Games Move Us - An Exploration of Design Innovations that Lead to Player Emotions

TL;DR

Games have unique abilities to evoke powerful social emotions in players through avatars, interdependence, and transformative experiences.

Transcript

so it's a great not to introduce today's speaker Katherine is Vista who is actually a Stanford alumni and she did a PhD here in the communications department and then went on to do many great things in the game space and right now she's an associate professor at NYU both in the computer science department as well as at the game centered and she has... Read More

Key Insights

• 👻 Games have the ability to evoke social emotions in players through avatars that allow them to take on different personas and engage in coordinated actions.
• 🎮 Interactive gameplay with others can create collective emotions and foster social connections.
• 👾 Games can recreate social situations and enable players to experience social emotions in virtual worlds.
• 👾 Avatars and interdependence in games can create transformative experiences and elicit unique emotional responses.
• 👾 The power of games lies in their ability to evoke emotions through actions and interactions, not just through narrative or visual elements.
• 🔉 Games offer a unique medium for exploring and understanding social emotions that is distinct from other forms of media.
• 👾 Designing games that evoke social emotions can have a positive impact on players' emotional well-being.

Questions & Answers

Q: How did Katherine Isbister become interested in researching games?

Katherine Isbister became interested in studying games after playing a video game that evoked empathy towards birds, leading her to recognize the unique emotional power of interactive media.

Q: What is the core premise of the book Katherine Isbister is working on?

The core premise of Katherine Isbister's book is that game designers have developed techniques to evoke powerful social emotions in players that are not found in any other medium.

Q: How do avatars contribute to the emotional experience in games?

Avatars allow players to embody different personas and engage in coordinated action, creating social connections and interactions that evoke unique emotions.

Q: How do multiplayer games facilitate social emotions between players?

Multiplayer games enable players to collaborate, coordinate actions, and experience collective emotions, fostering trust and creating social connections.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Katherine Isbister, an associate professor at NYU, explains her work at the NYU Game Innovation Lab, which explores the intersection of gaming and user experience.

• She discusses her motivation for researching games and how interactive experiences can evoke empathy and different emotions.

• Isbister presents examples of games that use avatars, collective action, and social interactions to create powerful emotional experiences.