Negativity in Play - How Negative Emotions create Meaningful Games
Resumo
Emotions are considered a core component of any media experience, including video games. However, most research regarding video game experiences regularly focus on the positive emotions elicited during play. As research on negatively valenced emotions is still ongoing, recent studies show they can provide more meaningful experiences for players. Therefore, this paper seeks to build upon previous research to emphasize how negatively valenced emotions can benefit the player experience (PX). Accordingly, studies regarding psychological research, essays, and presentations focused on game design are analyzed and discussed. A closing section of this paper serves as an examination of the game Getting Over It With Bennet Foddy, whose thematic and design philosophy complement those explored by this paper.
Palavras-chave:
Negative Emotions, Game Design, Player Experience, Getting Over It
Referências
M. V. Birk, I. Iacovides, D. Johnson, and R. Mandryk, “The false dichotomy between positive and negative affect in game play,” Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, 2015.
N. Lazzaro, “Why we play games: Four keys to more emotion in player experiences,” In Proc. of GDC’04., 2004.
R. Baumeister, K. Vohs, C. N. DeWall, and L. Zhang, “How emotion shapes behavior: Feedback, anticipation, and reflection, rather than direct causation,” Personality and Social Psychology Review, vol. 11, no. 2, 2007.
A. Scarantino, “Do emotions cause actions, and if so how?” Emotion Review, vol. 9, no. 4, 2017. V. Shuman1, D. Sander, and K. R. Scherer. (2013) Levels of valence. [Online]. Available: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00261/full
A. Bartsch, “Emotional gratification in entertainment experience. why viewers of movies and television series find it rewarding to experience emotions,” Media Psychology, vol. 15, 2012
M. B. Oliver and A. Bartsch, “Appreciation as audience response: Exploring entertainment gratifications beyond hedonism,” Human Communication Research, vol. 36, 2010.
J. A. Bopp, E. D. Mekler, and K. Opwis, “Negative emotion, positive experience? emotionally moving moments in digital games,” CHI’16, 2016
F. Allison and M. G. Marcus Carter and, “Good frustrations: The paradoxical pleasure of fearing death in dayz,” Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Australian Special Interest Group for Computer Human Interaction, 2015
M. B. Oliver, N. D. Bowman, J. K. Woolley, R. Rogers, B. I. Sherrick, and M.-Y. Chung, “Video games as meaningful entertainment experiences,” Psychology of Popular Media Culture, vol. 5, 2015.
D. Freeman, Creating Emotion in Games: The Craft and Art of Emotioneering. New Riders, 2003.
K. Burnell. (2012) Breaking the rules of game design: when to go against autonomy, competence, and relatedness. [Online]. Available: https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1015398/Breaking-the-Rules-of-Game
G. C. Cupchik, “The role of feeling in the entertainment = emotion formula,” Journal of Media Psychology, vol. 23, no. 1, 2011.
E. S. Tan, Emotion and the Structure of Narrative Film: Film As An Emotion Machine. Routledge, 1996.
C. Bateman, R. Lowenhaupt, and L. E. Nacke, “Player typology in theory and practice,” Proceedings of DiGRA., 2011.
B. Perron, “A cognitive psychological approach to gameplay emotions,” DiGRA ’05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play, vol. 3, 2005.
T. Cole, P. Cairns, and M. Gillies, “Emotional and functional challenge in core and avant-garde games,” CHI PLAY ’15, 2015.
U. Ritterfeld, P. Vorderer, and M. Cody, Serious Games: Mechanisms and Effects. Routledge, 2009.
T. Marsh and B. Costello, “Experience in serious games: Between positive and serious experience,” Proceedings of the Third international conference on Serious Games Development and Applications, 2012.
J. A. Bopp, E. D. Mekler, and K. Opwis, “”it was sad but still good”: Gratifications of emotionally moving game experiences,” CHI ’15 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2015.
D. Johnson, L. E. Nacke, and P. Wyeth, “All about that base: Differing player experiences in video game genres and the unique case of moba games,” CHI 2015, 2015.
N. Grayson. (2017) Frustration can improve video games, designer found. [Online]. Available: https://kotaku.com/frustration-can-improve-video-games-designer-found-1793045192
S. Harrer, “From losing to loss: Exploring the expressive capacities of videogames beyond death as failure,” Culture Unbound Journal of Current Cultural Research, vol. 5, 2013.
D. Rusch, “Mechanisms of the soul–tackling the human condition in videogames,” Proc. FuturePlay, 2009.
D. Wilson and M. Sicart, “Now it’s personal: on abusive game design,” Proc. FuturePlay, 2010. “Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy,” Bennett Foddy, 2017.
