| BabystepsI understood very well what he meant, when he led me up and down the corridor along the pods for a few minutes.
Even though I had been prepared and briefed for this, I was still quite amazed about how foreign it felt to walk on my own feet.
And that after only 3 hours in the game.
No wonder this was the absolute limit of time you could spend in it for now.
It was not as if I had no control, but much rather as if I had to remember how to do it.
The memory came back very, very fast, but still it was a quite impressive process.
“That's crazy”, I said surprised, while carefully making one step after the other.
“But kind of satisfying too! To consciously make this...learning experience!”
“Yeah, we've had that feedback also from other test-players.”
Fritz patiently walked next to me, always ready to jump in, just in case.
“Do you get used to it?” I wanted to know.
“We can't say yet”, he replied. “We need more data for that. What we do know is that it is getting worse if you stay in the game for longer, like 4 or 5 hours. After that, you need already 30 minutes to get up from the table.”
“You tested this? Who!?” I remembered that the contracts with our probands totally excluded any tests beyond the limit. And I also remembered how our legal department explained that we would risk our necks if we'd break that contract.
“No worries. I tested it myself.” Fritz had obviously noticed the agitation in my voice.
“Okay, but I should have known this beforehand, Fritz!”
It didn't hurt to play the authority-game every once in a while.
Particularly if your employees had just followed you along for a few hours, while you were testing the porn section of a game that was supposed to change the world of gaming significantly. |
| Bodyfeeling“And how long until I won't feel like a Lara Croft clone anymore?” I changed topic with a smile, to not get too serious about his little lapses.
That was actually one of the weirdest feelings ever!
When I was working through the inconceivable complex character creation before game-start, I hadn't spent too much time with details, really.
That engine basically starts with a photorealistic high resolution scan of yourself.
And from there you can change literally everything, including age, gender, ethnics…and down to the tiniest details.
I knew there would be people that would spend days in that part of the game.
And they would love it!
Knowing about the limited time I had in the pod, I just made some quick fun edits to enhance my wiry stature with some classical gaming features: Boob and Butt-job.
But now, being disconnected from the game for more than 10 minutes, my body still felt these… ”enhancements”, even when I touched it.
“Yeah, ...”, Fritz hesitated a bit before continuing, “this is an odd one, really. No one in the developer team has contemplated this side effect!”
He made another short break.
“It vanishes after about 15 minutes latest, so far. Not all probands have it. And, I'm sorry to say, but it happens more often to female players. Significantly more often.”
And after another short break he added:
"And just for the files: Outside the game it is only visible and feelable for you. For anyone else your appearance is unchanged."
“Sure thing”, I nodded smiling, “and it's not as if it would feel horrible, but it's strange.”
“Yeah, I can imagine. And we really have to get rid of that. It might be fun in your case, but imagine you had decided to play the game as an Orc from Moria!” |
| ReunionA few minutes later, after more walking up and down the aisle, the strange feeling was in deed gone, and I felt home in myself again.
Just right in time for my co-players to arrive.
We've met already the day before during the briefing for the test-run, and I was actually looking forward to meeting them again.
“Andrew” (I will keep their in-game names, for now, until I have clarified potential issues with personal rights with HR) was one of Fritz' programmers and I had met him already a few times during previous visits.
He had a master in computer science and had scripted the level design for the demo, and I knew from Fritz, that he was about to be promoted to lead-level-designer.
“Luke”, I had met for the first time during the briefing. He was one of the external, and I didn't know much about him, except that he was 25 years old, lived in the area, and had started his own vehicle shop, about a year ago.
He was a passionate gamer and had asked a few clever questions regarding quest-structure and design during the initial meeting.
I liked both of them, and I had enjoyed our collaboration. And I didn't see any reason why this should change.
“Hey guys, good to see you!” I welcomed them as you would do with colleagues, “Everything alright with you?”
“Of course, Ma'am,” came from Andrew, who had taken over Fritz's habit, “good to see you too!”
Luke replied with a smile that would have done great in any toothpaste advertising
“Everything's shipshape! What about you?”
The amazing thing was: It didn't feel weird at all to meet them after what we've just played through!
There was nothing embarrassing or unpleasant, even if during the game everything had felt real beyond imagination.
In whichever way Daniel's interface was managing this, but it was able to really make you live the experience, and then, when it was over, you would leave it, and it would feel as if you've just watched a movie.
A very intense one, but a “just” a movie.
“I'm good! Thanks dears”, I answered.
“Just a bit shaky, still. But let's talk about this real quick for now, before we meet for the debriefing with the whole team tomorrow. I'm sure we all could use a little rest and a shower.”
“Are you sure?” I heard Andrew cheerfully giggling.
And we all started to laugh. |
| Debriefing 5“Alright”, I started when we've had assembled around the table with some refreshments and one desperately needed coffee for myself.
“I am not the lead here, just managing the program, but please allow me to open this quick session with a message from Estrid.”
I took a sip from my coffee and continued,
“She wanted to say Thank You to everyone who helped to achieve this milestone in the development of the game. And she wanted me to tell you that the whole team is going to be invited to a great dinner, to celebrate this. The invitation will go out once scheduling is aligned.”
Another sip,
“And a personal comment from my side: I'm sure you're going to enjoy this event!”
And one last sip, that was accompanied by a “cool” coming from Luke.
“But now, let's start... Fritz?”
Fritz nodded in my direction and cleared his throat.
“Thank you, and I can only confirm: A dinner with Estrid Voll is something special!
However, I really want to make this a quick feedback round, but not without saying thank you for the great collaboration everyone!”
