Influencing Emotions and Interpretation:: Investigating the impact of color grading on emergent narratives in an interactive experience

Amin, Amin Morad

4. term

Medialogy, Master

2016

2016-05-26

154 pages

Incitamentet og formålet med dette speciale var at identificere årsager og sammenhænge for metoder til at fremme mindeværdige og effektfulde oplevelser i videospil. Dette var specielt ønsket i forhold til at vejlede spillernes tankegang til at fortolke og forstå indholdet på en bestemt måde. Den primære metode til at undersøge dette blev udført ved brugen af color grading for at påvirke fortolkningen og opbygning af en emergent narrativ som en historiefortælling form i forhold til environmental storytelling. Et forsøg blev således udført med 44 deltagere opdelt i henholdsvis en kontrolgruppe og en forsøgsgruppe. Her blev deltagernes følelser relativt til oplevelsen opmålt gennem 3 forskellige selvevalueringsmetoder, udeover den skriftlig fortolkning. De analyseret data blev sammenlignet mellem grupperne og også i forhold til deres fortolkninger. Dette afsløret en væsentlig forskel for at deltagerne var påvirket, og dermed at det havde ligeledes påvirket deres evne til at konstruere en emergent narrativ. Men for en mere konkret svar til den endelige problemformulering, bør yderligere undersøgelser anvendes på forskellige arketyper, metoder og stilarter af color grading i forhold til emergent narrativ og environmental storytelling i videospil.

The incentive and aim of this thesis was to identify causes and correlations for methods of encouraging memorable and impactful experiences in video game. This was specifically desired in relation to guiding the mindset of players to interpret and understand content in a certain way. The primary approach for investigating this notion was grounded on the use of color grading for the probability of influencing the interpretation and construction of an emergent narrative relative to environmental storytelling. Thus an experiment was conducted incorporating 44 participants separated into a control and experimental group. The feelings and emotions felt by each participant was as such measured through 3 different self-assessment evaluation methods, in addition to a written interpretation. The acquired data was compared between the groups and relative to their interpretations, which suggested a significant difference that participants were influenced and consequently that it had affected their ability to construct an emergent narrative. However, for a more definite answer to the final problem statement, further investigation and experimentation should be applied to various archetypes, methods and styles of color grading in relation to emergent narratives and environmental storytelling in video games.

Color grading ; Emotions ; Feelings ; Mood ; Emergent Narrative ; Environmental Storytelling ; Games ; Narrative Experience ; Interpretation ; Atmosphere

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