I never heard of I Love Bees – sounds interesting! (This class really makes me get to know new things!) One thing that I thought about the ILB, was that by playing this ‘game’, the players feel some kind of freedom. If this was in a computer game, yes, it would be interesting, but maybe not much. Because there is a premise in their head that they can do anything in the real world makes the players excited about the game. Otherwise, I think you won’t take off your pants and dance in public!
Doing all those interactive games in class, I had been thinking about the freedom in game. In a game, there is always some kind of limitations – rules, time limits, and so on. There are restrictions in a game, and sometimes players feel they are being controlled (like me when I first did Zork) but at the same time, restrictions make the game more interesting. Player fulfill their self by making their way our in that restricted area.
But in ILB, they are in the real world. Although they are under the control of the puppet master, the player can escape from that situation at any moment. Moreover, the puppet masters are watching the players, and thus fulfill their needs. Mcgonigal also says that the players in power plays are ‘directing us to direct them better’. In contrast, in computer games, when the players try to move on their own, the character suddenly stops moving, or the time limit comes, or the so loved quote ‘That’s not a verb I recognize’ appears on screen.
Maybe this is why virtual reality world games (Is this the right name? The one we can make the same character as ourselves and move around in the game world, and it’s interactive.) are getting popular. The sense that we are in a similar place as the real world, but can move around as the player likes, make them feel some kind of freedom. Making the game world more similar to the real world, is maybe the way game designers can become like the puppet masters.
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Interesting that you suggest that by making the game world more like the real world, then game designers can perhaps become more like puppetmasters. I think this is an idea that many game designers share, but I'm not sure if it will work. As you said, in a game, you often feel the restrictions, but there are specific choices that you can make to move the game forward. In a powerplay in the real world, on contrast, you can't really make any choices, but it feels like you can, because the world is, after all, the real world. To give the same feeling of choice in a virtual world would require a completely accurate simulation of the real world (ie. the Matrix). If it falls short in any way, then players would probably have that same feeling that you get in Zork.
I'd think this is one of the attractions of alternate reality games - there's no need to attempt a simulation of the real world, because you are using the real world. You're choosing to submit to the rules, but you still have the realism of the real world to compensate for the restrictions.
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