Even more gamer abuse

I've done a couple of posts stating that producers who abuse their target market sell well. And I still maintain it's true. Just looking over some of the key design principles Peta put forward in the interface lecture, and I'm so reminded of all the games that abuse players, not just by difficulty, not just by challenge hierarchy, but by exploiting the interface to no end. Usually this is done in the audiovisual, via senses, but is also done in other ways.

Instant example is Eternal Darkness. The game's whole point is to mess with the player. As typical of survival horror games, you are always being bombarded with a constant barrage of downcast yet frantic music to instill fear. You're being hunted quite a bit. And then, this is where the game just gets amazing... you have a sanity meter, which measures how sane your avatar currently is. When this bar starts to go down, all sorts of crazy stuff happens. Your head will randomly fall off. A TV volume bar will appear on screen and mute the TV on you, like someone was turning it down using the remote. The interface will turn to static. Absolute madness. A perfect example of a game abusing the player via the interface to induce emotions of fear and panic.


A lot of multiplayer games will enable players to use the interface of their opponent to effect their ability to play the game, and some are quite mean. I think of how, in Guitar Hero battles, you are able to reverse the opposing player's dexterity orientation (ie. make a right-handed player use the left-handed interface, and vice versa). I *hate* it when this happens to me. Or the flashbang grenade in Counter-Strike or Operation Flashpoint. It completely blinds the player's character, and an instant white screen with a high-pitched wail is also annoying. I know it's to capture the "realism" of a flashbang, but that doesn't escape the fact it's sense-abuse.

You've gotta admit, developers must have some excellent recruiting processes to find the genii that come up with this sort of stuff. Absolutely remarkable.

But once again, this is an example of where players are tortured to some extent, in order to create a fun experience. I think, perhaps, the tolerance of players to this sort of thing is quite a bit higher than we have been led to believe. And these are just the most popular games. There is an interesting flash game I played that makes the player wander through a maze. I think it was called Disorientation. The premise sounds easy enough, right? But then it reverses the orientation of the controls, shuns you with motion blur, and gives you a moving floor to work with, all in increasing levels as you go through the game. Sheer madness.

Player abuse. Don't report it. Be a capitalist and make money off it. Seems to have worked for so many companies, and I'm sure there'll be more to come.