One of the more interesting aspects of MMOs are the fact that we interact with the world as a representation of our selves that we create; the avatar. These avatars are created based on our preferences (for the most part) within the constraints of the game.
Then we traverse the various experiences in the game (questing, meeting up with other players, instances, selling things, buying things, farming for items, making things, etc) as this avatar. Things that happen in the game, happen to the avatar and as the player we ‘interpret’ what that means. For example, there is a stat for how much health a player has. This stat can be expressed in various terms (depending on the game genre) as hit points, life points, etc. These hit points are then shown as a bar or some other graphic representation of the total number of points and the remaining number of points. The idea being that when the points are at 0 the avatar has died.
As the points are being expended in various way (via battles, or exertion, from not eating) there is the bar that shows you you are loosing ‘life’. But sometimes in a game there are other graphic representation. The avatar might start to slump or turn colors, or whatever. But in most every case, the process requires the player to interpret the data. The player must look at the health bar, the color of their avatar and decide, hmmm I am in a bad way and need to rectify this matter.
Most other indicators in the game are simlar. There might be one for determining how much magic a mage has used and how much potentially he/she might have left. There might be an indicator for how rested a player, etc But all of these are indicators, we as the player must interpret to understand what it might mean to the avatar and the game play experience.
Sure there are forced feedback systems and what not, but that is a translation. As a car rumbles around the track, you get force feedback in the form of a shaking controller.
Today, for the first time. There was a spell cast on my avatar, that affected me the user. Some ogre cast a spell that made you drunk and stumbling with blurry vision. I got the blurry vision (player) which then made make my avatar stagger around drunk.
The blur was applied to my entire screen. It lasted for only 15 seconds, but it was a very weird experience. Is this where we are headed with games? What potential does this bring to our body of knowledge?
Hmmm…

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