Contemporary Media Practices - Essay Example

Contemporary Media Practices Lecturer: Introduction When an individual looks at a TV screen regardless of whether the individual is playing or watching a movie, the screen forms an interruption between the prevailing reality of the surrounding and the virtual reality portrayed through the screen. When an individual looks at a computer screen the events occurring in the screen may not be real but rather computer generated making the environment the individual is concentrating with virtual (Slater & Wilbur, 1997). Immersion is a description of technology that elaborates the extent computer display is capable of offering an inclusive, extensive, surrounding as well as stunning fantasy of reality to the sense of the involved individual. Inclusion in immersion indicates the way physical reality is shut out while its extensive characteristics indicate the various sensory modalities accommodated (Slater & Wilbur, 1997; Tavinor 2009, p.184). Immersion is regarded as a great experience in gaming and is considered in games, designers and researchers of games as an essential experience in interaction. The theory of immersion is perceived in many aspects but is generally employed in software when referring to the virtual reality of and games. Within the gaming context, immersion is considered to be essential because review on games indicate immersion is related to the reality of the game world or even the atmospheric sounds. Immersion is considered to have depth because the experience of immersion is essential in enjoying a game and is sustained or even destroyed by the characteristics of the game (Brown & Cairns, n.d). However, focusing on specific cases necessitates a thorough discussion with regard to the notion of immersion that includes a player’s complete and total psychological identification with a character, immersion into the situation or story, a trance state, sharing of emotional bond with a character or even having similar reactions to events of play (Torner & White 2012, p.75). Immersion and theories The different perceptions of meaning of immersion have generated conceptual confusion such that even observer promote simply abandoning it since what it obscures in more compared to what it reveals. Moreover, adoption of unexamined commonplace knowledge regarding the relationship between reality and game experience has been considered “immersive fallacy”. This is a way of considering the history of technologies of communications that takes it as inexorably and ideally leading to more powerful systems of simulation. Immersion’s conceptual elusiveness can be attributed to the various immersive experiences pointed out by theorists and scholars of games. According to Torner and White (2012, p.76), Douglas and Hargadon differentiate between immersion and engagement even though the distinction is not always clear in the discussions regarding experiences of play. Moreover, Tuomas suggests that there are three forms of immersion, which include the character played by the individual, the narrative the individual experiences as well as the reality the individual perceives. In trying to understand the various experiences of immersion, some theorists try to identify the essential quality or even character. Other theories consider immersion to involve attempts to grasp entire personality instead of adopting one daily role of a different person, which offers a definition that aims at character immersion. In other cases, essentialist move results in recapitulation in different terms of the notion of a magic circle where the make-believe game-world is considered seriously throughout the play experience. Hence, the essence of immersion is considered a change of perception regarding the world instead of adopting a different personality, which points out that a player consider temporary things in the imagined space to be part of everydayness. Therefore, immersion means players enter into an alternative world of live role-playing while experiencing decreased self-awareness since the game-world functions like an isomorphous model of reality during the event. Hence, when engaged in playing, players interact with the game-world in a similar manner they interact with the environment outside the game. Nevertheless, the suggestion that immersion is to a certain extend the essence of role playing sometimes generates vehement objection (Torner & White 2012, p.77). Apart from the presence theory, immersion is frequently used in the context of digital games although the use of the term varies considerably since it is used to refer to diverse experiential states like general engagement, addiction, perception of realism, identification with game characters and even suspension of disbelief. Given the phenomenon that immersion and presence are used to refer to is significant in shaping experience of digital games, which in return necessitates a precise approach. Since representational power regarding computer graphics together with audio increase, companies that deal with development of games adopt immersive as a promotional adjective in marketing their games. Nevertheless, this approach was initially used in the promotion of photorealistic graphics but the strategy is currently used in marketing other features such as scope of the game world, artificial intelligence or even an engaging narrative. For instance, Conan takes graphics within MMOs to a different level with the newest and greatest in technology together with an amazing art direction that ensures the game immerses a player to a world never before seen in the gaming world. Moreover, need for speed underground 2 takes place in a huge and free roaming city that has five distinct and interconnected neighbourhoods that deliver immersive game world where the streets remain menus for the player. The fundamental assertions in these games are that immersion is a good experiential quality in games believed to be desirable