This is a piece I wrote in second year at university for a personal project. There are a few mistakes particularly in the “uncanney valley” description and the conclusion was somewhat rushed but I’ve been meaning to make it available for quite a while now. I’ll try and make a version with all the images available soon as none of the images I have seem to work with Tumblr.

Traditional vs. Augmented

For many years video games have relied on techniques such as storytelling and graphics to try and increase the user’s immersion players experience within role their in-game character is given. However in recent years developers have been moving slowly towards the possibilities of augmented reality games to provide more realistic and immersive games for their customers. There have been some movements toward augmented reality in the past but only with recent advancements in technology, such as smaller components, has it truly started to gain momentum.

Traditional Game Immersion

History

Game immersion has always required the user’s suspension of disbelief, however in recent times this has taken a back seat due to advancements in graphics, sound and the overall realism of video games. In earlier games and still in current Role Playing Games (RPGs) the storyline is the true driving force behind a player’s enjoyment. Through a compelling storyline designers can truly capture a gamers’ imagination and also bring in a hefty profit with expansions, even more so with today’s technology allowing for downloadable content on all consoles.

Usage

Point-of-View and Storytelling

Traditional game immersion works along the principles of a player becoming attached to their character and therefore feeling they have a stake in the story, the usual techniques for doing this are to either create an in depth storyline with moralistic choices that the user must make to progress in the story and also by the use of different points-of-view (POV). The use of different point of views is done to provide a sense of location for the user and allow them to place their character within the environment. A good example of this is in fact a non-immersive game genre the beat-‘em-up:

“All strictly fighting games, like the Street Fighter, Tekken, DOA, and Bushido Blade games, are in third-person point-of-view because fighters require a bodied presence for dynamic control and for recognition of context or placement within the space itself and in relation to the other character.”[1]

(Taylor, 2002)

This is the basis behind most POV choices, another prime example are First Person Shooter games as the perspective choice in these games allows the user the most realistic viewpoint possible and therefore afford the user the best experience that they can. More frequently many game developers are using Third Person camera placement in Shooter games, for example Rainbow Six: Vegas and both Gears of War games. This allows the user a wider view allowing for them to take account of multiple opponents within in their peripheral vision. It should be noted however that these games do also offer a more zoomed in over the shoulder view for more precise play.

As previously mentioned storytelling can be used to drive a game forward and also as a powerful marketing tool. The majority of Video games have a story attached to them however none more so than the Role Playing Game genre. As an RPG requires the user to become another character the story is often an effective means of making a user invest their time. Most RPGs have fantasy or Science-Fiction based stories that provide the user with an escape, some such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic from Bioware where the user was given the option to play as multiple Alien Races from the Star Wars Galaxy whereas others like Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and World of Warcraft, by Bethesda Softworks and Blizzard respectively, allow the user to play as numerous animal based anthropomorphic races. While it may seem surprising the user is still able to immerse themselves into these characters the suspension of disbelief allows for the player to use their imagination to relate to these characters. While this has been seen as useful in terms of engaging the user it can have addictive effects as shown by a rise in “Video Game Rehab Clinics”;

“At school age, teenagers have less experience in life and less knowledge than adults in identifying reality from a simulation, and these young people may be more easily drawn to the borderless web game world”[2] (Chui, Lee, & Huang, 2004)

Sound

Sound is also frequently used as an immersive device within video games in much the same way as it is in films. In fact it follows the same basic conventions of sound within films where there is a mix of incidental and background noise or music. As in cinema sound is used mainly to convey or change mood, so in an action based game the user will experience fast paced music during the main sequences whereas in a horror genre game the user is likely to experience slow music with sudden loud sharp bursts to give them an uneasy feeling.

Drawbacks

The main issue with traditional game immersion techniques is that they require up-to-date hardware to be used to their best. This means that to play the most recent console games users will have to have the newest consoles which can be a costly process to update. This issue also affects PC gamers as well who will be required to at least meet the minimum standards, as laid out on a game-by-game basis, to even play these games and to experience them to the fullest will most likely have to have a top of the line processor, High Definition Graphics Card, HD Sound Card and a large amount of RAM and ROM memory. Serious users will also usually have a HD monitor and 7.1 surround sound speakers. As can be seen this list is extensive and all the parts are fairly costly a mid-range gaming PC can cost nearly, or exceeding, £1000.

The main failure of traditional game immersion techniques however is the fact that in larger role-playing games the characters get stuck in what is sometimes referred to as the “uncanny valley” (Figs. 1.1 &1.2);

Fig 1.1 The original “Uncanny Valley” showing

the correlation between familiarity and human

likeness in different contexts.

