Media entertainment: the phychology of its appeal
Dolf zillmann and peter vorderer
2000
published by - lawrence erlbaum associates, Inc
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
pages 200-201
Emotions in real life, on film and in videogames.
in order to provide a framework for understanding possible differences betweensthe emotional impact of film
and interactive videogames I recapitulate some fundamentals in emotional theory (cf Grodal, 1997)
and relate these to film and games. A precondition for eliciting strong emotions is to present some stimuli
that are central concerns of living beings, for instance a threat on life or health.
Such stimuli will elicit physical arousal. arousal is a very general physiological process, and,
as argued by cognitive labelling theorists of human emotions, in order to create emotions out of arousal you
need cognitive analysis of the situation, resulting in a cognitive labelling of the arousal.
pages 201-202
A simple example: if you suddenly meet a lion on a savannah it would create arousal. the context will
determine how the arousal is moulded into an emotion. if you are armed you may feel aggression and shoot the
lion, but if unarmed you might feel fright and lookfor escape, you might feel that you are
unable to cope with the situation and look for escape and feel dispair. if you are safely placed in a
photo safari jeep, the arousal is transformed into delight.
the emotional expierience of a given situation will consequently be differentaccordint to whether it is cued
by a film or a game.
When veiwing a film the labelling of the emotions felt is determined by the veiwers passive
appreciation of the film characters coping potential,
but when in a game the coping potential is that of the player which in turn determines the emotional
expeirience. the unskilled player may feel dispair when encountering the lion but a more skilled player
will fuel the arousal into a series of couragous actions. Videogames therefore simulate emotions in a form
that is closer to typical real life expeiriences than film: emotions are motivators for actions and are
labelled according to the players coping potentials.
page 202
compared to cinema and tv, games have a less salient input, although sound and graphics have improved
significantly. but games make up for this by providing more sophisticated devices for processing the input
in relation to output. a game provides an interactive interface, which enables the playerto control actions
and also often perceptions by an abillity to control thepoint of veiw, that is,
to control the point from which, and the direction by which, the game world is represented.
this leads to several dramatic changes compared to veiwing a film.
- the player needs to use attention in order to control perception, including the point of view
- the player needs to make mental maps of the gamespace as if it were a real three-dimentional world
he needs to notice landmarks, significant casual relations and so on.
- the player needs toactivly coordinatevisual attention and motor actions(by mouse, joystick, controller)
the feedbackfrom the activation of these procedural schemata will create additional arousal
the activation and coordination of the different mental functions and representations will
compete with limited capacity in working memory and possibly cause mental overload.
Wednesday 27 January 2010
emotional chart
Chris Bateman
april 2008
its only a game
http://onlyagame.typepad.com/only_a_game/2008/04/top-ten-videoga.html
top 10 emotions games evoke in the player in a study proformed by chris bateman...
10. Bliss
At the bottom of our Top 10, the feeling of utter joyfulness,
which is probably the experience of highly elevated levels of the neurotransmitter seratonin.
While 27.7% of respondents said no videogame had given them this feeling,
59.9% of people gave this emotion one of the top two responses
(with 22.1% actively seeking out games which give them this feeling).
I’m actually quite doubtful that so many people have experienced bliss in the sense intended by
emotions-expert Paul Ekman (although a study could easily determine this),
and I find it more likely that people are taking the description “utter joy and bliss” to mean fiero
(the emotion of triumph over adversity), which we will come to below.
9. Relief (3.28)
Relief, which may be the experiential analogue of the hormone cortisol,
has already been acknowledged as an important emotion of play
(as we discussed before in the piece on rushgames).
Despite this, 21.5% of respondents said no videogame had ever given them this feeling.
However, 43% said it enhanced their enjoyment of games,
and 14.4% said they sought out games that gave them this feeling.
8. Naches (3.57)
Here’s a curious one – the emotion of pride in the accomplishments of one’s students or children,
referred to by emotion researcher Ekman by the Yiddish term naches.
Players seem to really enjoy training their friends and family to play games,
with a whopping 53.4% saying it enhances their enjoyment,
and another 12.9% saying they seek out games that give them this feeling.
(I don’t have the data yet, but I wonder if such people play mostly MMORPGs?)
Only 10.9% had never had the experience in the context of videogames. Perhaps,
as Katherine Isbister has suggested, more videogames should include a co-operative Tutor mode?
7. Surprise (3.59)
Another emotion we’ve seen in the context of rushgames,
surprise is closely related to fear and thus probably relates to the hormone and neurotransmitter epinephrine
(adrenalin). Few people (8.1%) had never been surprised by videogames,
while more than half the respondants (51.9%) said it added to their enjoyment,
and another 14.4% saying they sought out games that gave them this experience.