S. Steinemann, E. D. Mekler, and K. Opwis, “Increasing donating behavior through a game for change: The role of interactivity and appreciation,” CHI PLAY ’15., 2015.
E. L. Deci and R. M. Ryan. Self-determination theory overview. [Online]. Available: https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/theory/
S. Rigby and R. Ryan. (2007) Rethinking carrots: A new method for measuring what players find most rewarding and motivating about your game. [Online]. Available: [link].
M. Elson, J. Breuer, J. D. Ivory, and T. Quandt, “More than stories with buttons: Narrative, mechanics, and context as determinants of player experience in digital games,” Journal of Communication, vol. 64, 2014.
C. Shen, H. Wang, and U. Ritterfeld, “Serious games and seriously fun games: Can they be one and the same?” Serious games: Mechanisms and effects, 2009.
J. Polson and K. Hudson. (2013) Narrative design that tells the player’s story. [Online]. Available: [link].
T. Abernathy and R. R. III. (2014) Death to the three act structure! toward a unique structure for game narratives. [Online]. Available: https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1020050/Death-to-the-Three-Act
“Florence,” Mountains, 2018.
J. Couture and K. Wong. (2018) Designing florence to convey the ineffable feeling of being in love. [Online]. Available: [link].
M. Koch and R. Barbet. (2016) Life is strange case study: Using interactive storytelling and game design to tackle real-world problems. [Online]. Available: https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1023468/-Life-is-Strange-Case
J. Schell. (2013) The future of storytelling: How medium shapes story. [Online]. Available: https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1018026/The-Future-of-Storytelling-How
L. Alexander. (2012) Sad ending: Is good storytelling at odds with ’winning’? [Online]. Available: [link].
M. Szczesnik. (2014) Fun or frustration: Game balance pitfalls and recipes. [Online]. Available: https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1020846/Fun-or-Frustration-Game-Balance
D. Strachan. The idea of a difficulty curve is all wrong. [Online]. Available: http://www.davetech.co.uk/difficultycurves
J. Bycer. (2015) Balancing inverse difficulty curves in game design. [Online]. Available: [link].
Darwinian difficulty: How throwing players in headfirst can work. [Online]. Available: [link].
“Dark Souls,” From Software, 2011.
R. Boyd. (2011) 9 things we can learn about game design from dark souls. [Online]. Available: [link].
M. Foster. (2015) Game design deep dive: One-hit kills in titan souls. [Online]. Available: [link].
“Titan Souls,” Acid Nerve, 2015.
“Darkest Dungeon,” Red Hook Studios, 2015.
P. Cameron. (2015) Darkest dungeon: Designing for despair, and kicking you when you’re down. [Online]. Available: [link].
C. Nutt. (2014) Quest undying: Understanding the appeal of dark souls. [Online]. Available: [link].
J. Bycer. (2016) Feeling the frustration of ’fun pain’ game design. [Online]. Available: [link].
(2012) The anatomy of a bad game. [Online]. Available: [link].
“Desert Bus,” Absolute Entertainment and Imagineering.
E. Sawicki. (2020) Storytelling in games as compared to film C. Hocking. (2007) Ludonarrative dissonance in bioshock. [Online]. Available: https://clicknothing.typepad.com/click_nothing/2007/10/ludonarrative-d.html
“Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End,” Naughty Dog, 2016.
A. Davila. (2017) Dark souls game design analysis: Why do we come back to die? [Online]. Available: [link].
“God of War II,” Santa Monica Studio, 2007.
“Final Fantasy VII,” Square Enix, 1997.
“Orwell,” Osmotic Studios, 2016.
D. Marx. (2017) Game design deep dive: Decisions that matter in orwell. [Online]. Available: [link].
“Papers, Please,” Lucas Pope, 2013.
“Legal Dungeon,” SOMI, 2019.
J. Couture. (2019) Deep dive: Burdening players with the power of the system in legal dungeon. [Online]. Available: [link].
C. Velocci. (2018) How devs deal with making enemies that feel ’okay’ to kill. [Online]. Available: [link].
L. Doucet. (2017) Pain, difficulty, and getting over it. [Online]. Available: [link].
J. Bycer. (2021) How getting over it introduced the positives of ’jank’. [Online]. Available: [link].
“QWOP,” Bennett Foddy, 2008.