to consumers. Sometimes, immersion is an essential component within the gaming industry since it connects with engagement that draws a player deep into the game world in such a way that the player feels he or she is part of the game-world (Calleja 2011, p.25). Online games bring signs of cyberpunk romanticism and perhaps induce an unstated ideal desire to delve into the virtual reality that replaces realm of physical experiences. Nevertheless, this idealization of immersion is critiqued because too many designers share this mimetic imperative during game design (Calleja 2011, p.25-26). In some games, immersion is never linked with sensory replication of reality, which rightly highlights problems associated with equating immersion with figurative mimesis and qualities associated with avoiding principles of design based on quest for great realism. Nevertheless, the point is acknowledged at a cost of the specific meaning immersion accrues from discussions encompassing the virtual environment (Calleja 2011, p.26). In emphasizing immersion as absorption in a game, some studies side-line the significance of spatiality as an essential element of the occurrence which immersion refers to within the context of virtual environments. Representation of space regardless of whether is internally generated or even graphically displayed remains one essential aspect of the subjective experience of immersion; hence, for a context to be immersive, it must generate space which the player can relate and the space must be populated with individuated objects. Moreover, for immersion to be achieved the context must offer an expanse that allows immersion to occur and the expanse is not an ocean but rather a textual world. It is inefficient for the field to apply immersion in its original and general sense since it has amassed specific meanings within the discursive environment. This true especially when theorists do not clarify which of the meaning is used within their specific studies. Hence, the blurring of the difference between the applications of immersion as absorption or even as transportation creates ambiguity in the fact that game environments enable qualitatively different types of engagement for various media (Calleja 2011, p.28). Theories Theory on spatial presence occurs in three stages that include players forming a mental representation of space the game offers them; players begin favouring the media-based space to be their point of reference to their current stratus and finally spatial presence occurs if there is something to gain (Madigan, 2010). For a game to be characterized as having spatial presence, the game should facilitate immersion and can be grouped in two categories that include games capable of creating rich mental model of the gaming environment and games capable of creating consistency between things in the game environment. Need for speed is one of the games that use rich mental model in their gaming environment because the game is rich in multiple channels of sensory information, cognitively demanding environment, strong and interesting narrative as well as completeness of its sensory information. Multiple channels of sensory information mean that as the senses increase and as they work in tandem the better; for instance, stopping a vehicle abruptly is good but hearing it screech to a halt is much better. Therefore, multiple channels of sensory information are essential in making the immersive qualities in the gaming world better (Madigan, 2010). Moreover, 3D may also play a key role since smell or vision will bring about a distinct era in spatial presence in the near future. With regard to the cognitively demanding environments that ensure that players focus entirely on what is happening in a game will help tie mental resource (Madigan, 2010). This plays a significant role in immersion since brainpower is assigned the role of comprehending and moving around in the game world. Moreover, having a strong and interesting narrative helps suck a player into the game every time and because of its capability it remains pretty much the only thing in the toolbox for creating immersion (Madigan, 2010). This is because great narrations attract attention to the game and helps generate a feeling in the gaming world that is more believable, which end up tying up mental resources in the game. Completeness of sensory information ensures few blanks in the mental model of the gaming world for the player to fill making the experience much better (Madigan, 2010). Abstraction as well as contrivances are enemies of immersion; for instance, Need for speed is immersive since its towns are filled with people who appear to be doing stuff associated with people. Therefore, dealing with familiar environment allows a player to comfortably make assumptions regarding any blank spaces without the need to pull out of the game world to think about the assumptions, which goes a long way in creating spatial experience (Madigan, 2010). In maintaining spatial presence, various traits associated with consistency need to be carefully considered. These traits include lack of incompatible visual prompts within the gaming world, an unbroken presentation of the gaming world, consistent behaviour of things within the gaming world as well as interactivity with items within the game world (Madigan, 2010; De, Xun & Santhanam 2013, p.118). Lack of incongruous visual cues within the gaming world is an essential precursor to spatial presence because it includes anything that reminds a player of his achievement and other notifications. Believable behaviour of things within the game world means that the characters, objects together with other creatures within the game behave in a manner a player expects them to (Madigan, 2010). Moreover, the cues have to make sense and be consistent throughout the entire experience. An unbroken presentation of the gaming world means spatial cues about the imaginary world of the game should