6. Fiero (3.89)
Yes, arguably the most prominent of the videogame emotions, fiero
(the feeling of triumph over adversity – probably a cocktail of norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine)
didn’t even make it half way up the top ten! It wasn’t because it wasn’t highly rated –
in fact about three quarters of respondants (77.1%) gave it the top two marks,
with about a third (32.7%) saying they seek out games that give them this feeling. Still,
there were five other emotions that scored more highly,
and three other emotions which scored higher in terms of players actively seeking out the feeling...
5. Curiosity (3.92)
I wasn’t surprised to see curiosity in the Top Five, but to see it edge out fiero was unexpected!
Curiosity, which is an expression of what some psychologists refer to as interest
(and could be seen as a behaviour rather than an emotion)
seems to relate to the beta-endorphin neurotransmitter,
which is involved in a mechanism encouraging animals to explore and seek new stimulus.
Nicole Lazzaro was the first person to relate it to videogame play,
and with good cause! It pulled in big numbers,
with once again about three quarters rating it highly (78.8%)
and of these about a quarter (24.3%) seeking out games that give them this feeling.
Just 5.4% had never had the experience in videogames.
4. Excitement (4.02)
Well no surprise to see this one near the top! Excitement, as discussed previously,
is an expression of epinephrine (adrenalin), and an extremely common experience –
just 2.7% of respondents claimed they had never experienced it in the context of videogames.
8 out of 10 people (82.1%) gave it one of the top two responses,
with about a quarter (26.3%) actively seeking it out.
This emotion also produced the highest incidence of the second-to-highest response (55.8%) in the survey,
that is, a strict majority of players recognise excitement as a major contribution to their enjoyment of play.
3. Wonderment (4.07)
Another expression of the interest mechanism mentioned under curiosity,
wonderment is probably also related to beta-endorphin.
Here, the feeling is more intense – and it seems players respond to the greater intensity.
Whilst a larger number of people could not relate the experience to their play
(8.1% had no experience of it in videogames), 41.5% said it enhanced their enjoyment
and an additional 41.2% (for a total of 82.7%) said they sought out games that gave them this feeling.
In fact, of all the emotions studied in this survey, this was the highest scorer in terms of respondents
actively seeking it out, as even the top 2 emotions did not clear 40% in seeking out the emotion.
It seems amazing players is one of the most effective techniques videogames can muster.
2. Contentment (4.09)
I said before the survey began that I suspected that the research community had underestimated the importance
of contentment to videogames, and although this crude ranking is far from definitive,
it does seem I was correct! 82.7% gave this emotion one of the top two marks,
with 38.2% seeking out games that would give them a sense of contentment.
Like bliss, this probably connects to serotonin,
but whereas more than a quarter of players had no experience of bliss to draw upon,
just 5.8% could find no memory of contentment in their play.
1. Amusement (4.28)
But head and shoulders above every other emotion in the survey was amusement
(for which I have no biological mechanism, although psychologists link it to the resolution of
inconsistencies, and it will involve an endorphin of some kind as well as the pre-frontal cortex).
The fewest number of people responded that they had no experience of amusement in videogames (just 1.7%)
while a whopping 92.6% gave this emotion one of the top two responses,
and 39.7% stating they actively sought out this feeling
(second only to Wonderment for the rate of response in the top answer).
april 2008
its only a game
http://onlyagame.typepad.com/only_a_game/2008/04/top-ten-videoga.html
top 10 emotions games evoke in the player in a study proformed by chris bateman...
10. Bliss
At the bottom of our Top 10, the feeling of utter joyfulness,
which is probably the experience of highly elevated levels of the neurotransmitter seratonin.
While 27.7% of respondents said no videogame had given them this feeling,
59.9% of people gave this emotion one of the top two responses
(with 22.1% actively seeking out games which give them this feeling).
I’m actually quite doubtful that so many people have experienced bliss in the sense intended by
emotions-expert Paul Ekman (although a study could easily determine this),
and I find it more likely that people are taking the description “utter joy and bliss” to mean fiero
(the emotion of triumph over adversity), which we will come to below.
9. Relief (3.28)
Relief, which may be the experiential analogue of the hormone cortisol,
has already been acknowledged as an important emotion of play
(as we discussed before in the piece on rushgames).
Despite this, 21.5% of respondents said no videogame had ever given them this feeling.
However, 43% said it enhanced their enjoyment of games,
and 14.4% said they sought out games that gave them this feeling.
