In this video, Amancio mentions that one way to achieve this is to allow narrative and gameplay to merge. In the example he cited, if the actions of the player has a meaning (that could be given through the narrative) and has a direct impact on the outcome, the player would be able to establish a connection with the character in the game.
I couldn't resist thinking about one of my latest emotional experiences with a game -- Dragon Quest V.
*SPOILERS AHEAD!*
At the beginning of the game, we are introduced to the main protagonist and his father. There seems to be nothing special about this narrative, it seems to be a typical setting for a family. But the game makers took a step further and made the father help you tremendously every time after the battle by giving you a full heal, whether you need it or not. As the player, I was thinking -- wow it's cool to have "my" father around to give me free heals! I grew stronger through the subsequent battles and with "my" father's help. But towards the end of the first story arc, my father tried to protect me and a prince and died in battle. I felt a sense of loss and a huge "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!" screaming inside me. It wasn't so much about the after-battle heals, but I grew attached to the fatherly character in the game, to the extent I wish my father in real life was like that... just kidding~
*END SPOILERS*
I feel that the narration in Dragon Quest V aid in the gameplay, which in turn affects the narration when the player reaches a certain point in game, where the narration takes over and make another hit to the gameplay. It's an endless chicken-and-egg cycle, where one gives rise to the other. Most games these days disconnect the endless cycle and make it either narration->gameplay or simply gameplay->narration.
Most, if not all, game designers have long established that for a game to be "fun", one of the underlying criteria is feedback to the players. If the feedback is persistently inconsistent with the previous experience the player has encountered, the player starts to lose interest in it. However, many designers apply this rule to the game mechanics and neglected this aspect for narration with the introduction of long cut scenes. Cut scenes are cool in their own right, but I do recall nodding off at one of the final long ending "movies" as i was just watching, and not performing any input for that period of time.
If there is some way that players can perform certain actions that impact the outcome of the movie, that'll be totally cool. A good example would be Heavy Rain, which treads on the border of being a game and an interactive movie. Players can perform action sequences, and how well they have performed will affect the outcome of the game, and sometimes put the plot on a different path. However, in another action role playing game, Bayonetta, I remember being very frustrated during one of the cut scenes straight after defeating a boss, which required me to input a particular button at a particular instance. I personally feel no one would be able to do it right at least viewing the cut scene once. As a result, I was thrown back into this sequence again and again for failing to pay attention to the cut scene.
Maybe one of the reasons why visual novels are fun to some, despite their lack of interactive visual environments, is due to the connected cycles of gameplay and narration. Well, in this case, game play would refer to the decisions the player makes. Role playing games can hinge on the "fun" factor of visual novels and keep players engaged, rather than to disengage them with narration that is broken off from game mechanics.
I couldn't resist thinking about one of my latest emotional experiences with a game -- Dragon Quest V.
*SPOILERS AHEAD!*
At the beginning of the game, we are introduced to the main protagonist and his father. There seems to be nothing special about this narrative, it seems to be a typical setting for a family. But the game makers took a step further and made the father help you tremendously every time after the battle by giving you a full heal, whether you need it or not. As the player, I was thinking -- wow it's cool to have "my" father around to give me free heals! I grew stronger through the subsequent battles and with "my" father's help. But towards the end of the first story arc, my father tried to protect me and a prince and died in battle. I felt a sense of loss and a huge "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!" screaming inside me. It wasn't so much about the after-battle heals, but I grew attached to the fatherly character in the game, to the extent I wish my father in real life was like that... just kidding~
*END SPOILERS*
I feel that the narration in Dragon Quest V aid in the gameplay, which in turn affects the narration when the player reaches a certain point in game, where the narration takes over and make another hit to the gameplay. It's an endless chicken-and-egg cycle, where one gives rise to the other. Most games these days disconnect the endless cycle and make it either narration->gameplay or simply gameplay->narration.
Most, if not all, game designers have long established that for a game to be "fun", one of the underlying criteria is feedback to the players. If the feedback is persistently inconsistent with the previous experience the player has encountered, the player starts to lose interest in it. However, many designers apply this rule to the game mechanics and neglected this aspect for narration with the introduction of long cut scenes. Cut scenes are cool in their own right, but I do recall nodding off at one of the final long ending "movies" as i was just watching, and not performing any input for that period of time.
If there is some way that players can perform certain actions that impact the outcome of the movie, that'll be totally cool. A good example would be Heavy Rain, which treads on the border of being a game and an interactive movie. Players can perform action sequences, and how well they have performed will affect the outcome of the game, and sometimes put the plot on a different path. However, in another action role playing game, Bayonetta, I remember being very frustrated during one of the cut scenes straight after defeating a boss, which required me to input a particular button at a particular instance. I personally feel no one would be able to do it right at least viewing the cut scene once. As a result, I was thrown back into this sequence again and again for failing to pay attention to the cut scene.
Maybe one of the reasons why visual novels are fun to some, despite their lack of interactive visual environments, is due to the connected cycles of gameplay and narration. Well, in this case, game play would refer to the decisions the player makes. Role playing games can hinge on the "fun" factor of visual novels and keep players engaged, rather than to disengage them with narration that is broken off from game mechanics.