M. Shaver. (2018) Reaching the summit - an interview with bennett foddy. [Online]. Available: [link].
A. Wiltshire. (2018) Designer interview: The aesthetics of frustration in getting over it. [Online]. Available: [link].
J. Juul, Handmade Pixels: Independent Video Games and the Quest for Authenticity. MIT Press, 2019.
J. P. Grant. (2011) Life after death. [Online]. Available: https://killscreen.com/previously/articles/life-after-death/
N. Lazzaro, “Why we play games: Four keys to more emotion in player experiences,” In Proc. of GDC’04., 2004.
R. Baumeister, K. Vohs, C. N. DeWall, and L. Zhang, “How emotion shapes behavior: Feedback, anticipation, and reflection, rather than direct causation,” Personality and Social Psychology Review, vol. 11, no. 2, 2007.
A. Scarantino, “Do emotions cause actions, and if so how?” Emotion Review, vol. 9, no. 4, 2017. V. Shuman1, D. Sander, and K. R. Scherer. (2013) Levels of valence. [Online]. Available: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00261/full
A. Bartsch, “Emotional gratification in entertainment experience. why viewers of movies and television series find it rewarding to experience emotions,” Media Psychology, vol. 15, 2012
M. B. Oliver and A. Bartsch, “Appreciation as audience response: Exploring entertainment gratifications beyond hedonism,” Human Communication Research, vol. 36, 2010.
J. A. Bopp, E. D. Mekler, and K. Opwis, “Negative emotion, positive experience? emotionally moving moments in digital games,” CHI’16, 2016
F. Allison and M. G. Marcus Carter and, “Good frustrations: The paradoxical pleasure of fearing death in dayz,” Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Australian Special Interest Group for Computer Human Interaction, 2015
M. B. Oliver, N. D. Bowman, J. K. Woolley, R. Rogers, B. I. Sherrick, and M.-Y. Chung, “Video games as meaningful entertainment experiences,” Psychology of Popular Media Culture, vol. 5, 2015.
D. Freeman, Creating Emotion in Games: The Craft and Art of Emotioneering. New Riders, 2003.
K. Burnell. (2012) Breaking the rules of game design: when to go against autonomy, competence, and relatedness. [Online]. Available: https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1015398/Breaking-the-Rules-of-Game
G. C. Cupchik, “The role of feeling in the entertainment = emotion formula,” Journal of Media Psychology, vol. 23, no. 1, 2011.
E. S. Tan, Emotion and the Structure of Narrative Film: Film As An Emotion Machine. Routledge, 1996.
C. Bateman, R. Lowenhaupt, and L. E. Nacke, “Player typology in theory and practice,” Proceedings of DiGRA., 2011.
B. Perron, “A cognitive psychological approach to gameplay emotions,” DiGRA ’05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play, vol. 3, 2005.
T. Cole, P. Cairns, and M. Gillies, “Emotional and functional challenge in core and avant-garde games,” CHI PLAY ’15, 2015.
U. Ritterfeld, P. Vorderer, and M. Cody, Serious Games: Mechanisms and Effects. Routledge, 2009.
T. Marsh and B. Costello, “Experience in serious games: Between positive and serious experience,” Proceedings of the Third international conference on Serious Games Development and Applications, 2012.
J. A. Bopp, E. D. Mekler, and K. Opwis, “”it was sad but still good”: Gratifications of emotionally moving game experiences,” CHI ’15 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2015.
D. Johnson, L. E. Nacke, and P. Wyeth, “All about that base: Differing player experiences in video game genres and the unique case of moba games,” CHI 2015, 2015.
N. Grayson. (2017) Frustration can improve video games, designer found. [Online]. Available: https://kotaku.com/frustration-can-improve-video-games-designer-found-1793045192
S. Harrer, “From losing to loss: Exploring the expressive capacities of videogames beyond death as failure,” Culture Unbound Journal of Current Cultural Research, vol. 5, 2013.
D. Rusch, “Mechanisms of the soul–tackling the human condition in videogames,” Proc. FuturePlay, 2009.
D. Wilson and M. Sicart, “Now it’s personal: on abusive game design,” Proc. FuturePlay, 2010. “Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy,” Bennett Foddy, 2017.
S. Steinemann, E. D. Mekler, and K. Opwis, “Increasing donating behavior through a game for change: The role of interactivity and appreciation,” CHI PLAY ’15., 2015.
E. L. Deci and R. M. Ryan. Self-determination theory overview. [Online]. Available: https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/theory/
S. Rigby and R. Ryan. (2007) Rethinking carrots: A new method for measuring what players find most rewarding and motivating about your game. [Online]. Available: [link].
M. Elson, J. Breuer, J. D. Ivory, and T. Quandt, “More than stories with buttons: Narrative, mechanics, and context as determinants of player experience in digital games,” Journal of Communication, vol. 64, 2014.
