Reality is a Game

Game thinking from Adam Clare

Author: Adam ClarePage 83 of 262

Architizer Examines Architecture in Video Games

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On 10/07/2013

In Design, Video Games

Via Architizer

I enjoy reading Architizer so I was delighted to find a post on how video games use architecture. In it, the author breaks down the basics of how games utilize architecture to convey meaning into four ways.

1. Realistic Backgrounds
2. Labyrinth
3. Worldbuilding
4. Surrealist Mindbending

It is an oversimplification, but a good starting point nonetheless. Here’s a snippet on the labyrinth:

Labyrinth/Parking Garage Typology:

Games like Doom, or even Super Mario Brothers, on the other hand, take place in worlds that are both realistic and insanely fantastical. Here, architecture takes on the role of the Minotaur’s labyrinth or, taking inspiration from the Doom franchise, the infinite parking garage. The built form remains the scaffolding for the story, with players wandering around and through a seemingly infinite series of similar spaces.

Video Gamers Process Visual Information Faster

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On 09/07/2013

In Psychology

In the May issue of the Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics journal, a paper was published which concludes that video gamers are better at dealing with visual information than none-gamers. This comes as a surprise to nobody but it’s good to see research baking up what everyone already thinks. The full title is “Action video game playing is associated with improved visual sensitivity, but not alterations in visual sensory memory” (there is a paywall).

The interesting thing to note though is not that players are better at all aspects of visual cognition. What they are better at is absorption and filtering. This article sums up the research:

When playing a game, especially one of the “first-person shooters,” a gamer makes “probabilistic inferences” about what he’s seeing — good guy or bad guy, moving left or moving right — as rapidly as he can.

Appelbaum said that with time and experience, the gamer apparently gets better at doing this. “They need less information to arrive at a probabilistic conclusion, and they do it faster.”

Via /.

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