Comments on: Resolution http://kotiro.petermichaud.com The Making of an Indie Game Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:21:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Pete http://kotiro.petermichaud.com/visual/resolution/comment-page-1/#comment-112 Pete Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:11:45 +0000 http://kotiro.petermichaud.com/?page_id=447#comment-112 You make a good point; it was sloppy of me to draw the conclusion I did without controlling for other variables. I hope, though, that I didn't give the impression that I thought this was the only factor. My original claim from the article is that emotional depth is "related to" character to screen ratio (in the statistical sense), which I still think is correct. I would point out one pedantic thing, which is that in FF6 when a character is riding in one of those robot things, the sprite to screen ratio becomes more like 1/4, the ratio of Castlevania and Oddworld. And incidentally, FF6 used character portraits too, which confounds the issue. But that doesn't change the fact that it's a correlation, like you said. Two questions: 1) If we accept from our small sample and intuition that games with higher ratios tend to be the ones with more emotional depth, then we have to wonder why. Is it because game creators find it easier to tell a story with an emotive character that has more detail? If that's the case, then it still makes sense to make the character ratio large. 2) If players have come to associate large characters with emotional depth, won't they be primed to accept Kōtiro as deep when I present it that way? In other words, does the unfounded perception that size equals emotional depth become a self fulfilling prophecy? You make a good point; it was sloppy of me to draw the conclusion I did without controlling for other variables. I hope, though, that I didn’t give the impression that I thought this was the only factor. My original claim from the article is that emotional depth is “related to” character to screen ratio (in the statistical sense), which I still think is correct.

I would point out one pedantic thing, which is that in FF6 when a character is riding in one of those robot things, the sprite to screen ratio becomes more like 1/4, the ratio of Castlevania and Oddworld. And incidentally, FF6 used character portraits too, which confounds the issue.

But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a correlation, like you said. Two questions:

1) If we accept from our small sample and intuition that games with higher ratios tend to be the ones with more emotional depth, then we have to wonder why. Is it because game creators find it easier to tell a story with an emotive character that has more detail? If that’s the case, then it still makes sense to make the character ratio large.

2) If players have come to associate large characters with emotional depth, won’t they be primed to accept Kōtiro as deep when I present it that way?

In other words, does the unfounded perception that size equals emotional depth become a self fulfilling prophecy?

]]> By: Matt Spencer http://kotiro.petermichaud.com/visual/resolution/comment-page-1/#comment-111 Matt Spencer Sun, 15 Nov 2009 03:45:00 +0000 http://kotiro.petermichaud.com/?page_id=447#comment-111 Interesting, but I think the character-to-screen size ratio has nothing to do with the player's emotional investment. The emotional impact that a character makes is dependent on the depth of story. The Mario games have always had an awful and shallow story, leaving Mario himself with a shallow personality. Consider the Final Fantasy 6 characters and the range of emotion displayed with sprites roughly the same size as Mario 2. Also, consider the game "Marvel vs. Capcom" and its giant sprites, and how the lack of story adds nothing to the characters' appeal. I think your correlation is coincidence because as display technology progressed, so did everything else, allowing for longer games and deeper storylines. Interesting, but I think the character-to-screen size ratio has nothing to do with the player’s emotional investment. The emotional impact that a character makes is dependent on the depth of story. The Mario games have always had an awful and shallow story, leaving Mario himself with a shallow personality. Consider the Final Fantasy 6 characters and the range of emotion displayed with sprites roughly the same size as Mario 2. Also, consider the game “Marvel vs. Capcom” and its giant sprites, and how the lack of story adds nothing to the characters’ appeal.

I think your correlation is coincidence because as display technology progressed, so did everything else, allowing for longer games and deeper storylines.

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