For this experiment I chose to do something that is engaging and actually interests me, I chose to play Resident Evil 7: Bio-hazard as it has its difficulties and it's scare-factor. The game resides itself around the fear of losing a close one and fighting for their live, putting your own at risk. This game is based around its stress, fear and lack of respect to a sensitive audience.
My first impression on the game when setting out to play it (Without the help of tutorials, I choose never to use them as they ruin the immersion/feel of the game) was to grab what little I knew of the controls and attempting to understand the story. At first glance I was immediately hooked by the call of a girl (who we later find out to be the girlfriend of our character) telling us she is leaving her baby-sitting job and readying to head back home. During which she never makes it back, thus the main protagonist (i.e. the main character/playable character) follows to find her. During this experience I found myself in the character, doing anything he can for his loved ones allowing me to feel at the same level as the character. During this state, I was immersed to the point that I felt as if I was the character, feeling the same amount of stress, allowing myself to get into that state. I tend to do this with games and realised that there was a state of 'flow' based around this.
Csikszentmihalyi's theory of 'flow' in games allows for people to get a better understanding on what type of games they prefer to play and whether boredom takes a toll in every game. The idea is that the state of flow resides in between the stress of a game and being bored of a game. My understanding of this became surreal after playing this game because at every time in the game I could pin-point where I sat on the scale, making his theory almost 100% correct.
No comments:
Post a Comment