The Gamification of Halloween

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the effects of special annual Halloween events in computer games.

Although Halloween began as a Christian holiday, it has become a secular celebration in our modern western world. Famous Halloween traditions include trick-or-treating, visiting Halloween costume parties, watching horror movies or carving pumpkins into jack’o’lanterns. [1]

Due to Halloween’s popularity, it also got adopted by the media. For instance, several horror movies evolve around this special event and many comedy series feature special Halloween episodes. One of the most famous examples are the The Simpsons – Treehouse of Horror special episodes that aired annually since the second season of The Simpsons.

Naturally, a similar adoption took place in the computer game industry as well. Aside from the emergence of special Halloween-inspired horror games, several computer games received annual events allowing the players to celebrate Halloween in their favorite virtual worlds.

Hallow’s End in World of Warcraft.

The probably best example is World of Warcraft that received a Halloween-inspired annual event in October 2005. Since then, players can celebrate the Hallow’s End event on an annual basis by defeating special event bosses, collecting sweets by trick-or-treating and wearing spooky costumes or masks. In addition, the entire virtual world of Azeroth gets decorated with jack’o’lanterns, spooky candles, skeletons and other Halloween decorations during this particular events.

Aside from adding new and exciting game mechanics to an existing game, those special events also make the virtual worlds more authentic and immersive. Without those special events, the virtual worlds would just be static environments that always look the same throughout the whole year. However, with the implementation of special events, the virtual environments start to change the same way as the real world, thus making it more believable and realistic.

Moreover, special seasonal events provide the players with new content and, more importantly, new experiences that ultimately result in more fun and that’s what it is all about when it comes to playing a game.

Halloween in Minecraft.

Happy Halloween! 🙂

Other games are interesting, too

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about a special viewer group that only watches a Let’s Play series of a particular game and starts to demand more content when the content creator likes to drop the series.

Like any other computer game player, YouTubers who create Let’s Play videos (LP) stop playing a particular game when they have beaten the game or exhausted most of the game’s challenges. At this point, they move on to a different game that is more enjoyable and provides new challenges to the content creator. Although this sounds like the natural progression of playing computer games, it can have surprising side effects for the YouTuber when there is a huge group of viewers that were just watching because of the video series featuring this particular game.

Normally, one would assume that viewers follow a YouTuber because they like his style of playing games or commentating the own gameplay. Those viewers usually enjoy any series the YouTuber creates and are always looking forward to the start of a new series as this mostly shows a completely new aspect of the player. Of course, some of the games a content creator plays might not be as interesting and, as a result of this, they skip watching this series. However, those YouTuber-centric viewers (YCV) are just one classification of viewers as there are also viewers who are only interested in a particular game. In contrast to the YCV, game-centric viewers (GCV) only care about one game and ignore all the other content the YouTuber releases.

This situation works well as long as the content creator continues to release videos about the GCV’s game. During this time, both relevant viewer groups are pleased with the YouTuber’s work as it satisfies their demands. Unfortunately, as soon as the GCV’s series is dropped, they feel ignored as their demands are no longer satisfied. Some of them might give some of the other video series a try, but most of them will stop watching the YouTuber’s videos entirely or even start to complain and demand more videos of this particular game.

As a result of this, the content creator faces a difficult problem as there is suddenly some kind of pressure to continue playing a game that already has become boring and hence ceases to be fun. In addition, the content creator most certainly will observe a significant drop in the total amount of views and start to ask himself if something is wrong with the current video releases.

In sum, there is no ideal solution to this problem. If the YouTuber gives in and continues to produce videos of the game, it will satisfy the demands of the GCV, but can completely ruin the content creator’s opinion of that game. Also, it can have a negative impact on the content’s quality and hence disappoint the YCV. If the YouTuber does not return to the game, he will have to deal with all the demands for a continuation, but will also be more happy with the games he plays which ultimately satisfies the YCV. Unfortunately, this will most like come at the price of losing a good portion of views per month.

In the end, I wrote this article in order to raise the awareness for this problem. YouTubers are also just humans and hence their interests might change over time. Constantly demanding the continuation of a series is of course understandable, but in the long run, it will cause a lot of damage. Naturally, some games are really entertaining to watch, but it does not hurt to try out different series a content creator produces as they might be very interesting, too.

The Aesthetics of Imperfection

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the aesthetics of imperfection that are mostly found in a player’s first gameplay of a particular game.

In most of the cases, players of building games, such as Minecraft and Cities: Skylines, want to achieve ideal results that look very refined and/or are very efficient. In order to do so, players constantly improve certain elements until they find an ideal way to realize their goals. Often, those games also allow the construction of new projects in the same virtual world enabling them to easily compare older projects with current ones in order to learn from their mistakes and to see how their performance has improved over time.