C. Shen, H. Wang, and U. Ritterfeld, “Serious games and seriously fun games: Can they be one and the same?” Serious games: Mechanisms and effects, 2009.
J. Polson and K. Hudson. (2013) Narrative design that tells the player’s story. [Online]. Available: [link].
T. Abernathy and R. R. III. (2014) Death to the three act structure! toward a unique structure for game narratives. [Online]. Available: https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1020050/Death-to-the-Three-Act
“Florence,” Mountains, 2018.
J. Couture and K. Wong. (2018) Designing florence to convey the ineffable feeling of being in love. [Online]. Available: [link].
M. Koch and R. Barbet. (2016) Life is strange case study: Using interactive storytelling and game design to tackle real-world problems. [Online]. Available: https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1023468/-Life-is-Strange-Case
J. Schell. (2013) The future of storytelling: How medium shapes story. [Online]. Available: https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1018026/The-Future-of-Storytelling-How
L. Alexander. (2012) Sad ending: Is good storytelling at odds with ’winning’? [Online]. Available: [link].
M. Szczesnik. (2014) Fun or frustration: Game balance pitfalls and recipes. [Online]. Available: https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1020846/Fun-or-Frustration-Game-Balance
D. Strachan. The idea of a difficulty curve is all wrong. [Online]. Available: http://www.davetech.co.uk/difficultycurves
J. Bycer. (2015) Balancing inverse difficulty curves in game design. [Online]. Available: [link].
Darwinian difficulty: How throwing players in headfirst can work. [Online]. Available: [link].
“Dark Souls,” From Software, 2011.
R. Boyd. (2011) 9 things we can learn about game design from dark souls. [Online]. Available: [link].
M. Foster. (2015) Game design deep dive: One-hit kills in titan souls. [Online]. Available: [link].
“Titan Souls,” Acid Nerve, 2015.
“Darkest Dungeon,” Red Hook Studios, 2015.
P. Cameron. (2015) Darkest dungeon: Designing for despair, and kicking you when you’re down. [Online]. Available: [link].
C. Nutt. (2014) Quest undying: Understanding the appeal of dark souls. [Online]. Available: [link].
J. Bycer. (2016) Feeling the frustration of ’fun pain’ game design. [Online]. Available: [link].
(2012) The anatomy of a bad game. [Online]. Available: [link].
“Desert Bus,” Absolute Entertainment and Imagineering.
E. Sawicki. (2020) Storytelling in games as compared to film C. Hocking. (2007) Ludonarrative dissonance in bioshock. [Online]. Available: https://clicknothing.typepad.com/click_nothing/2007/10/ludonarrative-d.html
“Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End,” Naughty Dog, 2016.
A. Davila. (2017) Dark souls game design analysis: Why do we come back to die? [Online]. Available: [link].
“God of War II,” Santa Monica Studio, 2007.
“Final Fantasy VII,” Square Enix, 1997.
“Orwell,” Osmotic Studios, 2016.
D. Marx. (2017) Game design deep dive: Decisions that matter in orwell. [Online]. Available: [link].
“Papers, Please,” Lucas Pope, 2013.
“Legal Dungeon,” SOMI, 2019.
J. Couture. (2019) Deep dive: Burdening players with the power of the system in legal dungeon. [Online]. Available: [link].
C. Velocci. (2018) How devs deal with making enemies that feel ’okay’ to kill. [Online]. Available: [link].
L. Doucet. (2017) Pain, difficulty, and getting over it. [Online]. Available: [link].
J. Bycer. (2021) How getting over it introduced the positives of ’jank’. [Online]. Available: [link].
“QWOP,” Bennett Foddy, 2008.
M. Shaver. (2018) Reaching the summit - an interview with bennett foddy. [Online]. Available: [link].
A. Wiltshire. (2018) Designer interview: The aesthetics of frustration in getting over it. [Online]. Available: [link].
J. Juul, Handmade Pixels: Independent Video Games and the Quest for Authenticity. MIT Press, 2019.
J. P. Grant. (2011) Life after death. [Online]. Available: https://killscreen.com/previously/articles/life-after-death/
Publicado
18/10/2021
Como Citar
UMBELINO, Mateus A. M.; MOTA, Rosilane Ribeiro da.
Negativity in Play - How Negative Emotions create Meaningful Games. In: TRILHA DE ARTES & DESIGN – ARTIGOS COMPLETOS - SIMPÓSIO BRASILEIRO DE JOGOS E ENTRETENIMENTO DIGITAL (SBGAMES), 20. , 2021, Online.
Anais [...].
Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação,
2021
.
p. 152-161.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/sbgames_estendido.2021.19635.