not merely appear and disappear; however, this is usually what happens many times when a player loads a game menu. When this occurs, the game world disappears for a few minutes and terminates any feeling of being immersed since it is impossible to be immersed in something that is not available. Interactivity with items within the gaming world is another way of offering feedback to the player regarding actions as well as a sense of stability linking the different parts of the setting (Madigan, 2010). Involvement in media like computer games and the virtual reality has been described as experiencing deep engagement with the medium (Hua, Rau & Salvendy 2009, p.112). Presence involves the understanding of being available within a mediated environment that includes virtual reality. Players engaged in a virtual game perceive themselves to be surrounded by stimuli and their cognitive and even perpetual systems are tricked to believe they are in tangible places. Therefore, immersion in games includes involvement in the context; physically, mentally and emotionally, which challenges games to embrace practices that promote engagement of brain power but also other sensory information of the players (Hua, Rau & Salvendy 2009, p.112-3). Psychologically immersion experience involves sensation of being surrounded by different reality; hence, Immersion is a psychological state characterized by the perception of one’s self as being surrounded and interacting with an environment that offers continuous stimuli. Therefore, to make immersion qualities in games to be better, developers of games face the challenge of developing games that are capable of engaging players deeply in the make-believe gaming world similar to the real world. In the game world, players are capable of seeing, hearing and manipulating the environment the same way they carry out in the real world, which offers a player strong visceral and cognitive belief in what occurs in the in the virtual world as a physical reality. Immersion experiences in games are essential in enjoying a game; even though, there are discussions with regard to the causes of immersion in a game (Hua, Rau & Salvendy 2009, p.113). Considering various barriers of immersion that determine the degree of participation within a game brings out three stages of involvement that include engagement, engrossment and total immersion. Engagement is considered as the initial stage in immersion and to enter the stage, player take time, effort and attention. Once players are involved in the game, they eventually proceed to the engrossment stage; however, barrier to this phase is the construction of the game. In this stage players become less aware of their environment and themselves than previously and as they continue in this stage they end up being in the highest level of immersion which is total immersion (Hua, Rau & Salvendy 2009, p.113). However, barrier to total immersion include empathy and atmosphere; therefore, to develop immersion in the game world various conditions have to be addressed. These conditions include conventions of the game should match user expectations, meaningful tasks for the player to perform and the conventions of the game world must be need to be consistent as well as the physical dimensions of the technology. To help improve immersive qualities in games, narrative and narrative genres can be used to define conventions of the world, which would help players, align their expectations with the prevailing logic of the game world. Moreover, players in a gaming world require functionality or even playability in order to make the gaming process smooth because the game induces a player to remain in the virtual game world. Therefore, elements like narratives of the game are essential for ensuring that players are drawn into the game and remain immersed in the virtual game world since the narrative offer player stories, characters and backgrounds that make a player feel part of the story (Hua, Rau & Salvendy 2009, p.114). While experiencing games, players in games like Need for Speed are not only involved in ready-made world but also dynamically participating in development of experiences, investing in desires and previous experiences as well as expectation of outcome. Within a game environment, conflicts as well as challenges are elements of the game and remain the main motivation for designers and matching skills and challenges become prerequisites for provoking emergence of optimal experience. One essential aspect of playing computer games is the actively involvement of players in the games; therefore, arousal of senses as well as attraction necessary in exploring the games remain essential in ensuring immersion in the game. Therefore, to improve the immersion qualities in games, designers need to come up and maintain better ways of developing curiosity in players because curiosity has role in formation of a player’s goals and the resulting behaviour. Effective integration of curiosity within a game world is essential since curiosity attracts the attention of a player; hence, the need for two qualifying factors for immersion to be achieved that includes curiosity and challenges (Hua, Rau & Salvendy 2009, p.116). During immersion the player’s perceptions and cognition is made up of concentration, control and comprehension with concentration playing a significant role in ensuring optimal experience that requires focused attention. While playing, players usually control some units like characters, strategies or even weapons within the game world, which result in optimal experience and a sense of control in the players. Control remains a key element in defining optimal experience; hence, a player’s sense of control is essential in immersion. Besides usually games are designed as framework therefore, before a player attains immersion he or she has to comprehend the structure as well as the storyline for the game and its characters (Hua, Rau & Salvendy 