{"id":3148,"date":"2017-08-19T20:30:16","date_gmt":"2017-08-19T18:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/?p=3148"},"modified":"2017-08-19T14:40:56","modified_gmt":"2017-08-19T12:40:56","slug":"finding-of-the-week-231","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/?p=3148","title":{"rendered":"Finding of the week #231"},"content":{"rendered":"

Persistent Story Elements
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I\u2019ve 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\u2019ll share my new science based knowledge with you!<\/em><\/p>\n

This week: This time, I think about the importance of persistent story elements that mark important and special events a player experienced during a game’s gameplay and hence remind the player of this moment.<\/p>\n

Sentimental aspect often play an important role when we value arbitrary things. A piece of equipment, such as a backpack, despite being pretty beat up, can be of a very high value because it reminds us of specific adventures and experiences we made. Every scratch can tell a different story and be a mark of a special event. Naturally, since we automatically engrave important and unique moments in our memory, we would also remember a specific experience without a trinket. However, as this item was a part of the story, we have also developed a certain connection to it and use it as a token that always reminds us of a great moment.<\/p>\n

The same principle applies to virtual items and characters we use and control in a computer game. It can be a sword in a role-playing game that helped a player to overcome a difficult challenge or a virtual character in a turn-based strategy game that survived a very dangerous situation. In the end, we connect great memories with these virtual elements which subsequently become of great value for us and even receive an important meaning.<\/p>\n

\"A

A RimWorld colony.<\/p><\/div>\n

Unfortunately, most game mechanics do not receive scratches, scars or other marks that are persistent. Of course, cars can start to accumulate some virtual scratches during a race, but as soon as the race is over and the game is left, all scratches are lost. As a result, these virtual elements, despite being part of a potential epic story, seem to be neutral as they do not continue to show signs of usage.<\/p>\n

Despite this lack of persistency, we still continue to develop a certain attachment to those particular elements of a computer game but these attachments are not as close as they could be when a specific moment leaves some marks behind. However, when a game is designed to store those story elements, then we automatically start to grow a very deep attachment to things that played an importan role during our gameplay.<\/p>\n

One of the best examples for a game that utilizes persistency very well is the colony simulation RimWorld<\/a>. Colonists not only have to survive very dangerous situations, but they also change over time as they get older or, in the case of a severe injury, can receive persistent scars that all the time remind us why this character is so important to us.<\/p>\n

In the end, it would be very exciting when developers continue to add persistency to the game that helps to tell a story. Of course, it adds another element that has to be balanced, but it also greatly affects a game’s effect on us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Persistent Story Elements During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I\u2019ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are … Weiterlesen →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finding-of-the-week","category-gaming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3148"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3149,"href":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3148\/revisions\/3149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}