Half Life 2: My FPS flow experience.
Half life 2 is more an agnostic game, based in the categories of world’s games Roger Caillois developed and Czicksentmehiya cited (page 72) in his article “The conditions of flow”. This kind of games are based in the competition, in this case, the principle of seeking together to increase the personal potential and skills, is more based in the relationship human-computer. The player predetermines the level of competition with the computer by selecting one level of difficulty of another, in my case low was difficult enough for my first experience.
I felt Half Life has good sense of flow if I follow the general definition that the article describes (page 74), about how a flow activity is an experience that provides “a sense of discovery, a creative feeling transporting the person into a new reality”.
First of all, I had to familiarize with the commands, keyboards and mouse, and how to move through the space as well how to manage my weapons. That did not take too long because the commands are based in the standard for the Pc videogames.
After I killed some villains, I learned how to surrender and save my life running when my weapons were lower than the ones my adversary was carrying. I got stuck after several minutes of playing because I did not know how to manage my resources and the weapon technology to adapt to the environment. I was in front of a ramp with a circular stone in the middle, which worked as an axis to balance the ramp and jumping over the new platform. I had some bricks around but I did not know better than shot them or hitting them. When my violent behavior could not overcome the new situation the frustration came in proportion to my insistence to keep shooting and hitting, even the keywords, looking for a key solution. I realized at that moment I am not the “Hard Fun” kind of player, I am not into this category Lazzaro points out in his article Why we play games (pages 3 and 7).
However, until that point, I was very satisfied with the sense of discovery I had during the first moments. I could see immediate results of my interactions. I was advancing through killing, running and following the new path that appeared. After asking for help to the another player, who was playing Katamari Damaci, I discovered that keeping the keyword E I could take objects and putting them where I wanted. Then I put some of the bricks at one side of the ramp in order to being able of jumping to the new platform through the highest part of the ramp. My friend, I felt him as a better friend after he helped me to overcome my difficulty, went to keep playing Katamari.
After a while, he asked me how he could avoid one level. I tried to explain him, by intuition, how he could do it. It did not worked, I felt bad because he rescued me and I could not, since that moment I committed myself to play more Katamari in order to know better suggestions. I though, at that moment, I felt some empathy for his fun, at least feeling frustration because I was not very useful. I believe he felt some satisfaction when he helped me. I think we experimented in parallel moments, each one in his own game but in the same fun environment, the principle of Coliberation, which Dekoven explained in his article (page 2), “we now need to rediscover how we can heal a relationship by setting each other free, how mutually healing things like love and teamwork can become”. After my failed suggestion, I got an inspiration and I explained him the main purpose of the game of collecting objects to create starts, and how doing that he could achieve new levels. Coliberation and the empathic relationships had its fruits because we were focused for 30 minutes having fun, each one playing his own game, as DeKoven describes in “The Fun Community” (pages 2&3).
Although I felt moments of flow I did not feel any empathy for my avatar, just when he died or when he was attacked by unexpected monsters. Sometimes I felt that the surviving mode that motivates this game is not at all a “non self conscious individualism”, Czicksentmehiya (page 92): an aspect really necessary to feel the internal flow that an educated, innate or familiar “Autotelic Personality” could achieve.
Recapitulating, it has good flow in the sense of discovery and in the sense of having immediate results when shooting. There was a lack of flow in terms of feeling a meaningful goal/s useful, not only for surviving with violence, but for “being indifferent to myself” neither “to center my attention increasingly upon external objects: the state of the world, various branches of knowledge, individuals for whom I felt affection”, in terms of Russell, “The conditions of Flow” (page 93).
In conclusion, I think all those aspects are common denominators in the FPS: clear of purpose and fast feedback of the player interactions with a strong sense of surprise and discovery. On the other hand, there is a lack in the variety of goals from different nature and motivations. In fact, when something a little new appeared I felt stuck just because I was so familiar with the “non stop” rhythm in the FPS flow. There is a sensation of “Altered State”, Lazzaro (pages 4 & 7), and as consequence a strong sensorial immersion, because all the multimedia expressions are directed to that only one goal of surviving. However, there are no simultaneous levels of focus, based on the different senses, like the OnLive Traveler does with the voice and the 3D emotional representations, as Dipaola, S. describes in “A social metaphor-based 3D Virtual Environment” (page 2). The clear goal of surviving is repeated in almost each interaction, with basic secondary actions: running, shooting, hitting, breaking and that makes the experience a kind of lineal, enjoyable but no very complex. It is really good for burning toxins.