"Elements Of Consideration"
being the most marvellous notes
of the renowned scholar Kyle Cherry
1.1 Refinement of our test.
-One of our current problems with the test is that we have not chosen a ‘victory condition’. This problem is easily remedied:
Our test has been successful if the player found the NPC too plausible as a friend to believe they could ever turn upon them. Essentially, that the ‘Nice’ level variant would be ‘canon’ in their eyes. One of the most important questions to include in the questionnaires is which level the player found most believable, because if our NPC is too friendly to be a threat players will tell us that the level where the two leave happily was the most believable. Our test will have been a success.
1.2 Defining sympathy, empathy and chivalry – Emotional Factors of our test.
“The Nature Of Sympathy”
(Max Scheler, 2008 / ISBN-10: 1412806879)
“The Role of Sympathy And Altruistic Personality Traits In Helping: A Reexamination”
(Nancy Eisenberg et al. / http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119431381/abstract)
“The Distinction Between Sympathy And Empathy”
(Lauren Wispé, 1986 / Journal of Personality And Social Psychology)
"The Sacred Rights Of The Weak"
(Elizabeth B. Clark, 1995 / http://www.jstor.org/pss/2082183)
2.1 Refinement of personality modelling chart to better suit our NPC.
-Reduce the variables -2/+2, representing the strongest realistic responses.
-Increase list of variables:
Hateful / Loving
Discontent / Content
Disillusioned / Hopeful
Cautious / Trusting
Cowardly / Courageous
Arrogant / Modest
Selfish / Selfless
Indifferent / Caring
Immature / Mature
Dishonorable /Honorable
-Addition of ‘Inert/Driven’ axis which charts the character’s ambition or lack thereof.
-Addition of ‘Independent/Dependent’ axis which charts the character’s need or lack of need for other characters.
-Addition of ‘Introvert/Extrovert’ axis which charts how the character presents themselves to social situations.
-Addition of ‘Chaotic/Ordered’ which charts the character’s attitudes to their clothing, possessions and situation.
We can use these personality modelling charts in our data-collection, asking players to mark the NPC. This is interesting, because with two NPCs to describe, the player will invariably pick the one they found most believable.
3.1 Design of our NPC – Career & Background.
-NPC must be sympathetic; unfulfilling day job? Money issues? NPC must be thoroughly sympathetic; Under-valued?
-Possible careers; IT Consultant, office drone.
When considering the chosen career of our NPC, we must pay attention to whether the setting places any additional restrictions on our character, for example ‘Job Strain’ and other traits.
“Does it matter where you work?"
(E. Jeffrey Hill, 2003 / Journal Of Vocational Behavior)
“A longitudinal test of Karasek's Job Strain model among office workers.”
(Pascale Carayon, 1993 / Work And Stress)
“A Brief Introduction to Job Strain”
(Peter Schnall M.D., 1998 / http://workhealth.org/strain/briefintro.html)
“The World Of The Office Worker”
(Michel Crozier, 1971 / Journal Of Contemporary Ethnography)
3.2 Design of our NPC – Appearance.
“A Measure Of Emotional Empathy”
(Albert Mehrabian, 2006 / http://dionysus.psych.wisc.edu/lit/Articles/MehrabianA1972a.pdf)
-Our NPC must be ‘average’ to best fit plausibility;
“Why are average faces attractive?”
(Tim Valentine, 2004 / http://www.valentinemoore.co.uk/trv/Attractive.pdf)
“Eyeglasses and gender stereotypes.”
(Roger Terry, 1989 / http://journals.lww.com/optvissci/Abstract/1989/10000/Eyeglasses_and_Gender_Stereotypes.6.aspx)
-This study suggests that women with glasses are considered to be more intelligent, feminine and introverted than otherwise.
"What is the female image projected by smoking?"
(John Beech, 2001 / http://www.le.ac.uk/psychology/jrb/PDF2000/Beech&Whittaker01.pdf)
-This study shows how smoking is considered to make a female seem more sexually interested, and glasses more intelligent. Variables such as these can easily be added to our character to make them seem more realistic, and the effects are clear for us to see.
4.1 Design of our Level - Situation.
-An everyday setting plays well to the strengths of the Hammer editor. IE; streets, shops.
-Setting must be fairly normalised so that the player is less concerned with that than with the NPC herself. IE; an alien invasion would have the players looking for aliens instead of interacting with our NPC, and would render our test useless.
“Fear of Crime and Handgun Ownership”
(James DeFronzo, 2006 / http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119597174/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0)
“Determinants of fear of crime: The effect of cultural setting”
(Richard Bennet, 1994 / http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a718869555&db=all)
-The two above are important to consider if we plan to use many firearms upon our level- how did they get there?
The link below is an interesting proposition to consider if we stick with horror elements in a civilised setting.
“Setting in Horror Fiction"
(Teresa Hopper, 2002 / http://www.fmwriters.com/Visionback/Issue9/horror.htm)
Above all, the rule of a normalised setting must be upheld, otherwise we risk spoiling the test with nonsense.
4.2 Design of our Level - Layout.
-The level must incorporate spaces for the player to directly interact with the NPC (through triggers, essentially ‘helpful’ and ‘unhelpful’) so we can better directly monitor the two. This can also play to the idea of using Bioware-esque conversational trees.
“Sick Building Syndrome: A Study Of 4373 Office Workers"
(Sherwood Burge, 1987 / http://annhyg.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/31/4A/493)
“Non-Specific Symptoms In Office Workers”
(Mark Mendell, 2004 / http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119306861/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0)
5.1 Further Reading.
“Consistency of personality in interactive characters”
(Katherine Isbister, 2000 / http://www.fineminddesign.com/site/media/Readings/Week%208/Isbister_nass_2000_consistency_of_personality_in_interactive_characters.pdf )
“Engaging Characters: Fiction, Emotion, and the Cinema”
(Murray Smith, 1995 / ISBN-10: 019818347X)
Research on tabletop games- how do they encourage creating and playing believable characters?
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