Week 4

today's class started off with a discussion about psychology 

• behaviourism is about the world around us and how we react to it/within it 

• this includes classical conditioning (e.g. Pavlov's dogs) 

• also operant conditioning (e.g. Skinner's box; reinforcement) 

  • positive reinforcement is common in games - e.g. complete the quest, gain XP; kill the enemy, pick up loot 

  • the best ways to keep players engaged in a game without leaning on conditioning: 

    • mystery; mastery; mental challenge; narrative; novelty; flow

  • engagement and compulsion are not the same thing
    
    

then we moved onto virtual identity 

• presence is the feeling of 'I am here at this moment' - very strong in VR 

• self-presence is "the feeling that one's avatar is more than a mechanism to act with in a virtual environment. It is an extension of the self." (Scarborough & Bailenson, 2016, p. 135) 

• social presence is the feeling that the player is interacting/communicating with others in the same universe
  
  

we also briefly went into narrative 

• it is about the story and how events unfold - it's a way of getting meaning across 

  • not necessarily limited to fiction 

• it encompasses plot, lore, setting and context 

• our internal narratives (i.e. our experiences) influence how we see ourselves and the world 

• ludonarrative is the exploration of a narrative through mechanics and gameplay 

• ludonarrative dissonance is when the narrative and gameplay don't match up e.g. Uncharted 

  • players will only suspend their disbelief to a point - after that, dissonance becomes immersion breaking