Therefore, time becomes a reward through the successes of high-scores and skill against avatar death.Īs the spatial structure of games change, and expand beyond “contained” spaces into “scrolling” and “moving” planes such two-dimensional side scrolling platformers or games that allow player-characters to move through the z-axis into three-dimensional worlds (Wolf, 2001,p.54-65), the unlocking of space, combined with other factors such as time limits and scoring now become the focus of the reward. In the case of arcade games, in particular, time is money as the player strives to stay playing for as long as possible before dying and having to insert more coins to start again. Although the player may be able to progress to a new level, often these levels are quite similar, shifting the emphasis to time and point based rewards, instead of the unlocking of new spaces. In these scenarios, players often have to contend with attempting to beat the clock whilst conquering the relatively small space of the game and their previous high-scores.
Titles such as Pong (Atari Inc., 1972), Pac-Man (Namco, 1980) and Bejeweled 2 (PopCap Games, 2010) take place within one “contained” area on screen (Wolf, 2001, p. Players traverse the screen-space of various videogames in different ways. “Typically, videogames create ‘worlds’, ‘lands’ or ‘environments’ for players to explore, traverse, conquer, and even dynamically manipulate and transform…” (Newman, 2004, p.108).Īs Newman notes above, videogames are a spatial medium (a thought also echoed by Aarseth (1997), Nitsche (2008) and Wolf (2001) amongst others). Rewards, time, space, exploration, environment, goal, social, personal. By understanding the basic structures of personal and social rewards found within many videogames, other types of reward related to time and space are built upon in order to show the way in which rewards overlap and their meanings evolve within different game play and game design contexts. Reward systems are defined and discussed in relation to different genres from puzzle-games to arcade games, from third-person games to simulation-based games. Building upon Björk and Holopainen’s (2005) and Hallford and Hallford’s (2001) categories of rewards, this article examines temporal and spatial reward structures within a range of videogames. In relation to time, videogames are also a spatial medium, with ever-growing worlds expanding for player-characters to move through and explore. It is through the condition of time that many game reward systems are designed around the collection of points, achieving high-scores and beating the clock. Unlocking the Gameworld: The Rewards of Space and Time in Videogames by Alison Gazzard
0 kommentar(er)