8. Naches (3.57)
Here’s a curious one – the emotion of pride in the accomplishments of one’s students or children,
referred to by emotion researcher Ekman by the Yiddish term naches.
Players seem to really enjoy training their friends and family to play games,
with a whopping 53.4% saying it enhances their enjoyment,
and another 12.9% saying they seek out games that give them this feeling.
(I don’t have the data yet, but I wonder if such people play mostly MMORPGs?)
Only 10.9% had never had the experience in the context of videogames. Perhaps,
as Katherine Isbister has suggested, more videogames should include a co-operative Tutor mode?
7. Surprise (3.59)
Another emotion we’ve seen in the context of rushgames,
surprise is closely related to fear and thus probably relates to the hormone and neurotransmitter epinephrine
(adrenalin). Few people (8.1%) had never been surprised by videogames,
while more than half the respondants (51.9%) said it added to their enjoyment,
and another 14.4% saying they sought out games that gave them this experience.
6. Fiero (3.89)
Yes, arguably the most prominent of the videogame emotions, fiero
(the feeling of triumph over adversity – probably a cocktail of norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine)
didn’t even make it half way up the top ten! It wasn’t because it wasn’t highly rated –
in fact about three quarters of respondants (77.1%) gave it the top two marks,
with about a third (32.7%) saying they seek out games that give them this feeling. Still,
there were five other emotions that scored more highly,
and three other emotions which scored higher in terms of players actively seeking out the feeling...
5. Curiosity (3.92)
I wasn’t surprised to see curiosity in the Top Five, but to see it edge out fiero was unexpected!
Curiosity, which is an expression of what some psychologists refer to as interest
(and could be seen as a behaviour rather than an emotion)
seems to relate to the beta-endorphin neurotransmitter,
which is involved in a mechanism encouraging animals to explore and seek new stimulus.
Nicole Lazzaro was the first person to relate it to videogame play,
and with good cause! It pulled in big numbers,
with once again about three quarters rating it highly (78.8%)
and of these about a quarter (24.3%) seeking out games that give them this feeling.
Just 5.4% had never had the experience in videogames.
4. Excitement (4.02)
Well no surprise to see this one near the top! Excitement, as discussed previously,
is an expression of epinephrine (adrenalin), and an extremely common experience –
just 2.7% of respondents claimed they had never experienced it in the context of videogames.
8 out of 10 people (82.1%) gave it one of the top two responses,
with about a quarter (26.3%) actively seeking it out.
This emotion also produced the highest incidence of the second-to-highest response (55.8%) in the survey,
that is, a strict majority of players recognise excitement as a major contribution to their enjoyment of play.
3. Wonderment (4.07)
Another expression of the interest mechanism mentioned under curiosity,
wonderment is probably also related to beta-endorphin.
Here, the feeling is more intense – and it seems players respond to the greater intensity.
Whilst a larger number of people could not relate the experience to their play
(8.1% had no experience of it in videogames), 41.5% said it enhanced their enjoyment
and an additional 41.2% (for a total of 82.7%) said they sought out games that gave them this feeling.
In fact, of all the emotions studied in this survey, this was the highest scorer in terms of respondents
actively seeking it out, as even the top 2 emotions did not clear 40% in seeking out the emotion.
It seems amazing players is one of the most effective techniques videogames can muster.
2. Contentment (4.09)
I said before the survey began that I suspected that the research community had underestimated the importance
of contentment to videogames, and although this crude ranking is far from definitive,
it does seem I was correct! 82.7% gave this emotion one of the top two marks,
with 38.2% seeking out games that would give them a sense of contentment.
Like bliss, this probably connects to serotonin,
but whereas more than a quarter of players had no experience of bliss to draw upon,
just 5.8% could find no memory of contentment in their play.
1. Amusement (4.28)
But head and shoulders above every other emotion in the survey was amusement
(for which I have no biological mechanism, although psychologists link it to the resolution of
inconsistencies, and it will involve an endorphin of some kind as well as the pre-frontal cortex).
The fewest number of people responded that they had no experience of amusement in videogames (just 1.7%)
while a whopping 92.6% gave this emotion one of the top two responses,
and 39.7% stating they actively sought out this feeling
(second only to Wonderment for the rate of response in the top answer).
Clive Thompson
25/1/05
the crying game.
http://www.metroactive.com/metro/01.25.06/emotional-0604.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I COULD TELL something was wrong as soon as I saw my friend's eyes. It was back in 1997,
and he'd been playing the recently released Final Fantasy VII.
