Media Experience
I’ve spent the last three weeks since the GDC very deeply involved working on a chapter for the book on how we physically and mentally experience games. How do our brains react to a game? What does this have to do with how a game is designed? What about that magical word, addiction?
This is a question that’s central to “addiction,” because on some level games hijack our nervous system (why can’t it be the calm system every once in a while?). Media experience has become “why you spend too much time on the internet, the exact affect of driving with cell phone, and what games physically do which allows them to seemingly addict non-addicts.”
I really haven’t been satisfied by what I’ve written on media experience in the past. There’s a small article here, but it attacks the topic of media experience using primarily the framework laid down by J.R.R. Tolkien. While I love that article, it’s not everything. It’s not even close. This upcoming book chapter breaks into the science behind our senses: like vision, sound, and thought. It looks at consciousness, immersion and real money trade. And while it’s not centered on MMO games alone, it separates the sensual (senses, not senses) differences between single player and MMO games.
What if immersion into WoW, and games in general, was mandatory? If something about our brain’s physical processing required our full consciousness to enter into the game? If there’s no primary world (real life) interruption, no need to divide our consciousness, while a game meanwhile goes on indefinitely… Consciousness can sometimes act like a light switch. As you turn on the lights in the game, you turn off the primary world’s lights. Vice versa. Sometimes it’s a dimmer switch. For instance, while the game light is on, a small spotlight can focus on a pot of boiling water. That small spotlight may help you cook, but at the same time it dims the game light. If something happens inside of the game that requires full illumination, maybe rolling on sweet drops, or giving honest thought to the next technology you want to develop, then you might momentarily lose signposts for the real world. If nothing happens to alert you to this, then your water might boil over.
This is your brain, and this is your brain on Media Experience.
It’s an interesting parallel, because it’s not addiction. It’s something that should be less of a problem once we understand it. I’ll have more later! For now, more writing!
I enjoyed this quote =P It’s from Clifford Geertz, who recently passed away. He was an anthropologist whose writing was deeply inspiring to me.
“The next necessary thing…is neither the construction of a universal Esperanto-like culture…nor the invention of some vast technology of human management. It is to enlarge the possibility of intelligible discourse between people quite different from one another in interest, outlook, wealth, and power, and yet contained in a world where tumbled as they are into endless connection, it is increasingly difficult to get out of each other’s way.”
Neils Clark :: Mar.29.2007 :: Media Experience ::
Interesting thought Neils. I completely agree. WoW can pull one’s focus so far into it, it can take a substantial amount of effort to focus back to the real world. The game, even for someone sitting down for the first time, would sense this “cone” of reality even if they didn’t realize it.
But what do we call it when people cannot lose that focus from the game and it affects their real world? Can the the focus of the game as you described meld into their real world, even when not in front of the computer? I believe it can and does affect the brain permanently.
Of course it comes back into the real world. The idea is that we have an experience of any media, whether its TV, radio or a game. Just like an experience of playing ping pong or petting our dog, we take it with us. The difference is that in the game, we’re using a very specific kind of external hardware. We’re using a computer, or a console, and unlike just experiencing the world through our eyes, the stories and experiences in a game can look and act waaaay different. Playing Civ 4 isn’t just like seeing out your eyes, it’s like seeing a birds-eye view, reading, and semi-speaking with leaders of other civilizations.
In the example above, somebody might sit down and play, while at the same time they’re boiling some water. So long as nothing in the game demands their entire consciousness, they’ll probably be able to remember to check up on their cooking.
The opposite is true. If you’re boiling water inside of a game, or if you’re selling a 3000g BOE purple, or if you’re planning a new talent spec, or if you’re waiting for some crazy mob to spawn, that can just as easily command a portion of your consciousness while you go about your everyday life. And some of those goals are crazy. That alone would be enough to command a lot of attention, who doesn’t want to slay a dragon or fifty? There’s more to it, though. Besides the chemicals in addiction, you don’t have to do much physically in a game. It’s kind of like experience lite. Heft a ton of ore? Click click. Construct a space freighter. Click type type click. Slay an ancient beast. Click click type click type type click.
The way that our brain perceives images, text, and game experience. The chemicals that our body releases at different intervals. The way that this begins to affect our bodies in the long term - it’s all tied together.
Everything affects the brain permanently, although that affect varies. Every body is different, and gamers have all negotiated various games differently. The affect can be large, small, or anything in between.
You’ll like the chapter =P