As there is no viable advice on how to approach a quality assurance from a narrative and cognitive perspective beyond templates and structures within game development, and sparked by a question from a student, I decided to write the series “Narrative bridging on testing an experience. If you have missed the previous parts where the principles behind the framework are presented, they can be found at Gamasutra (Part 1 and Part 2) or at the site Narrative construction (Part 1 and Part 2).
Connecting control to mindreading
As the series is about how to assure the quality of an experience from a narrative perspective beyond structures and templates, there are two recent structures that I haven´t mentioned yet that we will have to pass as to access the narrative from a cognitive perspective.
About twenty years ago, two new structures were presented at GDC (here) regarding the definition of the restrictions the narrative had on the players´ freedom to provide the player control (the emergent structure) or refrain the control (the embedded structure). Based on where we left in the previous part and where we took help from a 7-grade model of reasoning (the publication can be found here, and a post with a short guide to the model is here) as to see how the human ability of mindreading can make us access how our engagement from the concepts of surprise and suspense work on our emotions. Based on Hitchcock´s theories on suspense and surprise in movies (here), the embedded structure could be described as if Hitchcock would be directing the pacing of our learning while regulating the control. The emergent structure would be as if being released from Hitchcock´s direction, in order to direct one´s own pace of learning and be in charge of the control. (see the second part of the series where Hitchcock´s distinctions between suspense and surprise are elaborated).
Though the access to the construction of narratives from a perceptual and cognitive perspective goes via learning, instead of speaking of the narrative in games as embedded and emergent structures, as to be "closed" or "opened" to the player, I will use the terms “self-paced-learning” and “directed-paced-learning” as to access the pacing of an engagement beyond structures and templates, in order to connect learning and the feeling of control to the narrative as a perceptual and cognitive process in creation of an engagement.
Since the key to engagement is due to that the causal understanding is important to us, which explains why most of us are not running into surprises that make us lose control over our ability to learn, as we can´t get to an inference. What´s interesting with “self-paced learning” is that it can be misunderstood as laziness (or even stupidity) instead of thinking how our learning connects to our emotions, and the time it takes to come to an inference differs.
To understand from a constructor´s perspective how experiences and expectations can differ when it comes to the pacing of learning and what it means to feel control, there is a very useful term called scaffolding, which describes the constructor´s approach to meet the different learning styles. Scaffolding (which was invented by Jerome Bruner who was one of the cognitive psychologists who struggled to humanize science) is when a teacher supports a student in achieving a goal by tailoring the learning based on the student´s experiences. How scaffolding can be understood from the perspective of creating a meaningful learning/experience is that you pay attention to someone´s thinking/learning and how it relates to desires, intentions, and beliefs (opposed to an extrinsic and behavioristic approach where someone else´s desires directs the performance), as to know how to balance the learning to move in a positive direction. As if the pacing of the learning is not balanced by means of control, the motivation to learn can drop.
And if there is something game developers are excellent at, it is scaffolding.
Self-paced-learning
Ex. 1
An interesting example of the scaffolding of a “self-paced-learning” can be found in the survival game “The Long Dark”.
As a player, you are placed in the wilderness where the electricity has disappeared due to a solar storm. The goal to survive is set in an environment of extreme cold, snow (and where the sound effects from the snow are amazing), no people (besides the corpses of they who didn't make it), empty cottages, and wild animals. In the search for wood, food, matches, avoiding getting killed by said wild animals, or freezing to death while trying to find your way through a blizzard. What happened with the player´s activities when the game was released was that the players' inferences to achieve the goal were to hibernate as to survive. In this way “The Long Dark” became at its release the sleepiest game based on the intensity from the suspense that had a duration of hours, days, and months due to the permadeath. As if you died, the game was over - finito.
Hibernating in a safe cottage in "The Long Dark", created by Hinterland Games
As the testing of the quality in a game from a narrative and cognitive perspective is focusing on beliefs, desires, and intentions, and where the developers' desires in relation to the players´ can describe the balancing of the pacing and the feeling of control (and where the exchange of thoughts between the developer and the player has been described in the previous part as a communication between minds - mindreading to mindreading). When the players´ behavior in achieving the goal and surviving might not correspond to the developers´ intentions and desired goals, the developers of "The Long Dark" decided to implement two new elements to make the players more active.
As the implementation of two new mechanics can be a risky business as it can tilt the balance of control from a "self-paced learning" to be directed by an external force, which could mean in the case of "The Long Dark" that the players die if the scaffolding is not attending to the pacing of control - it is not strange that there are increased levels of engagement and emotions when addressing the new contents before it´s added to the game. As if you hear players expressing their beliefs of doubts, worries, etc. before a new element/content is about to be implemented it is simply the radiator that is heating up when the players are using their ability of mindreading as to make inferences about what might be the new experience to control as to achieve the goal.
To activate the players and avoid the players to loose control the developers in "The Long Dark" decided to add two new mechanics. One mechanic was “cabin fever”, which forced the player to leave the house after four days and stay out for a whole day. The second was that you needed to be active in order to get tired before you could go to sleep. I don´t know how many died from the implementation, but from my personal data, there was at least one person who died. What´s fascinating is how the addition of a new experience (mechanic), which increased the emotional level of learning (understanding), the reason why it worked is that the new elements made sense. In the same way as the exchange of experiences and expectations between Hitchcock and his audience had a meaning, which was shared, (see the previous part) it´s a lot easier to make the collaboration and the collective exchange of thoughts (mindreading to mindreading) to work - and where the developers of “The Long Dark” managed to balance the learning to become meaningful (and where you could find new ways to go to sleep, which I don´t dare to spoil as who knows what comes next).