That afternoon, he'd gotten to a famously shocking scene in which Aerith, a beloved young magician girl,
is suddenly and viciously murdered.
He looked like he'd lost a family member. "I'm just totally screwed up,"
he confessed as he nursed a lukewarm beer at a local bar.
Nearly all my other friends were playing Final Fantasy VII, too. So one by one over the next week,
they all hit the same scene, until every nerd I knew was sunk in a slough of despond.
Not all games offer such a wide emotional palette, of course. Bowen found that role-playing games were the most emotionally potent genre, with 78 percent of gamers singling it out. First-person shooters came next, with 52 percent of gamers in agreement. Flight simulators and flying games finished dead last, at 8 percent each.
(in responce to the bowen research article)
Why? Probably because RPGs and first-person shooters rely most heavily on a narrative structure,
and narrative is one of the world's oldest technologies for transmitting an emotional payload.
Indeed, when Bowen asked his respondents to pick the single most emotionally affective game,
the far-and-away winner—with a remarkable 61 percent of votes—was Final Fantasy,
one of the most narrative-heavy series in history.
25/1/05
the crying game.
http://www.metroactive.com/metro/01.25.06/emotional-0604.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I COULD TELL something was wrong as soon as I saw my friend's eyes. It was back in 1997,
and he'd been playing the recently released Final Fantasy VII.
That afternoon, he'd gotten to a famously shocking scene in which Aerith, a beloved young magician girl,
is suddenly and viciously murdered.
He looked like he'd lost a family member. "I'm just totally screwed up,"
he confessed as he nursed a lukewarm beer at a local bar.
Nearly all my other friends were playing Final Fantasy VII, too. So one by one over the next week,
they all hit the same scene, until every nerd I knew was sunk in a slough of despond.
Not all games offer such a wide emotional palette, of course. Bowen found that role-playing games were the most emotionally potent genre, with 78 percent of gamers singling it out. First-person shooters came next, with 52 percent of gamers in agreement. Flight simulators and flying games finished dead last, at 8 percent each.
(in responce to the bowen research article)
Why? Probably because RPGs and first-person shooters rely most heavily on a narrative structure,
and narrative is one of the world's oldest technologies for transmitting an emotional payload.
Indeed, when Bowen asked his respondents to pick the single most emotionally affective game,
the far-and-away winner—with a remarkable 61 percent of votes—was Final Fantasy,
one of the most narrative-heavy series in history.
By Tom Loftus
Columnist
msnbc.com
Oct. 11, 2005
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4038606/
parts taken from article on msnbc.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bringing emotions to video games
Can games inspire feelings as well as fun?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Imagine this video game scenario:
Assigned to rescue the embattled squad you've fought with for the past 10 hours, you fail miserably.
You have nothing to show save for a torn piece of clothing, bloody at the edges.
As the soundtrack reaches its crescendo and the words “Game Over” materialize over the mists of Planet X,
it's not frustration you feel, but regret, sadness, even, for those brave soldiers you left behind.
Sound familiar? Probably not.
When it comes to emotions, most games touch our simpler instincts:
Keypad-throwing anger at missing a jump in "Ratchet and Clank" or an "I-Feel-Good-Uh" triumph of scoring
a touchdown in "Madden 2004."
the sims 1,2&3
While games like "Final Fantasy" relied on linear storytelling akin to that in films to evoke emotion,
"The Sims" was an anomaly. It had no "story." In fact, the digital dollhouse where players led their sims
through a number of real-world scenarios was barely a game.
But the act of controlling the life of a sim allowed players to insert their own emotional story.
Its interactivity made it emotional.
Columnist
msnbc.com
Oct. 11, 2005
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4038606/
parts taken from article on msnbc.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bringing emotions to video games
Can games inspire feelings as well as fun?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Imagine this video game scenario:
Assigned to rescue the embattled squad you've fought with for the past 10 hours, you fail miserably.
You have nothing to show save for a torn piece of clothing, bloody at the edges.
As the soundtrack reaches its crescendo and the words “Game Over” materialize over the mists of Planet X,
it's not frustration you feel, but regret, sadness, even, for those brave soldiers you left behind.
Sound familiar? Probably not.
When it comes to emotions, most games touch our simpler instincts:
Keypad-throwing anger at missing a jump in "Ratchet and Clank" or an "I-Feel-Good-Uh" triumph of scoring
a touchdown in "Madden 2004."
the sims 1,2&3
While games like "Final Fantasy" relied on linear storytelling akin to that in films to evoke emotion,
"The Sims" was an anomaly. It had no "story." In fact, the digital dollhouse where players led their sims
through a number of real-world scenarios was barely a game.
