First off, lets figure out what exactly user interface is. In video games, User interface is the ways that players can interact with the game. The user interface is usually based around how interactive it might be and what concepts the game has. Things like graphics and story line influence this quite a bit though.
I would have to say that I agree with McLuhan. Video games are designed to be interactive. If a video game is not interactive enough then the video game becomes more of just watching a movie. You will often see cut scenes in a video game to push the story along, but more the most part it is interactive. I think first person shooters are a great example of involving all of us, all at once.
Just int he name, first person shooters involve us in ways that other games don't. The camera angle in the game is first person so you see what the character sees. You become that character. With third person games, you constantly focus on seeing that character and playing it. You can still get into the game and "become" the character, but you have to put more effort into it.
I wanted to talk about three of my favorite game series that reinforce this idea, Halo, Bioshock, and Portal.
A way that video games interact with the player is through the Head-up Display, or the HUD. Most video games have a HUD, it tells you your health, your score, your items, and various other things. When games creatively use HUDs, that's where they really draw you into the game.
Let's start with Halo:
Here we see a typical scene in Halo 3. What I really like about this HUD, is it gives you all the information you need while keeping you involved in the game. You have your health, your grenades, your ammo, and a map. You see through the eyes of the character. But what this adds, is the element of seeing the outline of your helmet. I'm not sure why but I helps me really get into the character. I feel like I really am Master Chief blowing up things to kill grunts.
Next up, Bioshock:
Again, here we see the essentials which are needed in this game. But very often in Bioshock 2, you see your own helmet around the corners of the screen. If moves around with you as you move. It makes me feel like I really am wearing a helmet with my giant suit and drill.
lastly, Portal:
In this game, we can see a lack of a HUD. This game doesn't have bullets, grenades, health, or anything like that. You simply have your portal gun. The character in this game doesn't have a helmet or and eye piece, or anything else that might provide a reason for projecting a HUD on the screen.
What all these games do well, is get you into the game and keep you there. In halo and Bioshock, the HUDs give you that constant reminder that your in the game being that character. It never goes away. In Portal, even though it has a lack of a HUD, it still brings you in and keeps you there through the design of the game. In these games, very often the cut scenes don't change perspective like other games do. You keep looking through the eyes of the character. So overall, these games are interacting with us constantly. There is no detachment.
Blog comments from last time:
Megan, I agree First Person Shooter games are for sure my favorite because I get way more into them. I'm playing The Stanley Parable right now, and I do not enjoyit as much as FPS games for two reasons. In FPS games, you don't lost to a computer, you lose to another human. When you win, you're beating another person not a game script. I think P v P (player verse pkayer) is a much more exciting experience, it allows me to invest more energy and emotion. Even if I'm lplaying a less intense game than a FPS, I still would rather play other humans online than against a computer.
ReplyDeleteNever knew what a HUD was, neat-o!
I would definitely agree with you and your post. I think that it is all about the interaction with the player and the game since essentially that is what the player and the programmers want. With that, i agree that first person shooter games would then enable this to happen. I am not much of a game player but just from the pictures you have posted I can see that at that camera angle it seems easy to know where you need to go when playing those games.
ReplyDeleteYou make an interesting point, another way that these games seem to connect us is though online capability, with the use of a headset you can game with anyone around the world, they can be random or some of your friends. I think this aspect really hits home just how connected both socially and with technology that we can become. However doesn't it sometimes isolate us from the real world as well. We get so involved with the video games that we play that we do detach from the real world. And what about the games that are not first person or don't have online collaborative gaming ability? Do they push us farther from being in the real world?
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