But if we are scaffolding with care by attending to the importance of sense-making (make the meaning comprehensible in relation to the achievement) and balance it with the “self-paced learning, one can also understand from a narrative and cognitive perspective if the engagement would drop after the implementation. As if you make the players go from sleeping to stop playing, due to the loss of control and where the player can´t see how to regain control, it will be very hard to do a re-testing in order to fix the bug if the player has left.
Ex. 2
One example from a test that shows how removing something that players have learned could be as sensitive as to add something new, I recommend reading "Part 3, Don´t show, involve" (can be found on Gamasutra here or at Narrative construction here) where you can read what happened when the game designer Jenova Chen and his team “removed” the learning from the player in the online game “Journey”, and how it caused a negative reaction when testing the game (which the team adjusted before the game was released by allowing the player to regain control and use what they had learned in the game).
Journey, Thatgamecompany, Sony Computer Entertainment
Ex. 3
The last example of a “self-paced learning” in an interactive context is this site and where the pokes (scaffolding) comes from you who are reading, the questions and the sharing of thoughts, which makes me act. The interesting thing is how the question that triggered me to write this series, which increased my emotional level, created a condition of flow. When flow occurs is when the experiences and knowledge are added to patterns in a positive direction. What´s intriguing with the condition of flow is how the “self-paced learning” of engagement can be a mixture of joy, exhaustion, excitement, and frustration, which shows how a positive direction on learning can have wide range of contrasting emotions and where the control works like stations of inferences that moves on a rail towards the desired outcome. As long as causal forces move forward, towards a goal, the contrasting emotions can work like an intrinsic paced rhythm from the engagement (and where the term flow can hopefully be easier to understand when we now have the 7-grade model that can be added to the condition so that we don´t have to invent new terms as for example immersion).
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If you would like to take a break, this is a good moment, as from here I will describe what the opposite of an intrinsic paced rhythm does to our emotions and control from the perspective of directed-paced learning.
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Directed-paced-learning
Assume that we are playing in a band and where the drummer hijacks the performance by playing faster and faster. As the drummer does not listen to us, we adapt. We invite a new member who has never played in a band and tell the player that he or she is the chosen one that will take the band to new heights against all the odds, and where we encourage the player to not give up, have faith, and endure, irrespective of what the drummer does.
What the example with the drummer shows is how the structure of a dramatic arc and the templates of the “Hero´s Journey” add an additional intensity to the pacing when applied to a game. As the structure has a reinforced rising pace that needs to reach certain turning-points, as an extrinsic force, it needs to reach stations and like catapults move the experience to a new point. Yet the structure of a dramatic arc does not only direct the pacing but also the developers' scaffolding. As the duration of engagement from suspense, which Hitchcock defined as fifteen minutes in a film can be compared with the “self-paced learning” in The Long Dark that went on for hours, days, or months, this is also what explains why the three-act structure can be sensed as a pretty demanding band member.
If comparing the conditions from a constructor´s perspective to handle a “directed-paced learning” with a “self-paced learning” is that the expectations on the perceiver´s performance appear more clearly in a “directed-paced learning” as to be directed by extrinsic forces. As if we use the templates of a “Hero´s Journey” the constructor needs to find ways to encourage the perceiver to meet the expectations by a conversion of the beliefs, intentions, and desires from the templates to become the perceiver´s beliefs and desires. This is extremely tough work if one is aware of what high expectations do to our emotions when it comes to learning, and where the different experiences from playing games and handling the controls differ (which used to be solved by the possibility to choose the difficulties when playing). However, to understand what game developers need attending when it comes to the scaffolding of “directed-paced learning”, as to make the player feel control in a three-act structure of a dramatic story arc; it could be depicted as below.
To assure the quality of control the scaffolding needs to attend to the Expectations (1 and 6) from the structure of rising action, which I call Rising Learning (2). Every time the intensity of the dramatic story arc rises, to reach Climax (3), one needs to assure the Experiences (4 and 5) correspond to the Expectations (1 and 6) before they happen to the player, which is made at Control Points 1 and 2 (7 and 8) (use to be addressed turning-points in a story arc, which I have renamed as to get beyond the structures).
If adding the templates from the “Hero´s Journey” on top of a three-act structure, the Expectations (1 and 6) also need to assure that the player feels in control (7 and 8) from the high expectations of being someone that one can count on as to defeat a force that is stronger than the player (which is shown at 1, 3 and 6). Though the player needs to make an inference at the Resolution (9) where the radiator is supposed to cool down from learning something new from the Experiences (4 and 5), and where the new experience is what the player will bring to the next game or make the player replay the game.
High expectations
Since we all know what low expectations can do to our emotions (which science knows a lot about from the instrumental tests coming from the late 19th century). When scaffolding a “directed-paced learning” based on a story structure and templates from "Hero´s Journey" the emotions from the low expectations are used in order to make the player´s character´s intention become the player´s by conjuring the emotions from the player´s memory from the experience of what it means to be met by high or low expectations on achieving a goal.
Low expectations
If you look at the picture above. How the low expectations can be used as a motivating engine that makes the player conjure emotion to take the challenge of the role of a hero is that one lets the characters in the game show that they
