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Threat simulation in virtual limbo: An evolutionary approach to horror video games
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Why would anyone want to play a game designed to scare them? We argue that an alliance between evolutionary theory and game studies can shed light on the forms and psychological functions of horror video games. Horror games invite players to simulate prototypical fear scenarios of uncertainty and danger. These scenarios challenge players to adaptively assess and negotiate their dangers. While horror games thereby instil negative emotion, they also entice players with stimulating challenges of fearful coping. Players who brave these challenges expand their emotional and behavioural repertoire and experience a sense of mastery, explaining the genre’s paradoxical appeal. We end by illustrating our evolutionary approach through an in-depth analysis of Playdead’s puzzle-horror game Limbo .
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... Horror games introduce very similar and evolutionarily relevant enemies and inhospitable environments to induce fear and avoidance in the player. However, the flight-response of the horror game is enhanced by the player's perception of confronting hostile agents too powerful to defeat in a direct combat (Clasen, 2017, Chapter 13;Kjeldgaard-Christiansen & Clasen, 2019;Lynch & Martins, 2015). By contrast, Doom invites a confident and motivated fight-response. ...
Agency is a fundamental motive factor that subsumes competence, assertiveness, and individual goal-pursuit. It is contrasted with communion, which subsumes social and self-effacing motives. This chapter analyzes the 2016 id Software video game Doom as an agency simulator. Through narrative setup, gameplay mechanics, and audiovisual presentation, Doom submerges players in a first-person fantasy of unmitigated agency. Players experience total control over their environment and dominance over the creatures inhabiting it. The appeal of this scenario, I argue, is simulational. Just as humans may enjoy vicarious romance through romantic comedies or the thrill of discovery through detective novels, they may enjoy to simulate powerful agency in a risk-free virtual environment.
Limbo (2010) Playdead estudioak garatutako bideojoko independentea da, zeinak, narratiba lauso, giro ilun eta monokromatiko, eta egitura nahiz mekanika sinple baina esanguratsuen bidez, eremu independentean arrakasta eta interesa lortu duen. Bideojokoaren narratibaren eta jokagarritasunaren arteko harremana aztertuz, heriotza kontzeptu nagusi bezala identifikatu da. Elementu garrantzitsuenak (istorioa, girotzea, joko-mekanikak, pertsonaiak) kontzeptu horren inguruan diseinatu dira, plataforma eta puzzle generoen artean kokatzen den bideojoko atipikoa sortuz. Bi genero horien oinarriak hartu eta birdefinitzen dituela ondoriozta daiteke.
Horror video games have often been criticized for their negative and unrealistic depiction of mental health, primarily through their portrayal of characters with mental illnesses. Such representations can perpetuate stigma and misconceptions about mental health issues. However, there has recently been a growing interest in accurate portrayals of these characters and how playing these video games could also elicit empathy and mental health awareness. In our study, we explored how a psychological horror game such as Silent Hill 2 could foster empathy and mental health awareness through individual interviews with 11 participants. Our findings revealed that participants gained a deeper understanding of mental health issues and empathy towards characters struggling with mental illnesses by interacting and controlling them. Participants had a greater attachment to the characters' inner struggles and their gameplay was experienced as cathartic. Moreover, our findings highlighted the potential of psychological horror to serve as a platform for character-driven narratives, showcasing how engagement with such games elicited empathy among participants. We contribute to an exploratory understanding that can assist game designers and writers in crafting narratives within the Psychological Horror genre that foster empathy and mental health awareness.
For English please scroll down.
В разных общностях на определенном этапе социогенеза начинает создаваться и развиваться система культурных орудий и артефактов, поддерживающих конструирование одними людьми для других проблемных ситуаций и задач в учебных, игровых, диагностических целях. История изобретения игрушек, стимулирующих познавательную активность, постановку и решение проблем, и экспериментальных объектов для изучения мышления других, — это часть интеллектуальной истории человечества, история развертывания его творческого потенциала в направлении саморазвития и самопознания.
Ключевой составляющей способностей создавать проблемные ситуации и задачи для другого является особая часть модели представлений об этом другом — о том, как он (индивид, группа, представитель другого биологического вида и т. д.) будет справляться с трудностью и что получится в результате. Начиная с определенного уровня новизны и сложности ситуаций и объектов, стимулирующих постановку и решение проблем, вряд ли возможны системы их алгоритмической генерации. Иначе есть риски создания стандартных средств для генерации и (или) оценки нестандартных результатов.
