jlcox2

Video games are a billion dollar a year industry that is only getting bigger. In the last twenty years video games have come leaps and bounds in terms of technological advances and they way are accepted in society. The first video game was a simple bouncing square that was nothing more than that. Today’s video games are anything but simple. Storylines exist that take the user anywhere imaginable.
The reason for such a growth in video games, in my opinion, is escapism. The user wants to stop thinking about his or her everyday life and become some else, or go places they wouldn’t be able to go without the game. This is where my thought on a video game field study stems. If people play video games to “get away” then give them the option of playing the game out of their normal environment. I’m not suggesting putting the TV in the kitchen and battling monsters from the counter tops. I’m suggesting that you take the player out of the real world and put them into the video game. Obviously, we can’t put someone in to a game but we can let him or her play the game in a environment that represents the game. Possible a room designed like the setting in the game, even dimming the lights would be an option. This is only for research of course but we could see the effects and differences someone has when they play a game in a totally white room, a normal living room set up, or the game environment. This might help us understand the concept of the person’s environment inside and outside the game. For example, the game Guitar Hero, the object of the game is to play notes on a miniature guitar and try to sound like the real song. If you play the song well the crowd screams and applauds, if you play it poorly they boo. The game setup could be a stage with huge speakers, instruments lying around, possibly a live crowd. This would make the player feel like they were actually playing a concert, taking them out of the living room. Question would be asked after the test. How did you feel when the crowd started booing you? Did it make you want to play better? Worse? At which setting was your intensity at the highest? At which setting was the game more fun? Another example could be a combat game set in the jungle. The game setup would be a room with lavish plants. I would expect the intensity of a shooting game to be much higher than a music game. Testing the players surrounding like this and asking specific question could allow a greater understanding of how the story’s setting (narrative) affects video game playing.