| The 32 Categories of Emotioneering™
Excerpted from the Table of Contents from the Book
"Creating Emotion in Games"
Emotioneering™ refers to a vast body of techniques which can create, for a player or participant, a breadth and depth of emotions in a game or other interactive experience, and which can immerse a game player or interactive participant in a world or a role.
There are at least 1500 Emotioneering techniques of which I'm aware. My book, "Creating Emotion in Games," details over 300 of them.
All Emotioneering Techniques fall into one (and occasionally more than one) of 32 different categories. The main body of the book deals with explaining these categories, offering specific techniques, and providing numerous hypothetical game case studies, which illustrate exactly how to use these Emotioneering Techniques.
The book has almost 100 pieces of wonderful art which helps illustrate these techniques and the hypothetical games.
What follows is excerpted from the book's Table of Contents. It describes the 32 categories of Emotioneering Techniques.
THE 32 CATEGORIES OF EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #1:
NPC INTERESTING TECHNIQUES
Techniques which make major NPCs (non-player characters) dimensional and fresh, and thus interesting.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #2:
NPC DEEPENING TECHNIQUES
Techniques which give major NPCs emotional depth and complexity.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #3:
DIALOGUE INTERESTING TECHNIQUES
Techniques which make single lines of dialogue by minor NPCs interesting.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #4:
DIALOGUE DEEPENING TECHIQUES
Techniques which make single lines of dialogue by minor NPCs convey a sense that the NPC has emotional depth.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #5:
GROUP INTERESTING TECHIQUES
Techniques for making groups -- groups as small as a squad or as large as a tribe or even a culture or a race -- fascinating and intriguing to the player.
By "group" we're not talking about a few friends who might know each other, but instead about any collection of people who have, to some degree, their own distinct, collective identity. For example, "The Celts" or "The Marines."
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #6:
GROUP DEEPENING TECHIQUES
Techniques which make groups -- groups as small as a platoon or as large as a tribe or even a race or culture -- embody a feeling of emotional depth.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #7:
NPC TOWARD NPC CHEMISTRY TECHNIQUES
Techniques which, with very little reliance on dialogue, make it feel like two NPCs have "chemistry" -- that is, that they belong together as friends or lovers.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #8:
NPC TOWARD NPC RELATIONSHIP DEEPENING TECHNIQUES
Techniques which, with very little reliance on dialogue, make it feel like two NPCs have a rich and complex relationship.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #9:
NPC CHARACTER ARC* TECHNIQUES
Definition: A "Character Arc" is the rocky path of growth a character undergoes in a story, usually unwillingly, during which the character wrestles with and eventually overcomes some or all of a serious emotional fear, limitation, block or wound. Examples: a character overcoming a lack of courage, or a lack of ethics, or learning to love, or learning to take responsibility for others, or overcoming guilt, etc. EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #10:
NPC ROOTING INTEREST* TECHNIQUES
Definition: "Rooting Interest Techniques" are techniques which make us "root for" - or, more precisely, identify with (empathize with) a character. The term sounds like it means we cheer the character on who has Rooting Interest. We do, but that's just a byproduct our identifying with him or her. Thus a character with Rooting Interest is one with whom we empathize. This term, and "Character Arc" (discussed in the previous chapter) are the only two phrases in the book which come from the film industry. EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #11:
PLAYER TOWARD NPC CHEMISTRY TECHNIQUES
Techniques which make the player feel "chemistry" with an NPC -- that is, these techniques make the player feel close to an NPC, either romantically or non-romantically.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #12:
NPC TOWARD PLAYER RELATIONSHIP DEEPENING
Ways to make it feel as if major NPCs have an emotionally complex relationships with the player.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #13:
PLAYER TOWARD NPC RELATIONSHIP DEEPENING
Ways to give the player emotionally complex relationships with major NPCs.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #14:
GROUP BONDING TECHNIQUES
Techniques which make a group (such as a platoon) feel bonded, and if the player is part of that group, the player will feel bonded to the group as well.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #15:
EMOTIONALLY COMPLEX MOMENTS & SITUATIONS TECHNIQUES
Ways to put the player in the middle of emotionally complex moments and situations.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #16:
PLOT INTERESTING TECHNIQUES
Ways of making game plots interesting, taking into account many different kinds of story structures -- linear, nonlinear, and multi-path -- unique to games.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #17:
PLOT DEEPENING TECHNIQUES
Ways to give game stories emotional depth and resonance, the way some recent or classic films do (such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "The Matrix," "Lord of the Rings," "American Beauty," "Casblanca," or "Bladerunner").