Изобретение проблемных ситуаций и объектов для изучения творческого мышления других людей — это особый, малоизученный вид креативности, творческого мышления, составляющий часть творческого цивилизационного потенциала человечества. ----In different communities at a certain stage of sociogenesis, a system of cultural tools and artifacts begins to be created and developed to support the construction of problem situations and tasks for others in educational, gaming, and diagnostic purposes. The history of inventing toys that stimulate cognitive activity, problem-solving, and experimental objects for studying the thinking of others is part of the intellectual history of humanity, the history of unfolding its creative potential towards self-development and self-knowledge.
A key component of the ability to create problem situations and tasks for others is a special part of the model of representations about this other - about how he (an individual, a group, a representative of another biological species, etc.) will cope with the difficulty and what will be the result.
Starting from a certain level of novelty and complexity of situations and objects that stimulate problem-solving, it is unlikely that systems for their algorithmic generation are possible. Otherwise, there are risks of creating standard means for generating and/or evaluating non-standard results.
The invention of problem situations and objects for studying the creative thinking of others is a special, little-studied type of creativity, creative thinking that is part of the creative civilizational potential of humanity.
Please scroll down for English version. Полный текст: https://chelovek-journal.ru/s023620070027351-3-1/?sl=ru . Рассматривается особый класс культурных объектов под обобщенным названием «Чертик из табакерки». Они позиционируются как игрушки, но игрушками не являются из-за нередко вызываемого ими у детей страха и ужаса. Скримеры из фильмов и видеоигр ужасов представляют собой родственное явление. Анализируются выложенные в Интернет видео, на которых взрослые организуют встречу ребенка с такой игрушкой, и комментарии под ними. При том, что есть взрослые, искренне расстраивающиеся от ужаса и плача детей, есть и те, кто получает от этого удовольствие. Развертывается эмоциональная полемика между теми, кто считает, что это смешно и не вредно, и теми, кто считает это вредным для детей и позорным для взрослых, которые в это вовлечены и получают удовольствие. С рационально-прагматической позиции эволюционного подхода, игрушки типа «Чертик из табакерки» могут рассматриваться как одно из стрессогенных средств подготовки к стрессу столкновения с новизной и непредсказуемостью. Это не снимает личной нравственной ответственности с тех, кто ищет удовольствия в ужасе и плаче маленького ребенка, и с тех, кто создает условия для этого удовольствия. В дальнейшем представляет интерес изучение места игрушек типа «Чертик из табакерки» среди других контрисследовательских объектов, которые в соответствии с замыслом их создателей с разной силой наказывают за исследовательское поведение и любопытство. Стресс столкновения с таким объектами может усиливаться от сознания преднамеренности созданной провокативной ситуации и обмана или вероломства человека, ее создавшего. Видео для примера: https://www.vayagif.com/456573/no-volvera-a-acercarse-a-una-tienda-de-disfraces-nunca. We consider a special class of cultural objects like Jack-in-the-Box. They are scary for many children. Screamers from horror movies and computer video games are phenomena of the same type. We analyze Internet videos in which adults organize children’s encounter with Jack-in-the-Boxes, and comments under the videos. Some adults are upset about the children’s fear and cry, but some others enjoy it. In the comments, one can read emotional polemics between those ones who write that the children’s fear is funny, and Jack-in-the-Boxes do not have negative effects, and those ones who write that it is harmful for children and shameful for the adults doing it for fun and enjoy. From rational-and-pragmatical point of view of evolutionary approach, the objects like Jack-in-the-Boxes can be considered as stress-inducing means of preparation for stress of encounter with novelty and unpredictability. This does not remove personal moral responsibility from those ones who is seeking enjoy in young children’s fear and cry, and those ones who organize conditions for it. In the future, an analysis of Jack-in-the-Boxes among other counter-exploratory objects punishing for their exploration and curiosity aimed at them can be of interest. The stress of encounter with these objects can be increased by recognition of premeditation of the created provocative situation and disloyalty or treachery of a person creating it. https://chelovek-journal.ru/s023620070027351-3-1/?sl=en. An example of a video: https://www.vayagif.com/456573/no-volvera-a-acercarse-a-una-tienda-de-disfraces-nunca
Invention of problem situations and experimental objects to study others’ thinking is a special kind of creativity worthy of scientific interest. The objects are considered in terms of Latour’s actor network theory (as nonhuman actants), cultural psychology (as cultural tools), and Gibson’s theory of affordances (as meta-affordances). A fundamental problem of validity in studies of curiosity and exploration is discussed. The author’s experience of inventions of exploratory objects to be experimented with is analyzed. An inter(trans)-disciplinary insight penetrating and integrating all levels of the work on an exploratory object is described. An example of participants’ revealing of an object’s unexpected faculties (“serendipities”) undesirable from the experimenter’s point of view is given. It is shown that an object designed to study thinking in one sample can be used in another sample with unexpected results. It is argued that automatic generation of problem posing-and-solving situations and exploratory objects, beginning from some levels of their novelty and complexity, is hardly possible because of fundamental limitations of “standard means to generate or score non-standard ends”.
