Immersion in games - a brief rant
I was playing Ever17 yesterday and it made me think about a discussion I'd seen recently:
http://www.bowenresearch.com/studies.php?id=3
aaand it looks like I need to put this behind a cut, so follow it for my rant.
For one, if you even have to ask the question 'can videogames make you cry,' you've obviously never played a visual novel before - or you have a heart of cold iron and don't count anyway. The base question is this - how to bring a level of immersion to a game that will bring out an emotional response in a player. Fancy graphics and gimmicky controllers (yeah, I went there) only make an approximation and even reduce the suspension of disbelief necessary to be sufficiently immersed in a game.
Now, on the flip side, how many people do you know that have played Rez, Lumines, Frequency/Amplitude or Guitar Hero and been completely mesmerized? Or been unable to sleep after playing Silent Hill? Connecting sound with player action is very important and when done with subtlety, it can really draw a player in. In visual novels, this is accomplished with skillful voice acting and strongly emotional orchestral scores (I'm looking at you, KimiNozo, and your damned solo piano). Of course, if the sound is off, it is particularly jarring.
Another thing that is lauded when its even vaguely decent (*cough*halo*cough*) is AI. Just ducking and weaving is a challenge, but meaningless, but if every replay of an encounter is different, then that is immersing. What is even better is a game world where NPCs do their own things independent of the player. RPGs are increasingly featuring this idea. Unfortunately, this isn't a feature in visual novels at all, although the game Facade comes close. This leads into the next idea - choice.
A big feature in few games is the idea that your choices directly affect the game world and your character. This is usually implemented as 'yes/no' questions or quest selection that count as 'moral choices.' Rarely is the decision tree particularly complicated for games like this, and even then its usually pretty heavy-handed.
So the question now is 'what makes a visual novel affect people that play them so much - they're basically just picture books, right?' What makes some visual novels so great is typically the quality of writing, much like any good book can affect a reader. In most games, weak characters and features that limit suspension of disbelief are what prevent true immersion.
The next twist for visual novels that I would like to see more are real choices that have subtle effects. Very rarely in a visual novel do you realize that you've wandered into a bad ending path before its too late. Simple choices make subtle changes.
Here's a crude example, lets briefly imagine a Harry Potter game - and with the basic conventions, various choices lead you to end up with one of several possible girls...actually, it'll be easier if you turn it around for the girls, heh. Sorry, thats just how it works. The purpose of this example is to get you to think about the emotional investment you have in the characters and how you would feel if you knew that your choices would let you see a new side of a particular character? Or the dread when you realize that a choice you made hours ago has caused a character you love to do something rash that leads to their death or worse? Thats the trick right there. Even better is the 'death thats beyond your control that defies the conventions of the game.' The infamous example is Aerith's death (assuming you didn't despise her) - even though characters 'die' all the time and can be resurrected, the one time that ability is taken away from you its that much harder. In visual novels, this is 'the girl you can't save.' When you take a game thats based on your ability to make choices that give you the outcome you want and present a situation where nothing you can do can save someone, its emotional. Breaking conventions for emotional impact is shown in other games, like Shadow of the Colossus - which takes the idea of defeating giant monsters and turns it on its head by making you feel guilty for it and questioning your motivations.
And the final idea - breaking the 4th wall. Usually this is done for comedic effect, but even better when done for emotional effect. In Steel Battalion, if you die in the game, it erases your saved game - you effectively die for real, and it gives back that sense of tension that is lost when you know you can just restart. And who can forget the tricks in Metal Gear Solid, or the subtle heart beat in Silent Hill that you all-too-often think is your own? I'm sure there are plenty of other examples. Now, how can I bring this back to visual novels, you ask? I'll use 2 games for examples - MuvLuv Alternative and Ever17 (warning, mild spoilers)
These games present an interesting idea that stems from the paradox of the character's memories vs your memories. You know when you're watching a movie and you just want to yell at a character about something they're not aware of but you are? How about if you reach the end of a story and you find that some you hadn't realized before has doomed someone you care about - what if you find a new choice the next time you play through, knowing the future already? And what if that paradox is taken into account and has unexpected consequences? This is most covered in MuvLuv Alternative, where the character remembers other endings and events like the player has completed that he shouldn't know...it allows you to make new choices, but a paradox is a paradox and has, at times, horrifying consequences. In Ever17, every story you complete reveals a little more of the puzzle and opens up new choices. There's not the same 'butterfly effect' catastrophe as in MuvLuv Alternative (as far as I know ^_^;;;), but it does twist things in surprising ways.
Well, thats my rant, I may add more stuff later. And yes, I am writing all of this at work because I'm oh-so-bored, hahaha.
