This document discusses embodied cognition and its application to game characters and game design. It explains that embodied cognition means understanding is based on action possibilities and perceiving meanings through relations with the environment. Game characters are defined as player-characters controlled by the player or non-player characters controlled by AI. Character recognition in games depends on formal features, actions, appearance and other characters' reactions. Goals in games regulate progression and generate emotions like happiness, fear or sadness based on goal status.

1. Embodied Cognition,
Game Characters, and
Game Design
Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University

2. Embodied Cognition
¡ Basics of understanding is based on action
possibilities
¡ Club affords hitting
¡ Seeing someone smile -> mirroring smile -> happiness
& interpretation
¡ Someone raising a cup towards their lips -> drinking
¡ Mirroring actions
¡ Meanings are relations between an organism
and environment
Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University

3. Game Characters
¡ PC = Player-character
¡ Player controlled character
¡ NPC = Non-player-character
¡ An agent, AI, narrated actor
Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University

4. Game Characters
Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University
Immortall(ArmorGames)

5. Empathic
Engagement
Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University

6. Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University

7. Revealing Character in Thief
II
Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University

8. Revealing Character in Thief
II
¡ PC action
¡ Sneak & hide
¡ Pick locks
¡ Knock out with black-jack
¡ Take items / steal
¡ Fight with a sword
¡ Death comes often with this option
¡ Shoot arrows
Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University

9. Revealing Character
in Half-Life
• First-person view
• Information about character is
feed by
• Text
• Dialogue
Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University

10. Recognition
¡ An interpretation of a character
¡ Depends of formal features in the game
¡ Information
¡ Perceived actions
¡ Appearance
¡ Reactions of other characters
Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University

11. Alignment
Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University

12. Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University

13. Allegiance
• Structure of sympathy (or
antipathy)
• Moral / aesthetic evaluation
• Relative to fiction & other
characters
Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University

14. Beauty
¡ Positive evolution / emotion
¡ Simple
¡ Learned & prototypical
¡ Associative emotions
¡ If visuals or sounds are not relevant for a current
task, visuals/sounds ignored
¡ Especially when cognitive load is high
¡ Unexpected stimulus (e.g., peripheral movement or
sounds) trigger orientation response
¡ However, especially music can influence other
evaluations
Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University

15. Goal-driven
Engagement
Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University

16. Goals
¡ Regulating goals
¡ Goals that regulate progression in a game
¡ Player goals correlates highly with regulating goals if
they want to progress
¡ Player-generated goals
¡ Not relate to progression structure
¡ E.g., can I jump from this rooftop to next with a car in
Grad Theft Auto IV?
¡ Game structure needs to facilitate challenges
Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University

17. Regulating Goals in Ico
1. A cut scene showing how Ico is brought
to the castle and put into a statue and
how the statue falls letting Ico out. ->
GOAL: Escape
2. GOAL: Pull a lever in the first room to
open a door.
3. GOAL: go to the second room.
4. GOAL: climb up a chain, jump to a
window, and enter the third room.
5. Ico sees Yorda on a gage -> GOAL: free
Yorda
6. GOAL climbed up to a tower and use
lever to lower Yorda’s gage
7. The gage does not get on the ground ->
GOAL jumped on top of the cage, which
breaks the cage.
8. A cut-scene showing Ico’s and Yorda’s first
meeting. And showing a black portal appears
and shadowy creates emerges from it.
9. OPTIONAL GOAL: pick up a wooden stick as a
weapon
10. GOAL: destroy all creatures; GOAL: prevent
shadow creatures take Yorda escape via the
portal
11. A cut-scene where Ico says that it is too
dangerous to be where they are and that they
must escape, after which, Yorda opens a
magically sealed door leading to the next
room.
Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University

18. Goals and emotions
Basic Emotion Goal status evaluation
Happiness Progression towards or
reaching a goal
Fear Threat to self or goal
Sadness Failure of a valued goal
Anger A goal is blocked
Disgust Reaching a goal risks
contamination
Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University

19. Goals and emotions…
¡ Primary emotions
¡ Secondary emotions
¡ As if reasoning triggers emotions
¡ Considering risky option leads fear
¡ Thinking about success leads to happiness
Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University

20. Example: Silent Hill 2
Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University

21. Example: Silent Hill 2
¡ Limited perceptual range and awareness of monsters
¡ Fear & Worry
¡ Static noise warns about nearby monsters
¡ The sound gets associated with fear
¡ Attacking monsters threatens the player’s goal of keeping
PC alive
¡ Fear
¡ Zombies rot & Zombie’s vomit attack contaminating
¡ Disgust
¡ Killing zombies
¡ Happiness
Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University

22. ¡ Lankoski, P. (2012). Computer Games and
Emotions. In Sageng, Fossheim & Larsen (eds.) The
Philosophy of Computer Games. Springer.
DOI=10.1007/978-94-007-4249-9_4.
¡ Lankoski, P. (2011). Player Character Engagement
in Computer Games. Games and Culture, 6(4),
pp. 291-311. DOI: 10.1177/1555412010391088.
¡ Lankoski, P. & Järvelä, S. (2012). An Embodied
Cognition Approach for Understanding Role-
playing. International Journal of Role-Playing, 3.
Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University

23. Thank you
petri.lankoski@sh.se
petrilankoski.wordpress.com
Petri Lankoski, Södertörn University