different settings in games

Game settings

In a game there are things which the player can change in order to make the game different and be aimed at a certain audience. There are several characteristics within a game these being, physical, temporal, environmental, emotional and lastly, ethical.

Physical setting

This is where the story of the game is taking place, it is the setting and the physical look of the game world itself. An example of this would be in Skyrim you are a player that is in a vast continent and you are a dragon born, this continent is far north on the globe and this is shown by the mountainous terrain and the heavy snow accompanied by Arctic animals within the game to give the game a physical setting of being north of the globe.

Temporal setting

This is the time period which the game is set in. for example if you were to play Halo 3 you would know that it is set in the future due to the fact that space travel is much easier and more advanced relative to this time period. This means that the temporal setting is set mainly by both the visual and auditory experience felt by the player, meaning that the physical setting of the game and the audio (speech from NPC’S) are going to be different relative to our time period which will tell the player that this game is set in the future rather than the past or present. However this can also change during the game because let’s say for example that in the game world it had started snowing, the player would expect that the snow will settle on the ground instead of disappearing so this has to be taken into account by the developer.

Emotional setting

This is used mainly by the developer in order to consider how the player will feel on certain levels during the game, this is done in order to adjust the levels within the game to make the gaming experience better. It is essential for the developer to understand what characters the player will become emotionally attached to and how to achieve an immersive gaming experience for the player, and this can only be done by taking the emotional setting of the game into account.

Ethical setting

The ethical setting in a game is important because you don’t want to encourage players to do something that’s illegal in reality but normal in the game world, this has to be taken into account for the developer since he/she is held responsible for any action the player of the game does if it is influenced by the game. This is why games have a rating system in order to disallow players that are too young to play games where there are mass shootings or games and is also a guideline for parents on what games they should/should not buy for their children. 

Interaction models

Interaction models

An interaction model is the part of the game that is taken into account when choosing the different ways the player is controlled and shown within the game. There are two main types of interaction models, these being, avatar interaction model and omnipresence interaction model.

An avatar interaction model is when the player is shown as being the character of the game world, and how the player controls that character. an example of a game that uses given interaction models would be grand theft auto 5. This is a game where you are one character however you can change characters in order to give the player more choice when playing the game. Another reason as to why people like this game is because your actions have a reaction within the game, what you do affects the game world in either a positive or negative way.

Omnipresence interaction is a type of interaction that allows the player to control a number of characters greater than one in the game, or the player needs to make changes to the game world itself. An example of a game that represents this type of interaction model could be SIMS 3 where you manage each different character in order to let them have an affect in the game world itself.