He waited until our “you're welcome” and “Thank you too” and “a pleasure” were over and then continued:
“Okay, let's collect your first and strongest impressions and thoughts about the demo. Together with the data from the run that then will be analyzed, this might help us to prepare the meeting for tomorrow.”
He looked at me:
“Ladies first?”
“Alright then”, I smiled and was actually wondering if he was making a bit fun of me, with all that Ma'am and Lady and shit!
“Let me start by saying how impressed I am about how well this demo run! I have no technical background, so I can't really judge, but I don't think there is anything in the market that would come close to the level of realism you have created.
As it was “just” a demo, I won't talk about the plot. You wanted to show as many scenarios and biomes as possible in the limited time we had. So all the “Blackout-transitions” from one level to the next are excusable, really.”
This time I took a sip from my water and only now realized how much I had needed it!
“Another part that's really very well done is the transition into and out of the game! Considering the level of immersion you achieve, this is truly stunning.”
I gave Fritz and Daniel a few moments to enjoy the honey, before I would come to the salt. |
| A grain of salt“Okay”, I took a deep breath, “Now about my concern. And it's actually related to the level of immersion.”
Fritz' expression was focused and attentive. And I knew he was someone who had no problems with constructive feedback.
Daniel's face was as free of emotions as it almost always was.
“I have the feeling as if I was immersed a bit too much into the story. And I am not sure if that is intended, but I actually didn't know that I was playing. It was not at all the kind of control that I would expect when starting a game. It was much rather like living through a very, very realistic dream, and I think that's problematic on both, the entertainment and the emotional level. Because during the game, I was not myself, but some made-up version of me that thought she had been raped by a boy that she knew for years and to whom she had a family-like relation. I think that's over the top.”
I looked at the “Boys” I ended with:
“What about you, guys?”
Interestingly, it was Andrew who took over first:
“I totally agree”, he said to Fritz.
”When we were briefed for the game, we all knew what it would be about. And we all consensually agreed to play through a BDSM scenario that would be very rough, physically and emotionally. But just like Miss Clothels, I didn't know that I was playing a game when we were in. And my game-version made me do things I wouldn't do in real life. They might be somewhere inside of me. But my social and ethical filters would not allow me to do them…. I simply wouldn't want it."
“You know, it's like….many of us sometime feel the desire to grab a gun and end one asshole politician who is about to set the world on fire. But we don't do it, because it would be wrong. In a game, it's something different. There you can go full Tarantino and change the history of the planet…or you, again, decide against it. My in game character during the demo didn't give me that choice. And as Hanna said, that's not fun!”
Oh, he was using my first name!
Fritz was still just listening and looked at Luke:
“And what about you?” He wanted to know.
Luke nodded,
“I can only second what Hanna and Andrew said. You know I am a gamer, and jeez that realism in this game is fucking awesome! But not having control, freedom of choice, alternative paths, ...nothing of that. This won't work. Like Andrew said, my game character did things to Hanna that I would never do.
I mean, he chocked her to unconsciousness, he raped her? Seriously? That's not consensual anymore. Because in the game it was real for her. And even if the game is over now, the memory of it will stay. And aside from that not being fun and ethically questionable, I could imagine it could also lead to some legal issues.”
Fritz waited a few moments to make sure Luke had finished before he reacted:
“Very well”, he collected his thoughts, “Thank you very much for your honest feedback! We already had discussions about this topic during the developer meetings and wanted to wait for data from actual game testers, before deciding which way to go in terms of immersion.”
He turned to Daniel:
“Dan, I think you may have something to add here”, he encouraged him.
And he got me curious. |
| Into the great wide open“I have, thanks Fritz”, Daniel took over without interruption, and addressed his following explanations mainly towards me.
Which from his point of view made sense, I suppose.
“At the moment, our interface is set up to maximize immersion, and so is the actual design of the demo.
Due to the amount of data that needs to be processed for any alternative path in the game's story, we took this out completely for single and multi-player. This, of course, lead to the railroading you've experienced.
We've been aware of the risks this approach would entail, particularly during a critical scenario like the one we tested today.”
Now he made a little break, to have some water.
“And that's why we mainly focused our observations during the run on those brain activities that are responsible for the integration of experiences into the long-term memory…”
Another break, and with an excusing glance he continued:
“It's an awfully complex subject and impossible to explain in a few minutes. But to say it plain simple: We made sure that no game experience would burn into your memories, or would even only leave a stronger impression than, say, a heavy horror movie.”
Okay, that was why I didn't feel traumatized at all, even though I actually had been traumatized.
“However,” Daniel's expression was back to his usual poker-face, “you know that we're working on a better AI integration into our dynamic scripting. And the results look very promising…
It's something we actually wanted to announce during the meeting tomorrow, but it doesn't hurt if I tell you already today: We are ready to test a single player-demo. And it's planned for the end of next week.”
Daniel paused for a moment to let that sink.
That was in deed a surprise. And I wasn't sure if that was a good thing, for me being the actual manager of the program.
But I wouldn't discuss that in this round.
Our head of R&D had obviously noticed my squeezed brows, because he quickly continued.
“In this demo, you have all the usual controls that you know from a game. You can even play with a HUD if you like.
You can pause, change settings, and safe whenever you want.
There are multiple endings that depend on your choices.
For now, it's a limited amount of four different endings, and it's only about an hour of gameplay. But once the AI is set up correctly and with the development that is expected in that field… the sky will be the limit.”
'Oh well', I thought, 'let's hope we'll have learned how to fly once we're up there!' |
Gimpi-101 Gimpi Meets Jack's Ex
[Bazzell] Gimpi-102 Gimpi Meets Jack's Ex