Serious traffic issues in Cities: Skylines

However, the prime goal of achieving ideal results, which is often rewarded by the game, too, takes away the very asthetic element of imperfection. For instance, old cities or old houses mostly are interesting as things are not done in an ideal or very streamlined way. Instead, they are results of a development process that happened naturally and/or without a clear plan. Interestingly, the special element of imperfection can often be found in a player’s first gameplay as most game mechanics are still unknown to the player and hence the development of a building or city also happens in a very natural way.

Like in the real world, players try to change minor things in order to improve certain elements or fix particular problems of their projects and hence a natural progression takes place. In the end, a player’s first game might not be very streamlined or ideal but offers the same aesthetics of imperfection as many things in the real world.

Minecraft

However, as soon as a player starts a new game, they already have a good knowledge of the game mechanics and can try to approach the game with a clear plan in mind in order to achieve a very streamlined and perfect outcome. Although this can also be very interesting, the results often lack of a unique character and feel sterile.

Personally, I often notice that I really enjoy the first time of playing such a game as the results seem very authentic due to the imperfections. However, as soon as I start a completely new world, I begin to play with a certain plan in mind but often lose interest after a relatively short while as the results start to feel unnatural. This might also be the reason why I still play in the exact same Minecraft world I created as I bought the game some years ago.

Personal Experiences Cause a Strong Form of Immersion

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about a strong form of immersion that occurs when players are able to relate their gameplay adventures to their real world experiences.

I already discussed the immersive effects of playing The Long Dark (TLD), a survival computer game that puts the player into the role of a lonely survivor who has to survive in the middle of the Canadian wilderness during the winter. Not only the player has to find food and shelter, he also needs to find ways to keep himself warm. This can especially become challenging when the player faces bad weather with low visibility and very cold temperatures. Being caught off guard by a blizzard can often result in the player losing orientation and becoming hypothermic which ultimately can lead to the player’s death. Moreover, the player faces the threat of getting attacked by hungry animals, such as wolves and bears, and hence the player has to move through the winterly landscape very carefully.

Exploring a mountainous region in The Long Dark.

Personally, I am mostly impressed by the realistic feeling of the virtual environment as it almost feels as if I would be walking through a real forest or exploring a real mountainous region. This was achieved by making the shapes of the trees and rocks, the colors of the environment, as well as the sounds of nature feel very authentic. As a result, I am completely immersed in the gameplay every time I play TLD.

Recently, I experienced a very strong immersion as I explored a mountainous region in TLD that reminded me of certain places I have visited in the real world. Surprinsingly, I even experienced the same kind of flow I usually experience when I visit a place that seems to be untouched and pristine. It is a feeling of complete freedom that inspires and motivates me to contineously explore a particular region–reaching the end of this region or even returning home are unsatisfying alternatives. This rewarding experience lasted for the entire playing session and motivated me to constantly move on and to continue to explore this region.

Shortly after sunrise

So far, I never experienced such a deep immersion when I played a computer game. Of course, I am also completely immersed when I play other simulation games, but none of those games has rewarded me with such an energizing feeling.

The reason for this very strong immersive moment might be the fact that the gameplay brought back great memories. In addition, this moment took place just around sunrise which resulted in a very special atmosphere that also impresses me in the real world. It is all the time fascinating to experience the various shades of blue and red that occur when the sun is very low above the horizon. In the end, TLD gives me the opportunity to explore spectacular places and also provides me with moments and feelings I normally experience when I am outdoors in the real world.

Enjoying the view

In conclusion, my recent experience suggests that creating immersive virtual environments is not only about designing believeable virtual worlds, but also about allowing the players to create a connection between the virtual world and their personal intrinsic goals as well as their real world experiences. This way, the game world becomes an extension of the real world and ultimately results in a stronger immersion.

Making grinding feel less grindy

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the introduction of World Quests in World of Warcraft. This new quest type reduces the grindy feeling of repeating certain tasks over and over again.

With the release of Legion, one of World of Warcraft’s (WoW) repetitive gameplay elements received a major change making it feel less grindy despite still requiring players to repeat certain tasks over and over again: Daily Quests were replaced with new World Quests.

Previously, when a player wanted to increase the own reputation towards one of the many factions in WoW, there mostly were only two options: killing a high amount of enemies or completing certain Daily Quests on a regular basis. Both methods rewarded the player with a particular reputation bonus and ultimately allowed the player to reach a faction’s highest reputation level. Reaching higher reputation levels often grants the player access to special items that increase the player’s power or provide them with new toys, pets or mounts.

