Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Surprise your players and they will love your games


NOTICE: I HAVE MOVED MY BLOG TO MY PERSONAL WEBSITE!
Please check http://www.pmhsilva.com for more details. You can red this blog post here.


I just read this article about how introducing surprise events improves the gamer's learning process. This is the result of a study led by Erik Van der Spek and his colleagues at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands who used a mod of the game Half Life 2: Episode Two to create a training scenario in which students undertake the role of a medical first responder. The study was published in the British Journal of Educational Technology.

The whole idea was to determine what would be the reaction of players to the introduction of surprising events and how would that affect their learning experience in dealing with the challenges presented to them. Seems like those elements of surprise do improve the learning performance. According to the above mentioned article: 

"It appears that when we are engaged in a scenario we construct a situation model through which we seek to understand and act. For example, the relationships between individuals, what objectives and roles individuals have and how this may change. This situation model is updated as we work through the scenario.

However, as humans we are strongly wedded to our points of view. We will look for information that confirms our view of the world. When we receive information that does not fit with our situation model, we may often choose to ignore it, or even use it to polarize our view. This has been shown in experiments featuring individuals holding extreme political views on the left or right of the spectrum.

When we encounter a surprise in a scenario it grabs our attention and forces us to question the situation model that we have formed. In performing this action, the leaner must go beyond surface learning activities. Instead they must engage in deeper learning processes to compare, contrast and synthesize information presented with this event (Graesser et al, 2009).".

Most forms of art that I have strongly embedded in my mind and that I consider to be the best pieces of art I've been exposed to, are those who surprised me somehow. I remember the first time I saw movies like The Exorcist, Schindler's List, The Ring, The Sixth Sense or Inception. It was the fact that they didn't have a regular story line and had impressive and surprising events that led me to conclude that they are among the best movies I've ever seen. Same thing applies to when I read "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera. Might not be the best book ever for you but it totally knocked me off my feet as I have never had someone telling me a story that way before. It was surprising! Same goes for music, painting, etc. and, of course, games.

Hence, I would have to agree that this is an important tool for Game Designers. Being able to create engaging and compelling stories around a game will obviously make the player want to play more. But adding surprising events will not only improve their learning process and performance while playing the game but will also improve their satisfaction and increase their willingness to play more and more of it. Now, isn't that what we all want?

I believe that it is not always possible to include those kind of surprising events, but whenever it is, Game Designers should go for it.

No comments: