tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9182452385612539553.post1735447910082294622..comments2008-06-19T12:58:08.145-07:00Comments on Evil Art Studio: Game ViolenceEvil Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09498604621860314586noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9182452385612539553.post-91158715522215059042008-06-19T12:58:00.000-07:002008-06-19T12:58:00.000-07:00Oh man. I killed a ton of the day just reading th...Oh man. I killed a ton of the day just reading through that paper on InfoCom. It was so interesting that couldn't get myself to stop.<BR/><BR/>You've written a really great comment, let me bounce another idea off of you --<BR/><BR/>I can kind of imagine lebenrelevant elements to emerge as a secondary element to support a (fantasy) story, if the skill gained has relevance within that fantasy context. <BR/><BR/>For instance, here is an idea that I have been kicking around that I may some day want to build: You have a PC game that has a really complicated keyboard player input scheme - and through playing the game, you learn how to type quickly. <BR/><BR/>The key in this case would be engaging the players so much in the story that they wouldn't realize that they are gaining the real life skill of typing.Evil Danhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09498604621860314586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9182452385612539553.post-6826894455879006622008-06-18T01:49:00.000-07:002008-06-18T01:49:00.000-07:00"The play that developers are offering isn’t relev..."The play that developers are offering isn’t relevant to our players' lives."<BR/><BR/>Funny that you wrote that. I'm working on my thesis project right now and one of the central terms to I use evaluate different games is the word "Lebensrelevanz" which means "Life-relevance".<BR/><BR/>Genrally, I agree with you that lebensrelevanz is pretty low right now. It might be because games in the 90ies were heavily targetet towards kids. In the 80ies, you had at least a company like Infocom, who really made some extraordinary lebensrelevant textadventures. In fact, the whole marketing idea of Infocom was lebensrelevanz. Check out this ad:<BR/>http://mit.edu/6.933/www/Fall2000/infocom/images/ads/MatchWitsAd.jpg<BR/><BR/>But there is some change. It doesn't seem like much but the Touch! Generation Games by Nintendo are pretty lebensrelevant. I'm talking about things like Brain Age.<BR/><BR/>And one last thing: one way to make things more lebensrelevant is to let go of the idea of a "message". People will find your work more interesting if they can interpret it on their own. That way, it will seem to them as if the game is about them. The trick is not to force any message onto you audience but to use elements which afford lebenrelevant interpretation. Some ideas: Remove fantasy or comic elements, Take back any "story" you have, remove a protagonist and address the player directly.Krystian Majewskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11575248324136515649noreply@blogger.com