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An In-Depth Psychology of Games
Gamasutra has a lengthy article discussing many aspects of The Psychology of Video Games. The article discusses why we play, why games are made the way they are, and tips for designing for members of our species. From the article: "We are all familiar with the feeling we have when we are completely caught up in a great game. The state where we are completely focused on playing, and all other things become irrelevant. This article is about that feeling - why we get it when we play games, and how we can design games that give us more of it."
I do remember getting caught up in games when i was younger. First on games like Leisure Suit Larry and Elite, later on games like Quake and Betrayal at Krondor (i remember spending weeks of 12+ hours a day playing that game in my summer vacation).
Now i can't be bothered much to get into a good RTS or RPG, it just takes up too much effort and time. Even with the better FPS games that came out recently i'm just not getting that feeling of being caught up in a game.
Sample this!
When you're thinking 'normally' - un-automatic, processing stuff logically, actually thinking about the stuff you're looking at - your brain patterns are in beta waveform; it's irregular, you're testing out different parts of your brain to see which one helps most at a problem, and you notice other things more easily.
There was a study done a while ago (the results possibly turned up in one of the popular science magazines? Can't remember.) studying alpha patterns. Alpha brainwaves are what give what is termed 'cyborg ability' - this isn't cyborg in the augmented-with-cool-gizmos though. Here, cyborg means augmentation in a different sense. When you walk, you no longer have to think about the complexity of timing your feet, balance, leg muscles, pressure feedback and all the other intricate things that are needed to master walking. It sounds funny, but you can do it because you're used to it.
That's not cyborg, but you're starting to get the idea.
When you ride a bicycle for a few years, you no longer have to think about how you move. Even adults have trouble on a bike the first couple of times - it's about learning how to balance, how to steer with balance, and so on. When you cycle without thinking about it, that's cyborg. You get to a particular place on the road by intending to get there rather than left leg, right leg, move the handlebars this way - it just happens.
A more understandable analogy for slashdotters is gaming. When you've played a game for a certain amount of time, got used to the keyset and mouse movements - you *don't think about it any more*. You want to move left, you move left. You want to walk backwards round a corner, you walk backwards around a corner. If you don't think about having to press that button to get this to happen - that's cyborg. That's when your brain is so used to what happens that it no longer requires the feedback of 'finger press button' - to the brain, it's 'walk backwards around the corner', and you've practised it enough that you can just do it.
That's alpha brainwaves.
The study was examining where alpha brainwaves were found; it's where you find 'think' turned into 'do'. And the three major groups were sportspeople (This is what is known as "The Zone" - where it just happens. You're not thinking about anything else; it's all about what happens, not how it happens, or where to step), zen masters (A different way in - actively turning off the thinking, and settling into alpha by default. The transcendental aspect of it comes from not having the sport or base thought to distract yourself either - pure meditation is when your mind shuts down to one or no active activities, only interrupted by external influence e.g. becoming cold or being disturbed)... and, if you can remember where this sentence was going, gamers.
Focused gamers stop seeing the outside world, and stop interacting with the keyboard - the brain interacts with the game, and the finger-key interface becomes just another synapse. It's less so with more complicated games, where you have to shift your hands around to new keysets; it's also affected by in-game chat (because you have to upshift to beta to access speech centres) and lag (because your brain activity stops corresponding directly with what happens).
Another aspect of having the ability to use alpha pattern is that the ability to pick up the other alpha activities is significantly increased, because it's that much easier to get into the zone. With two or three different ways of settling to alpha - gaming and a focus sport, or a focus sport and meditation - it becomes easier to learn other tasks. The brain is becoming more able to adapt to new impulse-response patterns, and so learns faster. Concentration goes up, productivity goes up; it's an incredibly useful ability to have.
What the article writer doesn't know, but still appreciates the feel of, is the first step along the way. Becoming more skillful; becoming less interface and more immerse, is what takes something to the depths of the brain. And once you're there, it's a pretty small step to reach enjoyment. It's a form of enlightenment; it's just.... pure.
Browsing with +2 to insightful posts and a higher threshold makes the average post seen seem a lot more ingenious
I remember playing a RPG where I was having problems living trough a certain dungeon. No problem, I thougth, I'll just go somewhere else, solve some other quest, gain some levels and then return.
On return the dungeon was no easier than before. Turned out the monsters in that game had stats calculated according to the players stats. So for example, it'd have a strength equal to your strength+2.
What this meant was that advancing your characters was meaningless, getting twice as many hitpoints would only ensure that the enemies started hitting you twice as hard.
Dumb.
Myself, I hate dynamically adjusted difficulty levels.
1. It's an activity that we feel that we can perform - a challenge that requires skill
Any activity provides us with a number of options - or challenges - that require a certain skill to do. If we don't have the required skill for the activity, the challenge will easily become frustrating or feel meaningless. Pleasure comes in the area between boredom and anxiety at the distinct moment where our options are in line with our abilities.
Playing a game of chess against an evenly matched opponent is a good example of this - if they were much better than we were, it could feel meaningless since we cannot really affect the outcome. If we were much better than they were, it could be boring since there is no challenge in it for us.
When a game has dynamic difficulty, I feel like I'm not affecting the outcome. No matter what I do, the game will adjust itself to let me win. If I find out that I only completed a difficult section because the game made it less difficult, I feel cheated - I didn't get the chance I wanted to overcome the challenge. And if I find out a game has less-than-obvious dynamically adjusted difficulty, I feel like it's lying to me, telling me I'm better than I actually am, and thereby hurting my potential to become better.
If I really can't beat a challenge, and I'm not having fun, I can select another difficulty or play another game. I don't need the game to decide that for me.