Fig. 1.2 A revised and expanded upon

version of the graph.

In videogames this refers to situation where players can find two characters that look exactly the same and have exactly the same voices, when a character switches between varieties of different sounding voices or when the characters’ behaviour is not recognisable as human. This is a rather big issue as it forces the player to remember that they are playing a game and therefore ruins the experience of immersion. On the other hand however many shorter games have quite reliable voice acting and the user will rarely encounter repetitive voices and characters these games however are usually somewhat lacking in terms of storytelling and character development.

Augmented Reality

History

Augmented Reality can be seen to have its roots firstly in the realm of Speculative and Science-Fiction originally and more recently in practical research applications and commercial ventures. These range from personal usage for video gaming to medical applications for use in surgical operations. Commercial ventures had previously proved unsuccessful the main example being Nintendo’s failed “Virtual Boy” console. While strictly this is classed as virtual reality it laid the foundation for non-traditional gaming platforms. Another commercial aspect that has been explored recently is the use of augmented reality using webcams and phone cameras. It has also been used more recently in advertising by several companies such as The General Electric Company and BMW in their new Mini-Cooper Adverts.

Usage

General

Augmented Reality however works on the basis of building game worlds on top of the real world.  This is done by “placing” game items on top of pre-existing items within an environment. Generally it is expected that the user will be able to have some form of interaction with these constructs. It has also been suggested that Augmented Reality systems (Fig. 2) could have wider reaching potentials as discussed in this report from researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT);

“By designing a networked, multimedia computer that can be worn as clothing or is built into the user’s clothes, the power of computing can assist everyday tasks.”[3] (Starner, et al., 1997)

Using this reasoning it would be fair to assume that an Augmented Reality system could be used as a Multi-media hub replacing a wide variety of other electronic devices and making others more mobile.

Fig. 2: The Systems used in the 1997 Research

At MIT (It should be noted more recent designs

Have been more compact)

There is also the issue of the hardware required to run produce an augmented view of reality, the two main possibilities are between headsets or glasses and. The main advantage of the headset would of course be the fact that it could be quite compact and could also essentially function as a pair of glasses when the user wasn’t using the Augmented Reality function. Projectors on the other hand run the risk of crossing images with another user’s projector when in close proximity. Also using a projector would most likely be cumbersome and could ruin the concept of immersive gaming for many users based on this fact.

Video Games

This would allow for the possibility of games that the user could jump in and out of at will, it would also make way for the expansion of pre-existing genres. For instance a role playing game would essentially become Live Action Role Play (LARP) with numerous users playing within the same game interacting together through use of the augmented environment used within the game. This would add to the gaming experience by removing the necessity of multiple perspectives and through use of a headset or another portable display unit would allow the user to experience every game first hand;

“Wearable computing offers a novel platform for telepresence in general, capable of providing a highly immersive and subjective experience of remote events.”[4] (Drugge, Nilsson, Parviainen, & Parnes, 2004)

This would allow the user to be truly immersed within the game as they would become physically involved with the storyline as they would become their character rather than simply controlling an avatar that represented them.

A major selling point of an augmented reality system would be reduced costs for production as most games could be made available as downloads and would then be able to provide updates through a subscription based system. This would be a major bonus to many small game companies as they would be able to release their games online rather than having to sell the game through external retailers.

Advertising, Commercial, Research and Miscellaneous

As previously touched upon some companies such as, The General Electrical Company have used Augmented Reality to develop effective and simple advertising. In this instance the user can print of a special sheet from the website that when used in conjunction with a webcam and another section of the website the user is presented with an interactive display of a landscape. The user can then manipulate the paper to zoom in, zoom out and rotate the landscape. They can also blow into a microphone to impact upon the windmills movement.

In terms of research the history of augmented reality is an interesting one with much of the development only happening within the past seven-to-ten years and most of these have been achieved during University research such as ARQuake (Fig. 3). ARQuake worked by adapting the popular First Person Shooter (FPS) Quake to an augmented real word environment that players would run around and would see representations of the games graphics through a headset. This is used to display items such as ammunition, health and character images.

Fig. 3: The Heads Up Display for ARQuake on

display is another player and an item alongside

the real world environment.

Another notable and recent use of Augmented Reality is in the first End User application the “Wikitude AR Travel Guide” (Fig. 4) for the Google G1 Android phone. This application works by using the Android’s Camera of Map to provide information on geographical locations that the user has either searched for or is looking at.

Fig. 4: The “Wikitude” display which uses the phones GPS

the image being viewed through the camera to provide

information for the user.

The potential this represents is extremely interesting as it raises possibilities of even smaller more spectacles like headsets that would allow the user to see a Heads-Up-Display much like the one presented by the “Wikitude” application (Figs. 5.1 & 5.2).

