controlled by the player using the D-
pad on the game controller.
Source: LittleBigPlanet (MediaMolecule, 2008); image courtesy of H2-
Blog
Figure 2.4 Little Big Planet’s avatars and game mechanics evoke the classic
physical humor and sense of adventure and risk of silent film stars like
Harold Lloyd.
Source: Safety Last! (Hal Roach Studios, 1928)
Figure 2.5 Players can make avatars ham it up with facial expressions and
broad body language.
Source: Little Big Planet “Sackzilla” trailer, YouTube
(“calculatorboyqwe”)/MediaMolecule (2008)
Figure 2.6 Customizing the avatar’s costume for City of Heroes.
Source: City of Heroes, Venturebeat (“Layton Shumway”)/NCSOFT
(2010)
Figure 2.7a, b City of Heroes players were able to create a tremendous range
of avatars to support their superhero fantasies.
Source: City of Heroes (Cryptic Studios, 2004); screenshots courtesy of
NCSOFT
Figure 2.8 City of Heroes in-game costume contest.
Source: City of Heroes, YouTube (“NCsoft’s Official City of Heroes
Video Channel”)/NCSOFT (2012)
Figure 2.9a, b Players of Keep Me Occupied (a game built and deployed
during the Occupy Oakland movement in 2012).
Source: Shaun Roberts (www.shaunroberts.net) (2012)
Figure 2.10 Each player is assigned a unique avatar color in the game, so that
they can find themselves in the game state later. Players work together to
open gates, and past players’ avatars are left behind holding open gates for
others so they can build upon the work of those who went before them.
Source: Keep Me Occupied (freeware, 2012); image courtesy of Anna
Anthropy
Figure 3.1a, b Robbie Cooper captures the faraway stares of kids focusing on
gameplay.
Source: Robbie Cooper, Immersion, New York Times Magazine video,
3:47, November 21, 2008,
http://www.nytimes.com/video/magazine/1194833565213/immersion.html
Figure 3.2 High-power and low-power poses affect a person’s self-reported
attitude, as well as body chemistry and risk-taking behavior.
Source: Illustration courtesy of Jason Lee (originally appeared in J. Cloud,
“Strike a Pose,” Time, November 10, 2010,
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2032113,00.html)
Figure 3.3 Wii Sports boxing encourages frantic movement from players,
which creates a high-energy experience for them emotionally, in part as a
result of their own movement.
Source: Photo courtesy of Lindsay Fincher (2008)
Figure 3.4a, b Star Wars: The Force Unleashed used the Wiimote and
Nunchuk movement controllers to allow players to “use the force” like Jedi
knights. Here, the player raises several enemies with a gesture
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuzFzs0hPKc).
Source: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed fan trailer, YouTube
(“TNTv”)/LucasArts (2007)
Figure 3.5 Player avatars from Dance Central 2.
Source: Dance Central 2 (Microsoft Studios, 2011); screenshot courtesy of
Shacknews
Figure 3.6 Visual feedback on breathing during Leela’s Stillness Meditation
module.
Source: Deepak Chopra, Leela (THQ/Curious Pictures, 2011); screenshot
courtesy of Business Insider
Figure 3.7 Desert Bus tests players’ stamina by requiring them to drive a