Getting access to those rewards mostly is the main incentive for players to periodically repeat the same quests until they finally reached the highest level. Although players were motivated by this ultimate goal, this process began to feel very tiresome and grindy after a few days.

World Quests are scattered all across the Broken Isles.

The underlying principle of increasing the own reputation towards a particular factions has not changed in Legion. However, the Daily Quests got replaced with World Quests that are scattered all across the new continent „Broken Isles“. Each World Quest is given by one of the new factions and rewards a player with a reputation bonus upon completion. In addition, the World Quests are also combined with a meta quest for each faction of which each player can have three at maximum. Those meta quests require a player to complete four normal World Quests given by the same faction. Afterwards, the player receives an additional reputation bonus for this faction.

A meta quest requires a player to complete four World Quests.

In the end, although a player is still repeating certain tasks over and over again, the concept of the World Quest successfully reduces the grindy feeling of increasing the reputation towards a particular faction. Unfortunately, dispite the new variety, the tasks are still the same across all the factions: kill a certain amount of enemies, kill a very strong enemy, collect a certain amount of items or craft a new item. However, this does not feel as repetitive as there are so many different World Quests available at a time that a player can skip quests.

In sum, WoW’s new World Quests have successfully reduced the grindy feeling of repeting certain tasks over and over again. The underlying principle has remained the same, but as it feels different to the players, their motivation is much higher and they derive more fun from the gameplay.

Marketing is important

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the pre-release marketing issues of No Man’s Sky.

As a huge fan of exploration computer games, I was looking forward to the release of No Man’s Sky (NMS), a science-fiction computer game that allows the players to explore a procedurally generated universe consisting of a nearly endless amount of unique solar systems, planets, animals as well as flowers. For this purpose, players are able to travel between different solar systems using various types of spacecraft. Once a player has arrived in a new solar system, he can approach and land on one of the procedurally generated planets in order to thoroughly explore it. Furthermore, players are able to mine resources, craft new items and trade with Non-Player Characters (NPC).

The concept of being able to explore unique planets no one has seen before really got my interest. In addition, procedurally generated terrain can, depending on the variables, result in very spectacular landscapes and an endless stream of new experiences. Moreover, as the gameplay is all about the exploration of the universe, the game does not force the players into a certain direction by giving them clear goals they have to complete in order to proceed with the game. Hence, the game provides the players with a complete freedom thus allowing them to enjoy a generated planet as long as they like.

Unfortunately, some pre-release marketing mistakes resulted in big problems for the developers and a huge disappointment for many players who eagerly anticipated the release of the game. The latter problem was a result of the pre-release marketing campaign that caused a huge hype around NMS and the exploration of an endless virtual world. As a result of this, players were expecting more from the game than what actually was planned. Hence, after the game got released, many players were disappointed as the game has not satisfied their overhyped expectations.

However, the main problem is caused by the price of the game which is sold for €59,99 [1]–price for a highly polished mainstream AAA game entertaining the majority of regular computer game players. In contrast to those games, NMS, due to its unique gameplay, does not satisfy the demands of the mainstream computer game players. Instead, it mostly addresses players who enjoy a more slow paced gameplay and the exploration of virtual worlds. Since the emergence of indy games, those niche games have become more and more common. However, in contrast to NMS, those games are normally sold for €20 – €30.

Furthermore, a high price of a game is only justified when it is completely finished and includes all of its features. Unfortunately, NMS had some serious performance issues during the first days after the release and does not include all of the planned features [2]. The developers even announced before the actual release of the game that they will implement more features in order to expand the gameplay of NMS [3].

Improving and expanding a game after its initial release has become common these days, but it is mostly done in form of an early access release. An early access release provides interested players with the game at its current development state. Over time, the developers continue to add new features to the game and even tweak many things based on the suggestions of their playerbase. However, early access games are normally sold for a lower price than the final product.

In the end, based on the gameplay videos I have watched so far, NMS seems to be a very immersive and interesting game I would like to play myself. Additionally, I would like to support the small development team by buying their product in order to help them continuing their work. Unfortunately, due to the huge marketing mistake of selling NMS overprived, I am still hesitant. Maybe I will get my hands on the game when it is finished or when it is offered with a discount…

As a conclusion, marketing does not change the quality of a game, but it still can have a significant impact on the success of a game on the market.

New story but the same issues

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about Blizzard’s problematic approach of requiring players to reach a new level cap each time they release a new expansion.

