Week starting 8th october

8. Vorderer, P. University of southern California, Hartmann, T. & Klimmt, C. University of Music and Drama, Hannover, Germany (2003) Explaining the enjoyment of playing video games: The role of competition, Available at
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=958735
Accessed: 30/09/07


Klimmt and Vorderer have suggested to model the process of
playing a video game as a sequence of situations each of which features
1. Certain possibilities to act,
2. A specific necessity to act,
3. The player’s attempt to resolve the necessity to act by applying (some of) the possibilities to act,

4. A result which influences the enjoyment felt by the player and the configuration of the subsequent situation.

Being faced with a challenge, the player has to act to overcome the challenge, either succeeding or failing. The result affects both the emotional state of the player and the subsequent game situation: A successful completion of the situation will lead to positive affect which is connected to high arousal

In sum, four intertwined factors, two on a general level and two on a computer-game specific level, can be identified to explain an individual’s readiness to select computer
games as competitive situations. Factors on a general level are

(1) The desire to maintain or enhance the own self-esteem and mood as a general motivation and
(2) The competitiveness of the social value disposition as a general disposition. On the computer-game-specific level,
(3) The motivation to challenge and surpass other opponents, as well as
(4) A computer-game-related self-efficacy can be assumed as determinants of the selection and enjoyment of competitive computer games

This document covers a lot of interesting points about why players enjoy playing video games, and what those players come to expect of a video game. They test their theory with the game Tomb Raider with two separate conditions, one had many different possibilities for the player to do, such as different weapons and tools, the other had very little. Overall they found that having fewer options to do what the player wanted meant they would get bored quicker.


9. Logas ,H., Telltale games, Muller, D., Georgia Institute of Technology, (2006) Mise-en-scène Applied to Level Design: Adapting a Holistic Approach to Level Design
Available at
http://www.digra.org:8080/Plone/dl/db/06276.13262.pdf
Accessed: 02/10/07


In film, mise-en-scéne is a holistic approach to constructing a frame. Everything that is visible in a given scene is selected by the film director to communicate information to the viewer, both on a conscious and sub-conscious level.

Mise-en-scène is defined by film theorist Robert Kolker as: “the use of space within the frame: the placement of actors and props, the relationship of the camera to the space in front of it, camera movement, the use of colour or black and white, lighting, the size of the screen frame itself”. [3] It is a French term that literally translates, “put in the scene”.

Lighting places an important part in setting the atmosphere in The Shining. In the beginning, Jack is lit from above with a diffuse light that softens his features. The light is warm and inviting, with amber and peach tones that evoke a sense of peace and tranquillity. As Jack descends into madness, the lighting of his character changes to match his altered state.

Although the texts we have examined in this paper are both firmly rooted in the horror genre, mise-en-scéne in used in all genres of film to imbue scenes with the full range of human emotion, from sorrow to exuberance. In the world of games, however, the techniques of mise-en-scéne seem to have matured most in the survival-horror genre.


This is one of the journals Matt suggested we should all read; it covers mise-en-scene, and compares the movie The Shining to the game Silent Hill 4. It is mentioned that the ambient lighting of the characters and rooms is important to convey the mood across to the player or viewer. As it also mentions that the survival horror genre is the most developed in game at the moment, it would be worth looking at several different games from this genre and look for common trends among them


10. Sweetset, P., Wyeth, P. The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia (2005) GameFlow: a model for evaluating player enjoyment in games, Available at
http://interactive.usc.edu/members/jchen/p3a-sweetser.pdf_sid=GOHl46N4qqA&mbox=INBOX&charset=escaped_unicode&uid=5902&number=4&filename=p3a-sweetser.pdf
Accessed: 09/10/07

Flow experiences consist of eight elements, as follows:

(1) A task that can be completed;
(2) The ability to concentrate on the task;
(3) That concentration is possible because the task has clear goals;
(4) That concentration is possible because the task provides immediate feedback;
(5) The ability to exercise a sense of control over actions;
(6) A deep but effortless involvement that removes awareness of the frustrations of
everyday life;
(7) Concern for self disappears, but sense of self emerges stronger afterwards; and
(8) The sense of the duration of time is altered

The combination of these elements causes a sense of deep enjoyment so rewarding that people feel that expending a great deal of energy is worthwhile simply to be able to feel it.

If the player is sufficiently skilled and the tasks have clear goals and feedback, then he or she will feel a sense of control over the task. The resulting feeling for the player is total immersion or absorption in the game, which causes them to lose awareness of everyday life, concern for themselves, and alters their sense of time.

It was identified that some of the GameFlow criteria are more suited to specific game
genres and aren’t applicable to strategy games. The control criterion of feeling a sense of control and impact onto the game world (like the player’s actions matter and are shaping the game world) was identified as being more relevant to role-playing games.

This journal raised a lot of interesting points concerning game flow; the many different factors that are involved (concentration, challenge, skill, etc), and that challenge is said to be the most important aspect of good game design. While the two games compared in the journal are RTS (Real-Time-Strategy) games, the comparison between a game that received a lot of positive reviews (Warcraft 3) is more likely to induce “GameFlow” than one which was given more negative reviews (Lords of EverQuest) could be applied to games from other genres. It also listed a criteria table for “GameFlow” which could be a useful source of information later on.