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #19:
ROLE INDUCTION TECHNIQUES
Definition: "Role Induction Techniques" are techniques which make a player willing to identify with the character he or she is playing.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #20:
FIRST-PERSON CHARACTER ARC TECHNIQUES
Techniques which actually make the player go through an emotional transformation by the end of the game.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #21:
FIRST-PERSON DEEPENING TECHNIQUES
Techniques which actually give the player more emotional depth by the end of the game.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #22:
REVEALING COMPLEX CHARACTERS THROUGH THEIR ACTIONS
Techniques for creating complex characters, even if they don't speak a single word.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #23:
ENHANCING EMOTIONAL DEPTH THROUGH SYMBOLS
Film and television writers have learned methods of using symbols to give characters, scenes, and stories emotional depth and resonance. In games, the ideal is to go one step further and create "Usable Symbols" - symbols which have emotional power, but which are also useful in gameplay. This chapter will show a few ways of accomplishing this.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #24:
SELF-CREATED STORY TECHNIQUES (a.k.a. Agency Techniques)
A game, to a greater or lesser degree, helps guide the player's choices and determines the possible consequences of his or her actions. However, it's important to make the player feel like he or she is impacting, if not shaping the story. This is sometimes called "giving the player a sense of agency," or simply "giving the player agency."
This chapter focuses on ways to accomplish this -- i.e. to help the player feel that he is she is playing the game, rather than simply being taken along on a ride.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #25:
MOTIVATION TECHNIQUES
Techniques to make the player want to keep on going and make it through the game.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #26:
COHESIVENESS TECHNQIUES
Techniques to make various parts of the game which are distant in (apparent) space and time feel connected.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #27:
"TRUE-TO-LIFE" PRINCIPALS
Principals about adding a sense of realism to the NPCs emotional actions and reactions.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #28:
CROSS-DEMOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUES
Techniques to make games appeal to both kids (or young teens) and adults.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #29:
INJECTING EMOTION INTO A GAME'S STORY ELEMENTS
What constitutes a "story?" Each element opens up possibilities for emotion.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #30:
TYING STORY TO GAMEPLAY AND MECHANICS
In some games, the story and the game-play seem to be unrelated. Even if the story is great and people enjoy the gameplay, the ideal is to link the two. This chapter addresses this issue.
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #31:
PRE-RENDERED AND IN-GAME CINEMATICS*
A cinematic is a section in a game which is like a very short movie. The player loses control of the game and watches passively. Cinematics can range from a few seconds to a few minutes.
There are currently no consistent terms for cinematics. Cinematics animated or filmed separately from the game and then later integrated into the game are called "pre-rendered cinematics," "FMV" (full-motion video), "cut scenes," or "CG (computer graphics) cinematics." Cinematics created with the game engine are called "in-game cinematics," "in-engine cinematics," "in-game-engine cinematics," or "real-time cinematics"
EMOTIONEERING TECHNIQUES CATEGORY #32:
THE OPENING CINEMATIC
For games which utilize an opening pre-rendered cinematic or game-engine cinematic, this chapter shows ways of using that cinematic to suck the player into the game.
BONUS CHAPTER (Chapter 5.3 in the book)
TECHNIQUES FOR CREATING FUN
Trying to understand all the different ways a game can be fun, and then using these elements to create imaginative new games.
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