An engaging examination of how video game design can create strong,
positive emotional experiences for players, with examples from
popular, indie, and art games. This is a renaissance moment for
video games-in the variety of genres they represent, and the range
of emotional territory they cover. But how do games create emotion?
In How Games Move Us, Katherine Isbister takes the reader on a
timely and novel exploration of the design techniques that evoke
strong emotions for players. She counters arguments that games are
creating a generation of isolated, emotionally numb, antisocial
loners. Games, Isbister shows us, can actually play a powerful role
in creating empathy and other strong, positive emotional
experiences; they reveal these qualities over time, through the act
of playing. She offers a nuanced, systematic examination of exactly
how games can influence emotion and social connection, with
examples-drawn from popular, indie, and art games-that unpack the
gamer's experience. Isbister describes choice and flow, two
qualities that distinguish games from other media, and explains how
game developers build upon these qualities using avatars,
non-player characters, and character customization, in both solo
and social play. She shows how designers use physical movement to
enhance players' emotional experience, and examines long-distance
networked play. She illustrates the use of these design methods
with examples that range from Sony's Little Big Planet to the
much-praised indie game Journey to art games like Brenda Romero's
Train. Isbister's analysis shows us a new way to think about games,
helping us appreciate them as an innovative and powerful medium for
doing what film, literature, and other creative media do: helping
us to understand ourselves and what it means to be human.
General
Imprint: |
MIT Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
Playful Thinking |
Release date: |
October 2017 |
First published: |
2016 |
Authors: |
Katherine Isbister
(Professor)
|
Dimensions: |
203 x 137 x 13mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback - Trade
|
Pages: |
167 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-262-53445-1 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-262-53445-2 |
Barcode: |
9780262534451 |
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