On August 30th, the sixth World of Warcraft Expansion „Legion“ got released. Legion provides the players with a new story introducing new threats to the world of Azeroth as well as adds a new continent–“The Broken Isles“–that consists of 7 regions which also provide access to new dungeons as well as raid instances. In addition, a new game mechanic providing artefact weapons that become better as the player progresses through Legion were added to the game as well. Unfortunately, a player’s maximum level got increased again–it is now at 110–thus requiring players once more to reach the new level cap before they can tackle the endgame content of the sixth expansion.

Artefact weapons become better as the player progresses through Legion.

At the time of writing, I have reached level 109 and completed the story line of two and a half regions. As usual, the stories are told in form of quests a player has to solve in order to proceed to the next step of the narration. Some of the key quests even teleported me into a scenario instance which is a special region that is separated from the main world. In such a scenario, no other players are present and hence the gameplay is more immersive as no one can interfere with my personal progress through a scenario’s stages. In addition, those scenarios are enhanced with narrated elements providing further insights into the story of a particular region. Each region’s story line is concluded with a special quest that challenges the player to complete the dungeon which can be found in that particular region. All in all, experiencing the narration of a particular region was a very exciting as well as immersive experience.

Story telling in World of Warcraft.

Moreover, in contrast to previous expansions, the players are able to choose the region they want to complete at first. This has the huge advantage that all the players are spread out over the „Broken Isles“ thus reducing the problems that occur when all players need to defeat certain enemies at the same time. As a result of this, the gameplay felt very smooth and I experienced only a few moments where I had to wait for the respawn of a named enemy I had to defeat in order to complete a certain quest.

Despite the very entertaining gameplay of the first hours of Legion, the most annoying issue of a new World of Warcraft expansion is still present, unfortunately. Personnally, I find it very annoying to be required to reach a new level cap each time a new expansion gets released in order to be able to fully take advantage of all the new additions to the game. Hence, this initial phase of an expansion just feels like a chore and takes away most of the fun of solving quests as this is the most ideal way of getting the experience that is needed in order to advance to the new level cap. Instead of tackling quests in order to enjoy an exciting story, I have to solve them just for the purpose of finally reaching the level cap. Also, this approach causes the problem that as soon as the level cap is reached, most of the new quests are already solved and, as a result of this, only the repetitive gameplay elements are left to do.

It would be so much more fun if all the new features would be available right at the start of a new expansion without requiring players to go through a level phase at first. On the one hand, this would ensure that all the quests continue to feel meaningful all the time as they are completed in order to experience the story and not with the intention to gain some experience points bringing the player one step closer to the new level cap. On the other hand, it would make the whole gameplay more exciting as gameplay that feels like a chore is not really entertaining.

In sum, the new expansion provides great additions to the gameplay of World of Warcraft and once again tells an exciting and immersive story. Unfortunately, Blizzard continues to stick with their approach of forcing all the players through a level phase and, as a result of this, the initial phase of the new expansion starts to feel like a chore. If Blizzard really wants to develop a great expansion, they should allow the players to use all the new features right away without being hold back by a many hour-long initial phase.

Using VR as a therapy for patients in hospital

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the potential effectiveness of VR applications as a therapy for patients in hospital.

Computer games are very engaging virtual environments that allow players to get into the state of flow. While being in the state of flow, the players are completely immersed in the gameplay, hence they forget about everything that surrounds them. In addition, players experience a very satisfying form of joy while they are in the state of flow. In the end, playing computer games becomes a very rewarding and entertaining experience that keeps players motivated to continue playing the games.

Normally, the immersive nature of computer games is what attracts most or even all of the computer game players as it allows them to easily experience new challenges and positive emotions thus allowing them to relax from their everyday life. In addition, it can also provide them with positive emotions that help them to have a more positive attitude towards the challenges they face on a daily basis.

These special distracting and motivating characteristics of computer games are also what make them so important as a special form of therapy for seriously-ill children in hospitals. Computer games distract them from their illnesses and treatments as well as help them to deal with the anxiety and boredom they experience during a stay in a hospital [1]. In the end, playing computer games improves the mood of the patients and helps them to overcome their illnesses.

Now, as the next generation of VR devices is available, computer games have become even more immersive as they allow players to completely surround them in a virtual environment. In addtion, as the VR devices fully cover a player’s eyes, it is less likely that something in the real world distracts the player from the gameplay. Also, VR devices allow the players to turn their head without losing contact with the virtual environment.

This essential feature of VR devices could be very important when VR applications are used for the purpose of distracting patients in a hospital. While playing a VR game, patients are not only distracted from the treatment they receive, they even can not see what the doctors are doing thus reducing their anxiety during the treatment

In the end, VR could even improve the effectiveness of computer games as a therapy for patients in hospital.

Conclusively, I like to raise awareness for ChildsPlayCharity.org, a game industry charity dedicated to improve the lives of children in hospital.