The present studies set out to characterize how subtle threat cues manifest in marketing horror and children’s entertainment. Objective measures of luminance, colorfulness, redness, and angularity were calculated from images of movie posters (Study 1), album covers (Study 2), and video game box art (Study 3). The relative importance of these predictors at distinguishing between horror and children’s items was assessed using logistic regression models. In an exploratory manner, three global image statistics that relate to spatial composition were hierarchically included as predictors. The results indicate that marketing materials in popular media exploit low-level visual properties that are implicated in threat appraisals when there is a desire to unambiguously communicate the presence or absence of threat. In general, horror items were darker, less colorful, featured a greater proportion of red, shapes with a greater degree of angularity, and included more complex and isotropic changes in luminance compared with their children’s counterparts. The results provide insight into the tacit cues that are used to signal threat in popular media.
Benign violation theory (BVT) claims that humour arises when a situation is interpreted as both benign and as a violation at the same time. The theory has been employed primarily in social psychology and not as a method for textual analysis. This chapter argues that BVT is valuable in the textual analysis of games as it specifies the playful conflicts that are unique to machine-mediated forms of humour, and the ways in which humour is central to deriving communicative meaning from puzzle-based games. The chapter introduces BVT, discusses its relevance to puzzles in games, and analyses Limbo and Braid, two games that, while not explicitly marketed as comedy games, can be read as a series of benign violations that produce dark comedy.
Celem artykułu jest wykazanie, iż pierwowzory gier z gatunku survival horror, którego początek stereotypowo datuje się na lata 90.XX wieku, można odnaleźć jeszcze w latach 80. Na przykładzie wybranych gier powstałych w owej dekadzie we Francji autor dowodzi, iż już tytuły takie jak Infernal Runner, Le Pacte oraz Zombi ukształtowały poetykę gier survival horror, opartą na ikonografii literatury i filmu grozy, osaczeniu sterowanych awatarów, konfrontacji z obiektami budzącymi efekt grozy oraz symulacji stanów psychicznych postaci.
Horror entertainment is a thriving and paradoxical industry. Who are the consumers of horror, and why do they seek out frightening media? We provide support for the threat simulation theory of horror, according to which horror media provides a form of benign masochism that offers negative emotional stimulation through simulation of threat scenarios. Through an online survey of genre use and preference as well as personality traits and paranormal beliefs ( n = 1,070), we find that sensation seeking and the fifth of the Big Five factors, intellect/imagination, predict liking of horror and frequency of use. Gender, educational level, and age are also correlated with horror liking and frequency of use (males show higher liking and more frequent use, whereas liking and use frequency are negatively correlated with educational level and age). People with stronger beliefs in the paranormal tend to seek out horror media with supernatural content, whereas those with weaker beliefs in the paranormal gravitate toward horror media with natural content, suggesting that people seek out horror media with threatening stimuli that they perceive to be plausible. While frightening media may be initially aversive, people high in sensation seeking and intellect/imagination, in particular, like intellectual stimulation and challenge and expect not just negative but also positive emotions from horror consumption. They brave the initially aversive response to simulate threats and so enter a positive feedback loop by which they attain adaptive mastery through coping with virtual simulated danger.