2009, p.116). Based on the various stages of immersion, immersion in computer game narrative involves six dimensions that include curiosity, concentration, control, challenge, comprehension and empathy. Curiosity in games is essential since interesting content ensures that a player is eager to explore the game world surroundings and discover new things because interacting with the game offers enough knowledge necessary for being a good player. Concentration in games is enhanced by interesting content; hence, a computer game has to offer interesting story that grabs attention of the player and maintaining it throughout the game (Hua, Rau & Salvendy 2009, p.117). Moreover, apart from offering interesting content, proper workload for players’ perceptual and cognitive memory is essential since the increase in attention and effort increases the level of immersion of a player within the game. Control in the game world should allow players to translate strategy as well as intention into the game world; hence, the need to ensure that games allows players a sense of control over characters within the game world (Hua, Rau & Salvendy 2009, p.117). Once a player perceives sense of control over characters, the player feels free to play the game and solve problems in his own manner which in return makes the player feel that he is exploring a real environment. Hence, games have to offer players flexibility to get what they need in order for them to be sensitively immersed. Challenge in games is identified as a significant aspect of flow experience and remains a significant factor in immersion of game players since challenge help focus the player’s attention (Hua, Rau & Salvendy 2009, p.117). Difficulty in a game has to have different levels that increase gradually and advance at the right pace in order for the player to continually be interested in playing the game (Hua, Rau & Salvendy 2009, p.118). One aspect that differentiates computer game narratives from the conventional narratives is its interactivity; hence, in computer games players act as the audience as well as players and narrators. Another distinction is that the relation between independent events is causality instead of a fixed sequence; moreover, computer game narratives are not linear in structure all of which determine different experiences in players (Hua, Rau & Salvendy 2009, p.118). Disposition Theory This theory indicates understanding that involves liking of or recognition of media characters remains basic factors for elucidating why individuals enjoy entertainment media (Schmierbach & Limperos 2013, p.527). The theory predicts that audiences increasingly enjoy media once good characters achieve the desired outcome as well as when bad characters are punished. The premise is extended in various ways and the general theory efficiently explains the significant portion of reactions toward media. For instance, moral approval of a character’s action tends to promote liking toward the character and enjoyment while on the other hand disapproval generates opposite effect creating a negative feeling. This theory can be applied in games since players are attracted to interesting content, which in return increases their rate of immersion in the game, while poor content and characters limit attention and concentration of a player that serves to decrease the player’s immersion in the game (Schmierbach & Limperos 2013, p.528). Self Determination Theory Self-determination theory addresses the various factors that facilitate or even undermine motivation and in its initial development, the theory focused on motivation based on inherent satisfaction derived from action (Ryan, Rigby & Przybylski 2006, p.349). From this theory, intrinsic motivation is the most significant form of enthusiasm in play and remains appropriate to computer games even though players rarely obtain extra-game rewards. In many computer games, players pay to be involved, which suggests that people play computer games because they are intrinsically satisfying or because the players are seeking fun. One subset of self-determination theory is the cognitive evaluation theory (CET) that deals with contextual factors supporting or even thwarting intrinsic motivation (Ryan, Rigby & Przybylski 2006, p.349). This theory offers an indication that events and conditions enhance a person’s sense of autonomy and intrinsic motivation while factors capable of undermining autonomy or competence diminish intrinsic motivation. Autonomy in the Self-determination theory regards a sense of volition when carrying out task because when tasks are performed out of interest the perceived autonomy is high. Since participation of games beyond the experimental setting is usually voluntary, player’s autonomy for play is usually high. Nevertheless, the volition to engage in any computer game within people vary because of personal choice, content and design (Ryan, Rigby & Przybylski 2006, p.349); therefore, to increase immersion qualities in games there is need to increase autonomy by offering considerable flexibility in movement and strategies instead of controlling a player’s behaviour. CET recommends factors capable of enhancing knowledge of competence like prospects of gaining new skills or receiving better feedback that help enhance the perceived aptitude and in return intrinsic motivation. Therefore, perceived competence would be enhanced in gaming contexts where game controls are readily and intuitively mastered as well as tasks in the game that offer ongoing optimal challenges and opportunities for better feedback. This would in return improve immersion qualities in the game because perceived competence enhanced concentration of the player in the game (Ryan, Rigby & Przybylski 2006, p.349). CET has been tested in various experimental studies and applied in domains like school and sport; moreover, in the context of computer games, variables associated with autonomy and competence to influence