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Sony's Phil Harrison Talks Emotion in Games
The increasingly enjoyable games coverage continues on the MTV site, despite the horrible flash interface. Stephen Totitilo sat down for a chat with Sony's Phil Harrison, and comes away with some interesting perspectives on the year. Mr. Harrison discusses Sony's outlook on their launch, the overall role of games in world culture, and the topic of game content as it relates to 'appropriateness'. Specifically, he dealt with the 'controversy' over Rockstar's well-received title Bully. From the article: "Harrison called it a 'storm in a teacup' stirred by politicians and media, embarking on a familiar argument that games aren't really just for kids. In this case, movies and books had delved into similar subject matter and seldom faced such protest. Did that give Harrison, someone with nearly unparalleled power to greenlight video games, any pause about the material he thinks he can offer gamers? 'It has absolutely not changed my approach,' he said. 'I fervently believe that the biggest challenge we face is that our industry is referred to as video games, and games are supposed to be fun,' he said, adding that games shouldn't have to only focus on light topics. 'Games should deal with fear, should deal with comedy and with death. They should deal with peril, with drug offenses.'"
"Shit. I paid 60 bucks for THIS ?"
The sane amongst you might prefer the plain HTML version: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1548258/20061218/ id_0.jhtml
I think you misunderstood what Sony's Phil Harrison means when he says emotionally immersive; what he means is "In HD" and has very little interest in anything else.
In this case, movies and books had delved into similar subject matter and seldom faced such protest.
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One thing that heartens me is that movies, books, and music have covered these subjects and have been protested for it. In many cases, we're now on the other side of that: dealing with (some) tricky subject matter has become acceptable. We can use those mediums to talk about topics that are taboo.
If that can happen for traditional media, it can happen for video games, and that's a Good Thing(tm). I'm optimistic.
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Dejobaan Games - Bringing you quality video games for over 75 years.
We're indie. We're working on our 14th game.
So that's what they were trying to do with the Emotion Engine.
Seriously, though. To make a game as emotionally moving as a movie or book, there's needs to be a well-developed plot and rich characters that the player(s) can identify with and/or fall in love with. A lot of games lack one or both of those. Also, few games tell much of a story other than having you complete objective A, B, and C to fight Boss 4B and see the next cutscene. Until a higher level of depth is achieved, video games will not evoke much in the way of emotions. All the fancy graphics and great gameplay in the world will not evoke as much emotion as well-written plots and characters.
Everything I say is a lie. Except that... and that... and that, and that, and that, and that... and that.
You drop to your knees and cradle Floyd's head in your lap. Floyd looks up at his friend with half-open eyes. "Floyd did it
As you finish the last verse, Floyd smiles with contentment, and then his eyes close as his head rolls to one side. You sit in silence for a moment, in memory of a brave friend who gave his life so that you might live."
"Oh boy! Are we going to try something dangerous?"
I concur. Join a WoW guild run when they successfully bring down a boss for the first time, after weeks of trying. You, my friend will see hear more emotion on Vent than you know what to do with.
Raging in an online forum won't do anything for the world around you. To see change, you must take action.
On his particular quote in the summary, I definitely agree. 'Video games' has the same stigma that 'comic books' have languished under for many years, and perhaps gives us a hint as to how much hope we can have of altering that. It is interesting to observe, for instance, that most people seem have no idea that the video game industry has been generating more cash than the movie industry for several years now. That is but one metric, but the Jack Thompsons of the world would have you believe that this new interactive medium is somehow corrosive to one's personality - I would think that this argument had been beaten to death back when RPGs were supposed to be making teens kill themselves, etc.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
COPYRIGHTS RESTRICT US FROM PLAYING THIS VIDEO OUTSIDE THE U.S.
Note to MTV: my personal Emotion Engine is registering MILD ANNOYANCE
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
I don't know. Those wiimotes are apparently pretty dangerous.
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I am completely outraged at how my kids are playing a game where the only way to lvl is to smoke pot in the back room, Yell profranities at teachers and break school property!
I actually saw that quote from a completely different perspective ...
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After hearing for months about how difficult the PS3 was to program for, I thought the quote almost sounded like he was admiting that the PS3's 'theoritical' performance would be far greater than the PS3's 'Actual' performance
Maybe I'm wrong, but I suspect he meant the quote to be taken as "Think of how great games will be in the future" but I think it really says "You're paying $600 for a system based on promised performance which the PS3 will never meet".
Emotion in media does not have much to do with screen resolution in fact surprisingly the opposite is true.
/. is so much more fun than the newspaper.
It seems that media (called cool media) where the consumer's brain can fill in the blanks is more emotionally immersive. Interactivity also cools the media which is why
If you're interested in that sort of stuff then there is simply no better book than Marshall McLuhan's "Understanding Media:The Extensions of Man".
Here's the Wiki page on McLuhan for those who don't read dead trees http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan
Something like the Wii invokes emotion by an inductive process of using physical sympathy with the character to create immersion and emotional empathy. This is why HD graphics were not a priority on the Wii.
I've actually designed and done proof of concept on a system where a galvanic skin response meter is used along with a coil for breath rate and a pulse monitor to determine changes in stress levels.
This is great for horror games.
By exposing the user to a calibration sequence of stimuli like spiders, rats, simulated falling etc you can fairly accurately determine what really freaks people out and use that against them.
The effect is that if rats scare them then rats will scurry out of every corner. If spiders make their blood run cold then the place will crawl with them.
It's kind of like dynamically generating their own personalized nightmare.
It's a simple database selection to change one type of monster to another and if I ever get funding for it then you'll see just how emotionally interactive a video game can be.
Here's a link to the affective computing project at MIT http://affect.media.mit.edu/index.php
They've done some great lab/theory work but failed to put it to any good use as is typical of academia.