Emergent game formats, such as machinima, that use game worlds as expressive 3D performance spaces have new expressive powers with an increase of the quality of their underlying graphic and animation systems. Nevertheless, they still lack intuitive control mechanisms. Set direction and acting are limited by tools that were designed to create and play video games rather than produce expressive performance pieces. These tools do a poor job of capturing the performative expression that characterizes more mature media such as film. Tangible interfaces can help open up the game systems for more intuitive character control needed for a greater level of expression in the digital real-time world.The TUI3D project (Tangible User Interfaces for Real-Time 3D) addresses production and performative challenges involved in creating machinima through the development of tangible interfaces for controlling 3D virtual actors and environments in real-time. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a tangible puppet prototype for virtual character control in the Unreal game engine and discuss initial user feedback.
The present study was designed to investigate the incorporation of tools into the human body schema. Previous research on tool use suggests that through physical interaction with a tool, the representation of the body is adjusted to incorporate or "embody" the tool. The present experiment was conducted to test the limb-specific nature of tool embodiment. Participants were presented with images of a person holding a rake and executed hand- and foot-press responses to colored targets superimposed on the hand, foot, and rake of the image. This task was completed before and after moving a ball around a course with a hand-held rake. Consistent with previous research, a body-part compatibility effect emerged-response times (RTs) were shorter when the responding limb and target location were compatible (e.g., hand responses to targets on the hand) than when they were incompatible (e.g., hand responses to targets on the foot). Of greater theoretical relevance, hand RTs to targets presented on the hand were shorter than those to targets on the rake prior to experience, but were not different after completing the rake task. The post-experience similarity in hand RTs emerged because there was a significant reduction in RTs to targets on the rake following use. There was no significant pre-/post-experience change in hand RTs to targets on the hand or, importantly, for any response executed by the foot. These results provide new evidence that a tool is embodied in a limb-specific manner and is represented within the body schema as if it was an extension of the limb.
An exploration of how we see, use, and make sense of modern video game worlds. The move to 3D graphics represents a dramatic artistic and technical development in the history of video games that suggests an overall transformation of games as media. The experience of space has become a key element of how we understand games and how we play them. In Video Game Spaces, Michael Nitsche investigates what this shift means for video game design and analysis. Navigable 3D spaces allow us to crawl, jump, fly, or even teleport through fictional worlds that come to life in our imagination. We encounter these spaces through a combination of perception and interaction. Drawing on concepts from literary studies, architecture, and cinema, Nitsche argues that game spaces can evoke narratives because the player is interpreting them in order to engage with them. Consequently, Nitsche approaches game spaces not as pure visual spectacles but as meaningful virtual locations. His argument investigates what structures are at work in these locations, proceeds to an in-depth analysis of the audiovisual presentation of gameworlds, and ultimately explores how we use and comprehend their functionality. Nitsche introduces five analytical layers—rule-based space, mediated space, fictional space, play space, and social space—and uses them in the analyses of games that range from early classics to recent titles. He revisits current topics in game research, including narrative, rules, and play, from this new perspective. Video Game Spaces provides a range of necessary arguments and tools for media scholars, designers, and game researchers with an interest in 3D game worlds and the new challenges they pose.
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