Monday, 14 February 2011

P.R.P Artefact 2: World of Warcraft observation evaluation


For my artefact 2 I did a similar experiment to my first artefact. This was to broaden my perception in a comparison between 2 highly popular games and their use of stratagems to help the player wayfind in an interactive space. I found out that there were common things that games conformed to which a player responded to.

The common indications that computer games conform to for wayfinding elements are; highlighted items that are of interest or progression, light formation and presentation, sound indicating the coming threats or spatial awareness and display elements on screen feeding information to the player and helping them to figure out a response to a situation. These elements however, even if presented in a different fashion between games, was really what I expected to find after finishing my research on my first artefact. I had hoped for something else to present its self as a new find to me in the realms of Wayfinding through this observation experiment.

Although from doing this artefact I realised that not all players responded to all the necessary wayfinding elements that the game presented to them, helping them to work out where to go. I found that people that have had a long history in playing games had a 'trained' mind to take in situations and scenarios, and ended up adapting faster to the games in both artefact 1 and 2. New players however missed aspects presented within games that would help them progress and took longer to acclimatise to the games they were playing. I think that this is because games designers tend to stick to set rules such as the ones that I have found from researching Wayfinding, and more experienced players have a subconscious understanding of how games designers make games. These tend to make it difficult for new players as they aren't attuned to this communicative quality in games.

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