Fig. 5.1 A concept of future designs of

Augmented Reality headset s

Fig. 5.2 A concept of how a HUD would fit

over a average street

Drawbacks

The implementation of augmented reality does raise some issues however, the greatest of which being the developing and maintaining of the equipment and environment. A game with a varied landscape would cause a great deal of pressure on game designers and also the updating of the game in real-time would be somewhat problematic. Traditional console and PC based games do not suffer the issue of updating to such a degree however as the user can simply download patches the necessary changes to the game and would not need to have their software constantly updating with the different environments they moved through.  Concerns have been raised about how easy it would be to make current games compatible with augmented reality technology;

“Items such as secret or locked doors are not used in our maps as they

can not (sic.) be synchronized between the real and virtual worlds.”[5]

(Piekarski & Thomas, 2002)

Future Potential and Applications

A major selling point of an augmented reality system would be reduced costs for production as most games could be made available as downloads and would then be able to provide updates through a subscription based system. This would be a major bonus to many small game companies as they would be able to release their games online rather than having to sell the game through external retailers. Another suggested use mentioned earlier is the potential of a mobile Multi-media Hub incorporation a phone, mobile computer and more. However one of the most interesting possibilities, and explanations as to how the technology would work, has come from the world of fiction. In an interview about the book “Halting State” the author Charles Stross suggests that by combining the already existing technologies of LCD screen goggles and mobile phone camera chips he goes on to explain;

“You can then ‘blend’ the view through the camera with whatever graphics the screen is being fed…to merge real world and computer-generated imagery, or to provide an enhanced view of your surroundings.”[6] (Stross, 2008)

This is an interesting concept as users could move from clunky LCD goggles (Fig. 6) to more streamlined concepts like the one suggested earlier (Fig. 5.1) and this would allow the possibility of extremely mobile computing

Closing Remarks

While both the technologies have great potential when exploited properly Traditional Game Immersion will still remain more popular until a more appropriate medium is found for displaying Augmented Reality for mass scale usage. Also it should be expected that the general public will have their awareness of Augmented Reality, as an immerging technology, raised significantly over the next few years as more and more companies implement it into their marketing campaigns. This will most likely stimulate the research into AR and could mean that it will become a commercial released product sooner rather than later.

References

1.      Taylor, L. N. (2002). Video Games: Perspective, Point-of-View, and Immersion. University of Florida.

2.      Chui, S.-I., Lee, J.-Z., & Huang, D.-H. (2004). Video Game Addiction in Children and Teenagers In Taiwan. Cyberpsychology & Behaviour , 571-581.

3.      Starner, T., Mann, S., Rhodes, B., Levine, J., Healey, J., Kirsch, D., et al. (1997). Augmented Reality Through Wearable Computing. Presence , Special Issue on Augmented Reality.

4.      Drugge, M., Nilsson, M., Parviainen, R., & Parnes, P. (2004). Experiences of Using Wearable Computers for Ambient Telepresence and Remote Interaction. Proceedings of the 2004 ACM SIGMM workshop on Effective telepresence (pp. 2-11). New York: ACM.

5.      Piekarski, W., & Thomas, B. (2002). ARQuake: the outdoor augmented reality gaming system. Communications of the ACM , 45 (1), 36-38.

6.      Stross, C. (2008). Halting State. London: Orbit.

Bibliography

Ermi, L., & Mäyrä, F. (2005). Fundamental Components of the Gameplay Experience: Analysing Immersion. In S. d. Castell, & J. Jenson (Ed.), Changing Views: Worlds in Play. Selected Papers of the 2005 Digital Games Research Association’s Second International Conference, (pp. 15-27).

Grimshaw, M., & Schott, G. (2008). A Conceptual Framework for the Analysis of First-Person Shooter Audio and it’s Potential Use for Game Engines. International Journal of Computer Games Technology , I.

Parker, J. R., & Heerema, J. (2008). Audio Interaction in Computer Mediated Games. International Journal of Computer Games Technology , 2008.

[1] (Taylor, 2002) Video Games: Perspective, Point-of-view, and Immersion

[2] (Chui, Lee, & Huang, 2004) Video Game Addiction in Children and Teenagers in Taiwan

[3] (Starner, et al., 1997) Augmented Reality Through Wearable Computing

[4] (Drugge, Nilsson, Parviainen, & Parnes, 2004) Experiences of Using Wearable Computers for Ambient Telepresence and Remote Interaction

[5] (Piekarski & Thomas, 2002) ARQuake: The Outdoor Augmented Reality Gaming System

[6] (Stross, 2008) Halting State