Difference between revisions of "Awareness"

Revision as of 18:05, 19 August 2011

	The card's front face	The card's back face

Synopsis

Relationships

Context:
Gameplay File:M385px-Gameplay-front-v20.png.
Relates to:
Emotional Script , Narrative .
May use many, including:
Character Soundprint , Failure , Achievement , No Can Do , Hurry Up! , Window of Opportunity , Beacon Locator , Identification , Ouch! , Imminent Death , Seeking for PC , Unaware NPC , ....

Description

Sounds of Awareness expose aspects of a circumstance that demand some degree of attention, relevant to Gameplay. These stimuli may either evidence a problem, inform about a state, emphasize an opportunity, or reinforce the outcome of happening.

Many of the sound explorations in a game could be classified as Awareness. Still, some of the explorations approach very specific problems for which also specific solutions have been found. Those include Failure, Achievement, No Can Do, Hurry Up!, Window of Opportunity, Beacon Locator, Ouch!, Imminent Death, Seeking for PC, and Unaware NPC. Even PC's and NPC's Character Soundprint serves the purpose of informing about the character's closeness, Identification, health state, etc.

To a certain extent, sounds of Awareness are mostly unidirectional -- that is, they output something. Yet, if these sounds are designed in a way that they effectively produce changes in the player, namely at the emotional level, they may be instrumental to indirectly shape the players input.

Examples

Assassin's Creed: A pulsing sound tells that there are attentive guards nearby. Blending with the crowd, as when sitting in a bench, diverts their attention (and consequently the sound mutes).

Tomb Raider Underworld: Checkpoints are (exclusively) signaled through sound.

Metal Gear Solid 4: A beep informs that the Solid Eye is running out of battery (notice selection at the bottom-left corner)

Crysis: The voiced warning makes the player learn that the suit's invisibility is about to be compromised.

Half-Life 2:

Papa Sangre:

Loco Roco: When a Moja is nearby, the playing Loco Roco vocalizes a scared warning, which besides being informative is highly emotional.The Loco Roco can see the Moja before the player does, so this acoustic message gives another additional advantage over graphics.

Ico:

Shadow of the Colossus: A sound warns when Wander ought to find a resting stance, otherwise he will lose grip and fall, most likely to death.

Additional Comments

The advantages of sound over (or in combination) with visuals to implement mechanisms of awareness is one of the aspects claimed by pioneer authors who carried a collective initiative to

External Resources

References to the role of sound as a display