The Common Forms of Contemporary Videogames: a Proposed Content Analysis Model

1 The Common Forms of Contemporary Videogames: A Proposed Content Analysis Model STEVEN ALLICK A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Teesside University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Teesside University School of Computing April 2012 2 Contents Acknowledgements 5 Declaration 9 Abstract 10 1. Introduction 11 1.1. Background 11 1.2. Motivation 12 1.3. Understanding Tropes 14 1.4. Thesis Statement 15 1.4.1 Aims 15 1.4.2 Thesis 16 1.5 Approach 17 1.6 Methods Used 19 1.6.1 Analysis and Data Gathering 19 1.6.2 Sampling Criterion 20 1.6.3 Scales and Measures 23 1.7 Thesis Organisation 23 2. Literature Review 28 2.1. Semiotics Literature 28 2.1.1 Semiotic Principles 28 2.1.2 Computing Semiotics 31 2.1.3 Artistic and Media Semiotics 33 2.1.4 General Semiotic Research Critique 33 2.2 Rhetoric and Tropes Literature 34 2.2.1 Principles of Tropes 34 2.2.2 Metaphor and Myth 35 2.2.3 Metonym, Synecdoche and Irony 36 2.2.4 Aporia and Epiphany 37 2.2.5 Tropical Research Critique 38 3 2.3 Genre Theory Literature 39 2.3.1 Background and Origin 39 2.3.2 Videogame Genres 40 2.3.3 Genre Theory Critique 41 2.4 Development Models and Methods 43 2.4.1 Perceptual Opportunities 43 2.4.2 Qualitative Design Models 44 2.4.3 Quantitative Design Models 45 2.4.4 Heuristic / Rule Models 45 2.4.5 Development Model Critique 46 2.5 Emotion, Enjoyment and Immersion Models 47 2.5.1 Emotion and Enjoyment 47 2.5.2 Immersion 49 2.5.3 Frustration 50 2.5.4 Player Centric Model Critique 50 2.6 Time 52 2.7 Representational Dimensions 53 2.8 Observations and Conclusions 55 3. Rhetorical Tropes in Videogames 59 3.1. Short Game Synopsis 60 3.1.2 Methodology 67 3.2. Energy and Status Representation Tropes 69 3.2.1. Energy and Health Representation 69 3.2.2 Stamina and Vehicle Status 72 3.3. Environmental Tropes 73 3.3.1. Collectables 73 3.3.2. Events 75 3.3.3. Terrain Features 76 3.3.4. Interaction Cues 77 3.3.5 Vehicles and Craft 79 3.4. Character Tropes 80 3.4.1 Player Character Interaction 80 4 3.4.2 Non Player Character Interaction 83 3.5 HUD Tropes 85 3.5.1 Battle and Action 85 3.5.2 Maps and Navigation 87 3.5.3 Timers 89 3.5.4 Weapons and Tools 90 3.5.5 Profile / Game Data Tropes 93 3.6 Interface Tropes 95 3.7 Evaluation of Videogame Trope Presence 99 3.7.1 Observations 100 3.7.2 Emergent Trends 103 4. Widening the Definition of the Trope 109 4.1. Critical Appraisal of Tropes in Games Experiment 109 4.2. Theoretical Discussion 110 4.3. The Need for a New Experiment 112 4.4. Order of Events 114 5. Player Status Common Forms 115 5.1.1 Methodology 115 5.1.2 Background 117 5.2 Goals and Objectives 118 5.3 Overview and Procedure 119 5.4 Status / Energy Depiction 120 5.4.1 Energy Bars 120 5.4.2 Alternate and Abstract Status Representation 127 5.4.3 Genre Transference 130 5.4.4 Player Status Evaluation 135 5.5 Non Player Characters 139 5.5.1 Non Player Characters Evaluation 147 5.6 Items 150 5.6.1 Types and Classes of Item 150 5 5.6.2 Item Location and Usage 157 5.6.3 Items Evaluation 161 5.7 Level Selection 164 5.7.1 Linear Level Selection 164 5.7.2 The Illusion of Freedom 168 5.7.3 Freeform Level Selection 170 5.7.4 Level Selection Evaluation 174 6. Game Status Common Forms 177 6.1 Career or Story Mode 177 6.1.1 Career/Story Evaluation 185 6.2 Difficulty 188 6.2.1 Traditional Difficulty Selectors 188 6.2.2 Player Interaction and Difficulty 193 6.2.3 Adaptive Difficulty Level 196 6.2.4 Fixed / Static Difficulty Level 198 6.2.5 Difficulty Evaluation 200 6.3 Speed 203 6.3.1 Speed as Difficulty 203 6.3.2 Time / Speed Manipulation 204 6.3.3 Speed Evaluation 209 6.4 Colour 211 6.4.1 A Colour System 211 6.4.2 HUD Colour 212 6.4.3 Character Colour 215 6.4.4 The Immediacy of Colour 217 6.4.5 Colour in the Environment 219 6.4.6 Colour Evaluation 223 7. Common Forms Identified 225 7.1 Complete Common Form Listing 225 7.2 Universal Common Forms 230 7.3 Non Universal Common Forms 234 6 8. Genre Specific Common Forms 236 8.1 Methodology 236 8.2 First Person Shooter Common Forms 238 8.3 Driving Common Forms 241 8.4 Adventure Common Forms 246 8.5 Platform Common Forms 249 8.6 Real Time Strategy Common Forms 253 8.7 Simulation Common Forms 256 8.8 Role Playing Common Forms 260 8.9 Puzzle Common Forms 263 8.10 Sports Common Forms 266 8.11 Fighting Common Forms 269 8.12 Genre Specific