Class this week was about our aims and what we could do to further them. What it meant was that we were to get into pairs, read the Formative Draft Plan then present feedback on it and discuss what we meant with the feedback or bounce ideas off of each other. Below is my partner's feedback for my aims:
(What are the aims)
1. to understand how Virtual Reality (VR) changes a player’s journey in a space
2. to consider if strangeness affects interaction and how evocative an object is
3. investigating whether the player’s experience in an overwhelming (or bereft) area influences how they play
Offer feedback on what the different aims have in common.
· There is an emphasis on player interactions across all 3 aims – through the space, the objects, and the activities – you consider a different element of player interaction with each aim
· What is your why? Is player interaction the final takeaway of the research?
Identify how you might make connections between the different aims.
· VR will naturally influence the player immersion and will define to what degree the player can interact with the space and the objects.
If you believe the aims are too broad how might they consolidate or refine them?
· Can you refine “strangeness”? Is this a sense of the world (the space itself) or is this a player reaction?
· Can you define “play”? Is this in the sense of experimentation and exploration of the world? You could use the words “meaningful play” in your aim.
Offer suggestions about how the aims can inform the focus of the research.
· By understating how VR influences a player’s journey through space will dictate how you create an immersive experience. Consider what technical elements of VR impact immersion.
How will the aims be achieved?
(This one was left unanswered as we will discover this through this semester)
How are the aims supporting the selection and development of the draft methods?
· The aims support Game Design and Virtual Reality as an output – can you expand on how you will achieve “strangeness”. Will this be in the way to design the space, wayfinding through the space, and how you influence the player to interact with the space?
Are the aims too narrow, how can they be broadened so that they reference the paradigm/s informing the project?
· “investigating whether the player’s experience in an overwhelming (or bereft) area influences how they play” you described the stimulation – would you benefit from identifying this in your aim?
Reflection:
In reflecting I have looked at everything separately and responded in kind, this is the easiest way for me to organize thoughts around the feedback.
While reading the feedback, one at a time, my partner and I discussed what we meant and what an answer of sorts could be for the questions (or statements) posed. For my feedback I could see that they knew what I was talking about but picked up on some of the shortcomings, one being that I had no "Why" for my research question and it was reflected in my aims. To this, I had no answer, mainly because I am still not certain of what my "Why" is.
They saw "strangeness" (one of my keywords and subject matters) and wanted me to refine and define what I meant by this, not so much in the use of the word but more in what it meant for the project. While understanding what they were looking for it was hard to put into concise words as "strangeness", as a whole, does mean the entire project but in sections. Similar to this was the notion of "play". By using one of the annotations I have completed as a way to explain what I meant, I explained that it was the generation of meaningful play that is what I was referring to.
Technical aspects that can interfere with immersion would be the use of sound, whether the whole system works cohesively, lag, and scale. If any of these are remotely offset (by anything, it can be by human error or hard/software malfunction) it will disrupt the immersive nature of VR as well as balance within the game itself. Lag by itself can interfere and completely destroy an experience as it can create VR Sickness (similar to motion sickness but is the act of forceful movement inside the virtual space that tricks the brain into thinking it is moving- when it isn't- thus creating that sick feeling).
In achieving "strangeness" I will be using weird objects, sensations, and use of space. So to answer the question after it, I will be using it all- the space, wayfinding through that space, and influencing the player. This will mainly be in the form of evocative spaces. Wayfinding is just the way to influence the player's direction and navigation of the space.
And finally, in describing stimulation in the aim, as a result, I have shifted this aim around to use stimulation as the overarching word in shaping the player's experience. So the new version of the aim is: to investigate whether the player’s experience can generate meaningful play in a stimulating environment (whether overwhelming or barren). This also uses the addition of "meaningful play" as mentioned above.
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