...Also, I find this to be way funnier than I probably should:
http://kalecoauto.com/index.php?main_page=index
http://www.bowenresearch.com/studies.php?id=3
aaand it looks like I need to put this behind a cut, so follow it for my rant.
For one, if you even have to ask the question 'can videogames make you cry,' you've obviously never played a visual novel before - or you have a heart of cold iron and don't count anyway. The base question is this - how to bring a level of immersion to a game that will bring out an emotional response in a player. Fancy graphics and gimmicky controllers (yeah, I went there) only make an approximation and even reduce the suspension of disbelief necessary to be sufficiently immersed in a game.
Now, on the flip side, how many people do you know that have played Rez, Lumines, Frequency/Amplitude or Guitar Hero and been completely mesmerized? Or been unable to sleep after playing Silent Hill? Connecting sound with player action is very important and when done with subtlety, it can really draw a player in. In visual novels, this is accomplished with skillful voice acting and strongly emotional orchestral scores (I'm looking at you, KimiNozo, and your damned solo piano). Of course, if the sound is off, it is particularly jarring.
Another thing that is lauded when its even vaguely decent (*cough*halo*cough*) is AI. Just ducking and weaving is a challenge, but meaningless, but if every replay of an encounter is different, then that is immersing. What is even better is a game world where NPCs do their own things independent of the player. RPGs are increasingly featuring this idea. Unfortunately, this isn't a feature in visual novels at all, although the game Facade comes close. This leads into the next idea - choice.
A big feature in few games is the idea that your choices directly affect the game world and your character. This is usually implemented as 'yes/no' questions or quest selection that count as 'moral choices.' Rarely is the decision tree particularly complicated for games like this, and even then its usually pretty heavy-handed.
So the question now is 'what makes a visual novel affect people that play them so much - they're basically just picture books, right?' What makes some visual novels so great is typically the quality of writing, much like any good book can affect a reader. In most games, weak characters and features that limit suspension of disbelief are what prevent true immersion.
The next twist for visual novels that I would like to see more are real choices that have subtle effects. Very rarely in a visual novel do you realize that you've wandered into a bad ending path before its too late. Simple choices make subtle changes.
Here's a crude example, lets briefly imagine a Harry Potter game - and with the basic conventions, various choices lead you to end up with one of several possible girls...actually, it'll be easier if you turn it around for the girls, heh. Sorry, thats just how it works. The purpose of this example is to get you to think about the emotional investment you have in the characters and how you would feel if you knew that your choices would let you see a new side of a particular character? Or the dread when you realize that a choice you made hours ago has caused a character you love to do something rash that leads to their death or worse? Thats the trick right there. Even better is the 'death thats beyond your control that defies the conventions of the game.' The infamous example is Aerith's death (assuming you didn't despise her) - even though characters 'die' all the time and can be resurrected, the one time that ability is taken away from you its that much harder. In visual novels, this is 'the girl you can't save.' When you take a game thats based on your ability to make choices that give you the outcome you want and present a situation where nothing you can do can save someone, its emotional. Breaking conventions for emotional impact is shown in other games, like Shadow of the Colossus - which takes the idea of defeating giant monsters and turns it on its head by making you feel guilty for it and questioning your motivations.
And the final idea - breaking the 4th wall. Usually this is done for comedic effect, but even better when done for emotional effect. In Steel Battalion, if you die in the game, it erases your saved game - you effectively die for real, and it gives back that sense of tension that is lost when you know you can just restart. And who can forget the tricks in Metal Gear Solid, or the subtle heart beat in Silent Hill that you all-too-often think is your own? I'm sure there are plenty of other examples. Now, how can I bring this back to visual novels, you ask? I'll use 2 games for examples - MuvLuv Alternative and Ever17 (warning, mild spoilers)
These games present an interesting idea that stems from the paradox of the character's memories vs your memories. You know when you're watching a movie and you just want to yell at a character about something they're not aware of but you are? How about if you reach the end of a story and you find that some you hadn't realized before has doomed someone you care about - what if you find a new choice the next time you play through, knowing the future already? And what if that paradox is taken into account and has unexpected consequences? This is most covered in MuvLuv Alternative, where the character remembers other endings and events like the player has completed that he shouldn't know...it allows you to make new choices, but a paradox is a paradox and has, at times, horrifying consequences. In Ever17, every story you complete reveals a little more of the puzzle and opens up new choices. There's not the same 'butterfly effect' catastrophe as in MuvLuv Alternative (as far as I know ^_^;;;), but it does twist things in surprising ways.
Well, thats my rant, I may add more stuff later. And yes, I am writing all of this at work because I'm oh-so-bored, hahaha.
...Also, I find this to be way funnier than I probably should:
http://kalecoauto.com/index.php?main_page=index