Conclusions 272 9. Common Form Relationship Modelling 273 9.1 Four Master Common Forms 276 9.2 Further Abstraction: Three Master Common Forms 279 9.3 Highest Abstraction: Towards Two Master Tropes 282 9.4 Common Form Generalisation 285 9.5 Common Form Relationship Summary 287 10. Pyramid Model Testing 290 10.1 Testing Methodology 290 10.2 Questions Raised 295 10.3 Type Specific Observations 296 10.3.1 Classic and Arcade 296 10.3.2 Casual Games and Facebook 297 10.3.3 The Fundamental Common Forms 299 10.3.4 Limitations of the Model 300 11. Conclusions, Evaluation and Future Work 303 11.1 Summary of Pyramid Model 303 7 11.2 Progress Review 306 11.3 Insights 308 11.4 Model Comparisons and Directions for Future Work 312 11.4.1 Perceptual Opportunities 313 11.4.2 Strange Analyst and Activities 314 11.4.3 Immersive Dimensions 317 11.5 Future Work 320 11.5.1 Additional Common Forms 320 11.5.2 Titling and Classification Improvement 321 11.5.3 Context of a Hybrid Model 322 11.5.4 Hybrid Model Proposal 323 References 325 Videogame References List 341 Key to all Figures Used 351 Appendix A: Rhetorical Tropes Summary Tables 357 Appendix B: Key for Common Form Summary Tables 368 Appendix C: Key for Common Form Mapping Diagrams 370 Appendix D: Glossary of Terms 371 Appendix E: Interfaces Magazine Autumn 2008 Article 372 8 Acknowledgements I would like to begin by thanking my supervisory team; Dr. Clive Fencott, Dr. Paul Van Schaik (between 2005 and 2007) and my Director of Studies Dr. Charlie Mc Elhone. Over five years of research, I have enjoyed many stimulating meetings and all advice received has been of great value. I would also like to thank Teesside University, in particular, School Manager Mr. Gordon Smyrell and previous dean Dr. Derek Simpson for financial support and teaching provision allowing me to sustain myself over the course of the research. I would also like to thank close friends Mr. Ian Simpson and Miss. Elizabeth Simpson for support and motivation over this time. Lastly, but by no means least, a special thanks to my mother, Mrs. Evelyn Allick, for great support and unwavering faith in my ability to achieve this qualification. 9 Declaration I declare that the work in this thesis was carried out in accordance with the regulations of Teesside University. This work is original except where indicated by special reference in the text and no part of the dissertation has been submitted for any other degree. The thesis has not been presented to any other University for examination in the United Kingdom, Great Britain, Northern Ireland or overseas. Any views expressed in the thesis are those of the author, unless otherwise indicated. This thesis provides a complete summary of the work undertaken between June 2006 and January 2011. Please note that a short extract from the central common form study was published in the Autumn 2008 edition of Interfaces magazine. In line with doctoral regulations, this article is included as Appendix E of this thesis. Steven Allick 10 Abstract The aim of this thesis was to investigate trope usage in videogames, including the emergence of undiscovered ‘videogame’ tropes, and to create a new model for videogame categorisation using these tropes. This model serves to complement genre as a means of distilling videogame contents. The investigative work formed two parts, initially considering how videogames use existing rhetorical tropes such as metaphor as expressive and communicative devices and secondly to analyse videogames as a source of shared literary tropes. Each shared literary trope was validated as a common form of expression (referred to simply as 'common form'), where its presence was proven in a substantial sample of videogames. Common forms were gathered through a wide-ranging investigation of ten mainstream genres one at a time and in isolation to arrive at a pool of genre-specific common forms. The most closely related forms combined, with the help of relationship modelling techniques. A set of common forms capable of representing the contents of any videogame was reached. The result is a powerful hierarchical content model allowing a game to be described in terms of its common form usage profile. Common forms can effectively describe games which span several genres and differentiates between games which appear similar on the surface e.g.

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