But the act of controlling the life of a sim allowed players to insert their own emotional story.
Its interactivity made it emotional.
can games make you cry?
Hugh Bowen, can games make you cry?, 2007,http://www.bowenresearch.com/studies.php?id=3
taken direct from the article
in a survey of 535 gamers these are the results gathered by hugh bowens company Bowen research
Here are the genres in order of the percentage of gamers who ranked them as emotionally powerful:
Role playing games 78%
First person shooters 52%
Action 49%
Adventure 48%
Fighting 39%
Sports 34%
MMOs 32%
Racing 31%
Real time strategy 24%
General strategy/puzzle 15%
Flight simulators 8%
Flying 8%
What role does emotion play?
Over a third of the participants report that games are quite an emotional experience. 8% think they're tremendously emotional, 29% quite a bit.
Still, when asked what art forms speak the most to us, games don't rank at the top. Ranked 1 to 6, where 1 is the most emotional, the order was: movies, music, books, video/PC games, paintings/artwork, and last cars. (OK, so I have a thing for cars…)
Heavy gamers have more of a feeling for movies. Lighter and younger gamers are more moved by music.
For genres, I thought MMOs would top the list, but RPGs are the runaway winner – by far the most emotional genre of videogames. Interaction with computer characters seems richer (at this stage of development) than interacting with people in MMOs.
what emotions can a game make you feel?
Here is a list of feelings that gamers say videogames most strongly inspire.
The ones at the top are what you'd expect. But the middle feelings surprised me,
and the last ones suggest where innovative games could go.
competitiveness
violence/excitement
accomplishment
frustration and wanting to overcome it
danger
hate
honor/loyalty/integrity
awe and wonder delight
beauty
sadness
compassion for others
sexuality
love
spirituality
and some examples of these emotions.
Silent Hill, "Throughout the entire game your nerves are constantly being tweaked by the radio static,
fog, growling, ambient sounds and the shuffling of the more malformed enemies."
"I will never forget the feeling of love between Squall and Riona in Final Fantasy 8,
nor the broken-heartedness of Yuna at the end of Final Fantasy 10."
In a first person shooter,
"I was the last person alive in my unit and I was up against 5 enemy soldiers.
The first guy went down then I caught two others crouching together in a room;
with each kill my heart beat a little faster.
By the time I had killed the last guy and won the match for my team, I could feel my pulse beating in my jugular."
taken direct from the article
in a survey of 535 gamers these are the results gathered by hugh bowens company Bowen research
Here are the genres in order of the percentage of gamers who ranked them as emotionally powerful:
Role playing games 78%
First person shooters 52%
Action 49%
Adventure 48%
Fighting 39%
Sports 34%
MMOs 32%
Racing 31%
Real time strategy 24%
General strategy/puzzle 15%
Flight simulators 8%
Flying 8%
What role does emotion play?
Over a third of the participants report that games are quite an emotional experience. 8% think they're tremendously emotional, 29% quite a bit.
Still, when asked what art forms speak the most to us, games don't rank at the top. Ranked 1 to 6, where 1 is the most emotional, the order was: movies, music, books, video/PC games, paintings/artwork, and last cars. (OK, so I have a thing for cars…)
Heavy gamers have more of a feeling for movies. Lighter and younger gamers are more moved by music.
For genres, I thought MMOs would top the list, but RPGs are the runaway winner – by far the most emotional genre of videogames. Interaction with computer characters seems richer (at this stage of development) than interacting with people in MMOs.
what emotions can a game make you feel?
Here is a list of feelings that gamers say videogames most strongly inspire.
The ones at the top are what you'd expect. But the middle feelings surprised me,
and the last ones suggest where innovative games could go.
competitiveness
violence/excitement
accomplishment
frustration and wanting to overcome it
danger
hate
honor/loyalty/integrity
awe and wonder delight
beauty
sadness
compassion for others
sexuality
love
spirituality
and some examples of these emotions.
Silent Hill, "Throughout the entire game your nerves are constantly being tweaked by the radio static,
fog, growling, ambient sounds and the shuffling of the more malformed enemies."
"I will never forget the feeling of love between Squall and Riona in Final Fantasy 8,
nor the broken-heartedness of Yuna at the end of Final Fantasy 10."
In a first person shooter,
"I was the last person alive in my unit and I was up against 5 enemy soldiers.
The first guy went down then I caught two others crouching together in a room;
with each kill my heart beat a little faster.
By the time I had killed the last guy and won the match for my team, I could feel my pulse beating in my jugular."
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