Comments on Above 49: The Importance of Readability in Games

Thanks for the clarification Nels. I understand be...

2009-04-24T12:54:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the clarification Nels. I understand better and agree.

@Reid Yeah, I realize that I'm still being a littl...

2009-04-24T09:54:00.000-07:00

@Reid Yeah, I realize that I'm still being a little too hand-wavy. Worse, I'm blending world interactions with more system things, which I think is muddling this even more. I'll put together some (hopefully) understandable examples in the posts to come, but in the mean time, maybe this will clear things up a little bit.

The lever example is a bit of a red herring, since a lever (by the very fact that it's identifiable as a lever) basically affords pulling. Presenting something that appears like a "lever" has a bunch of affordances built in (which designers can exploit). But I understand what you mean and I think what you said is accurate.

Lighting, highlights, etc. of an object can convey that it affords interaction. While a readable door/switch system will convey how those objects relate. Now, we might not want that relationship to be readable (because it's a secret door or something), but that decision should be deliberate.

When I said, "neutral," I was referring to actions the player can take. E.g. I'd say it's rarely a good idea to create abilities or interactions that are only useful in very specific situations. Imagine if the Incinerate plasmid in Bioshock could only be used to melt ice, instead of melting ice, setting bad guys on fire, setting oil pools ablaze, etc.

What I meant by neutral is that designers shouldn't be ham-fisted and say, "Now it's time to use this ability." The abilities should do a set of interesting things and the players can compose those in ways the designers might have never even expected.

Hi Nels, I have maybe a 71.4% understanding of th...

2009-04-23T20:21:00.000-07:00

Hi Nels,

I have maybe a 71.4% understanding of the difference. :)

I'd like to see you cover that difference in your future posts with specific tangible examples please.

As I understand it, if there's a door in a game with a lever, readability will help the player understand the lever's relationship to that door. A flashy, sparkling material on the lever will afford that the lever itself is interactive?

I'm not clear on why we'd want systems to be neutral instead of communicating the exact purpose of interacting with it? Wouldn't that make the system ambiguous and hard to interact with? If I understood what you meant by "neutral", that would help.

@Reid It's similar, yes. The distinction I'd make ...

2009-04-23T14:06:00.000-07:00

@Reid It's similar, yes. The distinction I'd make is two-fold. One, affordance is usually understood as a property of an object, while readability is more concerned with relationships. Two, affordance is usually goal or task focused, i.e. how clearly an object communicate what its purpose is. Often, we want our system to be more "neutral," rather that directing interactions toward a single (or set of) predetermined purpose(s).

Now, game constructs with clear affordances contribute to making a system more readable.

Does that distinction make sense? Or is that just splitting hairs? ;)

I'm also looking forward to future articles on thi...

2009-04-23T13:28:00.000-07:00

I'm also looking forward to future articles on this topic of readability. I also see it as different from accessibility.

By referencing The Design of Everyday Things, which I love, I understand readability to be the same as affordance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance

There's a little bit of a subtlety here: it's not ...

2009-04-22T18:07:00.000-07:00

There's a little bit of a subtlety here: it's not important that all games be accessible. But if they're inaccessible, that decision needs to be made deliberately and carefully. Far too often, it's not a decision that's made an all. It's a state that arises out of neglect.

Readability contributes to accessibility, I think.

And that being said, the industry isn't doing itself any favours with interactions like this either.

Interesting. I think in this area you're using th...

2009-04-22T15:15:00.000-07:00

Interesting. I think in this area you're using the word "readable" in the same way I use the word "accessible" in my argument that " one way to measure the success of an art form, medium or piece of individual art is to measure its accessibility - in other words, how many people just can't 'get it'".

Could it be that your empathy/data approach could contribute to general society's acceptance of the interactive medium of games as an expressive art form?

Looking forward to reading your other blog entries!