An evolved module for fear elicitation and fear learning with 4 characteristics is proposed. (a) The fear module is preferentially activated in aversive contexts by stimuli that are fear relevant in an evolutionary perspective. (b) Its activation to such stimuli is automatic. (c) It is relatively impenetrable to cognitive control. (d) It originates in a dedicated neural circuitry, centered on the amygdala. Evidence supporting these propositions is reviewed from conditioning studies, both in humans and in monkeys; illusory correlation studies; studies using unreportable stimuli; and studies from animal neuroscience. The fear module is assumed to mediate an emotional level of fear learning that is relatively independent and dissociable from cognitive learning of stimulus relationships.
A few seconds of survival processing, during which people assess the relevance of information to a survival situation, produces particularly good retention. One interpretation of this benefit is that our memory systems are optimized to process and retain fitness-relevant information. Such a “tuning” may exist, in part, because our memory systems were shaped by natural selection, using a fitness-based criterion. However, recent research suggests that traditional mnemonic processes, such as elaborative processing, may play an important role in producing the empirical benefit. Boundary conditions have been demonstrated as well, leading some to dismiss evolutionary interpretations of the phenomenon. In this article, we discuss the current state of the evolutionary account and provide a general framework for evaluating evolutionary and purportedly nonevolutionary interpretations of mnemonic phenomena. We suggest that survival processing effects are best viewed within the context of a general survival optimization system, designed by nature to help organisms deal with survival challenges. An important component of survival optimization is the ability to simulate activities that help to prevent or escape from future threats which, in turn, depends in an important way on accurate retrospective remembering of survival-relevant information.
We provide systematic evidence for the range and importance of hedonic reversals as a major source of pleasure, and incorporate these findings into the theory of benign masochism. Twenty-nine different initially aversive activities are shown to produce pleasure (hedonic reversals) in substantial numbers of individuals from both college student and Mechanical Turk samples. Hedonic reversals group, by factor analysis, into sadness, oral irritation, fear, physical activity/exhaustion, pain, strong alcohol-related tastes, bitter tastes, and disgust. Liking for sad experiences (music, novels, movies, paintings) forms a coherent entity, and is related to enjoyment of crying in response to sad movies. For fear and oral irritation, individuals also enjoy the body's defensive reactions. Enjoyment of sadness is higher in females across domains. We explain these findings in terms of benign masochism, enjoyment of negative bodily reactions and feelings in the context of feeling safe, or pleasure at "mind over body". In accordance with benign masochism, for many people, the favored level of initially negative experiences is just below the level that cannot be tolerated.
This chapter provides a theoretical foundation for the study of how emotions are affected by game sound as well as empirical evidence for determining how to promote fear, suspense, and anxiety in players using sound effects. Four perspectives on emotions are described: Darwinian, James-Lange, cognitive, and social constructivist. Three basic properties of diegetic sound effects were studied: volume, timing, and source. Results strongly suggest that the best sound design for causing fear is high volume and timed sound effects (synchronized game sound with visual moment) and somewhat suggest that sourced sound effects also promote fear. For anxiety, results strongly suggest that the best sound design is medium volume sound effects. Results also suggest that acousmatic and untimed sound effects evoke suspense rather than anxiety. Low volume sound effects are not effective at evoking fear, suspense, and anxiety due to potential masking by other sounds. Implications and future research directions are presented.
How can video games be fun and immerse players in fantastic worlds where anything seems possible? How can they be so engaging to have become the main entertainment product for children and adults alike? In On the Way to Fun, the author proposes a possible answer to these questions by going back to the roots of gaming and showing how early games, as well as modern indie productions, captivated generations of players even without the need for fancy graphics and effects but by relying on basic emotions and instincts instead. This book will be most beneficial to aspiring and beginning game designers and to anyone who wants a better understanding of human nature and how it relates to the design process of immersive video game experiences.
This study presents the results of a survey of 269 undergraduate students conducted to examine fright experiences caused by video games. Over half of the participants reported game-induced fear. Sex, sensation-seeking, and empathy all emerged as important individual differences in terms of enjoyment of frightening content, consumption of frightening content, and frequency of fright experience. Interactivity and presentations of realism also predicted fear. This work identifies titles, stimuli, and features that caused fright experience.