motivation in game play have been developed in small-scale specific to gaming based on CET (Ryan, Rigby & Przybylski 2006, p.350). Since immersion relies on vividness of the display, its factors are related to the devices that result in realism in representation, a factor that comes to mind as a projection of 3D picture (Ryan 1999, p.110). A major difficulty for traditional media study arises when text, which is its main object of study, becomes interactive because the notion of interactive text is a key foundational idea within new media and digital culture. The availability of interactivity is celebrated by tech-enthusiasts as providing entire new world of media experience and is discussed at length by theorists and human computer interface designers (Dovey & Kennedy, 2005, p.5-6). In the past text was considered interactive if an individual was capable of directly intervening and changing the images as well as texts that the individual saw (Rosen 2001, p.337). Therefore, audiences for the new media become users as opposed to being viewers of visual culture or readers of literature because computer games are naturally interactive and the significance of this basic quality can never be overestimated. In studying a computer game, a player cannot rely only on its textual characteristics because there is need to focus on the moment of its enactment as it is played. Therefore, the text becomes a complex interaction that links the player and the game in what is known as game play. Recent studies have challenged the usefulness of interactivity as a differentiating category of text or even experience because different contexts have highly interactive relations with media texts that form part of the environment. This position is in line with the work of media study theories that argue that any act of media consumption is an active process because audience studies reveal that watching television is not a passive activity because the viewer’s interpret programs in accordance with their knowledge of certain codes and genres (Dovey & Kennedy 2005, p.6). Influence of interactivity and immersion on spectatorship and representation Interpretative activity of traditional media is different from materially intervening in the text to make it look or even sound different, which is interactivity that results from history of human computer interface design. Interactivity in this case is initially conceived as a way of controlling computing process while the computing process is in motion (Dovey & Kennedy 2005, p.8; Wolf & Perron 2013, p.104). The ability to intervene and control computer through increasingly sophisticated visual interface culminate in a form of interaction that most interests players and designers of computer games as well as individuals in the media industry. Immersion in games is rendered as passive and possibly addictive because individuals are capable of being immersed totally into the virtual world such that they cannot respond to real world. However, there is a challenge in immersion as passive, which discloses an intricate set of requirements as well as concerns associated with technology especially with computer games. Immersion is offered as a basic aspect of game play experience and pleasure; even though, it seems to be the most problematic element within the experience (Dovey & Kennedy 2005, p.8). The significant distinction between analogue and digital versions of media lies in the tension between representation and simulation. Through action of a game engine that is capable of continuously, producing the rendered world inhabitant of the game world ensures that players are in a sense immersed into the simulated world. This simulation uses representation as its basic interface; hence, representation remains the means through which players interact with the simulated rule-governed world (Dovey & Kennedy, 2005 p.10; Ben-Shaul 2008, p.62). Moreover, the development of these representations is driven by the desire for greater and greater mimetic as well as photo-realism. Therefore, given the way media studies focus their attention on representation then it is clear there is need to consider the old system of representation as collapsing because of the new system of simulation (Dovey & Kennedy 2005, p.10). In conclusion, computer games offer virtual environment where opportunities to take action are manifest and the development of the virtual environment and participation in it suggest that virtual environment can be highly motivating. This is evident in some games like Need for Speed 2 that are highly interactive and capable of attracting a person’s attention and concentration, which ensure the individual is immersed in the game. Nevertheless, various aspects have to be considered in order to improve the quality of immersion in games and they include ensuring that a game is rich in various channels of sensory information, cognitively challenging environment, strong and attractive narrative as well as completeness of its sensory information. Moreover, to maintain consistency in immersion, games have to be designed in such a way that they offer unbroken presentation of the gaming world, consistent behaviour of things within the gaming world as well as interactivity with items within the game world. Finally, the new media and technology that in return affect representation and the way people view and integrate virtual reality have altered interactivity and immersion; therefore, immersion and interactivity have reworked formulas of representation and spectatorship. References Ben-Shaul, N. S. 2008. Hyper-narrative interactive cinema: problems and solutions. Amsterdam, Rodopi. Brown, E and Cairns P., n.d. A Grounded Investigation of Game Immersion. Available at: http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~pcairns/papers/Immersion.pdf Calleja, G. 2011. In-game: from immersion to incorporation. Cambridge, Mass, MIT Press. 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