Videogames As Distributed Cognition Systems 🕹

Video Gameplay has seen great evolution over time, from the early 8-bit console and PC games to high-resolution graphics, mobile gaming, and VR. Over this period the videogame industry has shown steady growth (Nakamura, 2019) and it seems like a promising career option for HCI designers. In recent years, however, advances in graphics and processing technology haven’t always led to a better gaming experience. Gamers complain about the over-saturation of conventional game approaches (e.g. battle royale clones) and the market is starting to show signs of fatigue, along with concerns about abusive practices in the conventional game development industry (Minhaj, 2019).

You hear through social media that a big video game development company is starting a fund for indie developers to create more innovative games. The company is famously known for its narrative and engaging video game design, and the first step of the application process is to provide i) a design guideline that shows how to design an engaging experience and ii) a 3-minute video pitch of your guideline. The company has emphasized that a sole focus on graphics will not fulfill the expectations and has encouraged all teams to take a look back at pioneer videogames that stood out because of their gameplay, art, and story behind them (i.e. Pong, Tetris, Doom, Final Fantasy, etc).

What was this project about and what my team and I did?

• We explored how smart-seeing & projecting, distributed cognition, and close-coupling play role in the experience of users in different contexts and settings while gaming.

• We researched smart-seeing & projecting distributed cognition, and close-coupling to a practical activity we face and propose solutions through HCI design guidelines.

• We created a preliminary Design Aid Device (DeDe) incorporating specific evidence to address the impacts of smart-seeing & projecting, distributed cognition, and close-coupling on the HCI.

How can we design video games that harness human smart-seeing & projecting/close-coupling to create an engaging experience for the gamer?

1. Definitions:

   Smart-seeing & Projecting: Smart seeing and projecting states that thinking can be distributed between internal process and external representations(e.g. symbols, sketches). Smart seeing and projecting also suggests that Actively looking at external representations and projecting onto them makes us more powerful thinkers than thinking in our heads alone.

   
   Distributed Cognition: Distributed cognition is the role that our environment plays in our thinking process. For example, when we play games on a console such as the PS4, we are having to control the character or the game through the DualShock controller, which has lots of buttons and with different symbols, each representing a different function for the character. The person playing the game is a distributed system here because he is working with a tool which is helping him offload mental information and project it. This also creates a feedback loop as the controller provides haptic-feedback (vibrates) when we interact with objects in the game.

   
   Close-Coupling: How a thinker demonstrates intelligence through reasoning and the changing of information.

2. Brainstorming

   • What is known & unknown

     • Known:

       • Thinking can be distributed between internal process and external representations

       • Smart seeing and projecting can be used when using symbols and sketches

       • Unconsciously taking unwanted emotions or traits that an individual does not like about themselves, then associating them to someone else.

       • Manipulating objects and checking for solutions.

       • User engagement, how a thinker uses embodied intelligence to thinking and changing information.

       • Active coordination of dynamic systems.

       • Human coordination of thought and action supported by environments, artifacts, displays, sub-tasks, and signalling mechanisms.

       • A person working with a tool can be a distributed system.

       • It is a useful approach for designing the technologically mediated social aspects of cognition by putting.

     • Unknown:

       • What is gravity and physics in gaming?

       • What makes us get hooked into a game?

       • Is spending too much timed playing games harmful for our health, and can it be considered as an abusive practice

       • How can a game make use of almost all our senses to make it very engaging?

   • Design Objective

     • Our design objective is to look into the physics-based puzzle video game “Cut the Rope” to see what are the different elements and how they help to engage the players, and what elements didn’t work.

   • Individual Research Questions for Research:

     • Wenhan:

       • Why is Cut the Rope interesting and engaging for the players

       • What are some psychological factors that engages the players

       • What colour scheme does the game use? What kind of feelings does it invoke in the players?

       • Is there anything interesting with the sound design?

       Sofia:

       • What elements does cut the rope use to help make players more engaged in the game?

       • Does cut the rope teach users different methods to help them in their everyday lives?

       • How does smart seeing and projecting affect the way we play this game?

       • Will we have a different way of thinking with the knowledge that we know on smart seeing and projecting when playing this game?

       Izaz:

       • Does the sound play any role when we play the game?

       • How does the “restart” button on the screen convince us to buy in-game currency?

       • Why does the game use a neon-like color and vibrancy in the game? *I find it more likely to play this game due to the neon-like graphics*.

       • How are the stages designed and how does it influence our ability to smart seeing and projecting?

       • How is this game design more engaging?
         

   • Mindmap

4. Research Knowledge

The video game that we chose to research is Cut the Rope, first released on October 4, 2010 by ZeptoLab. 1 Throughout the past week, when gathering our information on the game Cut the Rope, our group chose a puzzle game where we played it on IPhones (also can be played through iPad, Android , Amazon , Windows Phone , Symbian , Blackberry , Mac , Mac , Windows , Windows 8 , Leap Motion). When looking into the two topics we discussed we found that smart seeing and projecting has played an important role in how the user plays the game, more importantly how they transfer their strategies and thoughts into their gameplay.

5. Weekly Journals

Day 3: Today, I noticed that whenever in the game I would sit still and not touch the game, OmNom (the main character) would growl and act to feed him the candy, so I kind of feel that the game constantly demands for interaction.

Day 5: I got my weekly report for the gameplay and I saw that I had spent around 2 hours each day playing the game. Something about it had gotten me hooked. I think the game makes full use of some of our senses like our eyes, ears and touch. The haptic feedback when an object falls or is sliced gives us a reassurance that we have carried out an action. The neon-like colors and vibrancy makes the game look so much better than most games out there. And the sound has been created in a fashion where it plays a different tune according to the level.

Reference

https://cuttherope.fandom.com/wiki/Cut_the_Rope