Dear Esther (thechineseroom, 2012) is a first person adventure game which
lacks the many of the traditional conventions of other video games. The game has no
traditional enemy to fight, challenges to complete or puzzles to solve and
instead focuses on delivering an epistolary narrative to the player via voice
over as they move through an abandoned island. Therefore, analysis of the first
situation presented by the game through combination of the decision making model designed
by Vorderer, Hartmann & Klimmt (2003), which has been designed to gauge player enjoyment
through choice presented by competitive and challenging situations, in
combination with Freud’s theory of The Psyche (1923), can be used to determine the limit of the effectiveness of the Vorderer
et al model as an analytic tool.
The Vorderer et al model
(figure 1) allows for the analysis of specific choices in video games by
examining the situation which led to that choice. First all the possibilities
to act which the player has within the rules of the game are determined. Then the
specific necessity to act present in the situation is determined. The player
then attempts to resolve the necessity to act by applying some of the
possibilities to act which results in an outcome affecting the enjoyment felt
by the player in that situation and affects the subsequent situations for that
game.
Figure 1: Visual representation of the Vorderer, Hartmann and Klimmt model for decision making in games |
Figure 2: Freud’s model of the human psyche (McMillan, 2010). |
While the Vorderer et al model was initially designed to show the
correlation between the amount of conflict or completion compelling a player to
act in a situation and the enjoyment which results from said conflict (Vorderer
et al, 2003). By combining the model with Freud’s theory on the human psyche we
can develop a deeper understanding of the player’s decision making process by
showing how player’s ego determines the best cause of action from desires of
both super ego and id, in combination with the necessity to act (figure 3).
Figure 3: Vorderer et al model combined with
Freud’s theory on the psyche. In this example, a situation within the game Ikaruga is the subject. |
At the very start of Dear Esther, players find themselves standing on a
stone boat ramp looking along the coast of an island; a blinking red signal
tower can be seen in the distance. Upon turning; an abandoned lighthouse can be
seen at the top of the ramp. As the game begins the narrator tells the player
of being washed ashore in “one last shipwreck”, where he presumably landed on
this island, through a monologue addressed to a character named Esther. While it is not clear if the player
is the narrator or Esther, this speech marks the player’s first situation of
the game. As per the Vorderer et al model, the player has several possibilities
to act which appeal to ether the super ego and/or id.
To the id the possibilities to act are to ether turn and walk into the
ocean as the id has no interest in the short amount of story so far presented
by the game. This cause of action may kill the player or break the game however,
which would entertain the id immediately. The id would ultimately see quitting
the game as an acceptable possibility to act as it currently is not interested
in narrative of Dear Esther.
The super ego wants to explore the island as it has already begun to
empathize with the narrator and wants to know more about what’s happening to
him. Because of this it sees the possibilities to act as ether exploring the
light house at the top of the ramp, or taking one of two paths towards the
distant signal tower (and only visible sign of life).
While there is no conflict, clear objective or apparent danger in this
situation the abrupt end to the opening narration provides the specific
necessity to act detailed in the Vorderer et al model as the lack of
information compels the player to try and discover more of the plot. The
necessity to act forces the player to choose a way to resolve the lack of
information from the options presented by the id and super ego. As the ego also
remembers the past situations of other adventure games, the ego decides to
continue playing in general and to explore the lighthouse in particular as the
ego knows most adventure games will have something important in a landmark like
a lighthouse. This choice results in the player exploring the light house, upon
entering which they are rewarded by the game with a second monologue which
furthers the plot of the game.
From this analysis of this initial situation within Dear Esther, it can
now been seen that while the Vorderer et al model was not designed to apply to
the situations present within a non-conventional game, deeper analysis of the
situation through combination with Freud’s theory on the psyche allowed for the
same analysis enjoyment from choice in Dear Esther as in the initial example of
Quake (a very conventional game) detailed by Vorderer et al (2003). This case
study therefore supports the use this toolset in the psychological analysis of
games.
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References:
Banks, C. (2009). Sense / Image /
Challenge. [Online] Available http://senseimaginechallenge.blogspot.com.au/2010/04/klimmt-and-vorderer-freud-and-maslow.html [October 12th 2012].
Briscoe, R. & thechineseroom. (2012). Dear Esther. [Video Game]. Published by Steam.
Freud, S. (1923). The Ego and the
Id. London: The Hogarth Press Ltd.
McMillan, L. (2010). Id, Ego and Superego ‘Iceberg’. (see, fig 1)
Rennison, N. (2001). Sigmund Freud
and Psychoanalysis. Harpenden: Pocket Esentials.
Vorderer, P., Hartmann, T., & Klimmt, C. (2003) Explaining the enjoyment of playing video games: the role of
competition. In D. Marinelli (Ed.), Proceedings
of the 2nd International Conference on Entertainment Computing (ICEC
2003), Pittsburgh, New York: ACM.