The Emotion – Appreciated

In the emotion wheel, appreciated is in the powerful quadrant. In definition, appreciated means to be grateful or thankful for, or to value or regard highly. However, in the emotion wheel, we can also find thankful appears in the peaceful quadrant. How to separate feeling thankful and feeling appreciated became our first topic during our ideation process.

After referencing different books and documents, we gradually figure out differences between thankful and appreciated. Thankful is about feeling or expressing gratitude, which means if somebody else does something good to the person or for the person, then the person will feel thankful to that somebody else. On the other hand, somebody else will feel appreciated when the person addresses his thankfulness to him/her. In this example, because somebody else’s good intention is recognized by the person, or maybe other people, when he experience appreciation from these people, that somebody else will feel appreciated. As the above example, the feeling of thankful and appreciated always appears at the same time but on different people. So distinguish them in your mind before handling with them are pretty important.

Based on the definition and differences of appreciated and thankful, we decide to add another rule to restrict ourselves to achieve the emotion, which is “thank you” words should not be the only source to evoke appreciated. It will help us try to evoke appreciated not simply from the narrative, but from mechanics as well.

Games

Mac’s game, Aim, is a game about being a sniper and killing the terrorists that kidnapped the hostages. The player needs to shoot down the terrorists accurately, otherwise the player will be spotted and killed by the terrorists. This game is trying to evoke appreciated after hostages being saved and have a photo together to address their appreciation. The hypothesis in Aim is that when efforts players did are beneficial to others (chracters in game), players will be appreciated

Melody’s game, The OCD Game, asks the player to keep the pattern in order. In the game, while the player is trying to keep patterns in order, there will also be random pedestrians that may just walk over and ruin the player’s efforts. However, besides of people that ruin the player’s work, there are also some pedestrians will help the player out. The game proposes that players will feel appreciated by the helpful pedestrians after experiencing ingratitude from the rude ones.

Joseph’s game, Beef Udon Shop, is about being a host in a beef udon shop. The player needs to make beef udon and sell it to customers to earn money. In the meantime, the player has a secret note that record each customer’s preferences to the food. While the shop is getting busier, will the player still try to make the noodle according to customer’s taste? This game tries to use extra tips in game, and positive reviews by mentioning player’s effort in the end to evoke player’s feeling of appreciation twice.

In Rahul’s game, Le Thief, the player has to steal money for buying his/her girlfriend a ring.The idea was that players ,if so inclined,would help the beggar on the street and would receive help in return. As a Robin Hood like story, the player will meet different villagers, and he/she can decide whether he/she wants to give them some money during gameplay. The villagers might help the player out if player gives them some money, will the player feel appreciated after seeing their help?

Demeter, is a board game made by Larry. In this game, the player acts as the god controlling rain, fire and blessing to the villages. The player will earn respect from the villagers if he/she gives them blessings, and lose their faith to the player if doing otherwise. As the game goes, and the shrine in villages go up and down, the player may also spot them do something to appreciate the player. The game wants to experiment if the players would feel appreciated with both the gift bonus power given by the villagers and the credit they received as final score at the end.

After playtesting with lots of playtesters, here are some lessons we learned:

Lesson One: Exceed expectations are needed for appreciated. If the reward or feedback in games is not surprising enough, the player won’t feel any emotion because the player will take it for granted, not even to say thankful or appreciated. While the player giving out things in the game, it’s very common for the player to expect something back in reward. Even in the real world, most people more or less expect something back after we help other people, could be as simple as a “thank you” in words. Therefore, to achieve appreciated, the rewarding have to surprise the player by exceeding their expectations.

In The OCD game, the player will have a hard time after entering later levels because there are more blocks to adjust, and more pedestrians passing by. However, the player will realize later that some pedestrians actually touched by the player’s effort and start helping the player out. Though not every player realized how the game system decide when a helper will appear in the game, most players report appreciated or some related emotions when they recognize there are helpers.

In Beef Udon Shop, some players notice that by following customer’s preferences toward ingredients, they will earn extra tips in game. Until this phase, the player doesn’t feel strong appreciation because this is within him/her expectations, which are some rewards for extra works. However, after a day is over, the player will then seeing all customer’s review on Yolp, and having medals for the player’s extra work or attention to these details. Most players address they feel appreciated in the end of the game, it’s because positive reviews after the game are something they don’t expect to happen.

Lesson Two: Feedback in games should be specific toward the works the player has done. If the feedback is too vague or not specific enough, the player usually won’t regard it as the reward from what the player has done. For example, a direct thank you dialog pop out is much stronger than receive a gift and a hint saying “You receive a gift”. And another good way is making the reward directly help you achieve your goal easier.

In Le Thief, if the player decides to give some money to beggars, the player will receive a much larger wallet to hold more money out from the room, or be able to access other entrance to let the player collect money much easier. After helping out others, giving the player rewards that directly help the player to achieve the goal is a very strong way to evoke appreciated.

In Demeter, if the player helps a village to reach shrine lv. 3, the villagers will do memorial actions to thank the player, such as build a statue for the player which helps the player on gameplay. This is also an effective way to evoke appreciated.

Lesson Three: The efforts from the player should value to others. The player does things for him/herself will make the player feel proud or achieved after hearing thank you from other people. But if the player does things for other people in the meantime, the player will feel appreciated after receiving a thank you from others. For example, a bank manager won’t feel very appreciated while receiving extra interest or payback from money loaner. An action that make other people’s life better will have much higher chances to evoke appreciation. It’s critical that the player’s effort should be beneficial to other people in the game.

In Aim, the player kills the terrorists not for score, but for saving a family. Each time the player save a member out, the player will be able to see the member he/she saved appears in the photo. The effort the player aim and kill are helping other people to survive. Even the game forces the player to kill the terrorists and win the game, most players still feel appreciated at the end of the game seeing a photo of all the member the player saved.

In Beef Udon Shop, some players addressed that they feel appreciated about getting extra tips for following customer’s preferences. These players claimed that even though it’s a small amount of money, they feel they make customers happier because of their extra efforts. This also helps build up appreciated in the game.

Lesson Four: The goal of the game has to be separated from the mechanics which aims to evoke appreciated. Appreciated is hard to evoke if the reward thing is part of game’s goals. It means that if the player claimed something which is directly related to winning the game, then the player won’t feel appreciated because of them. For example, if the player needs to collect 3 badges to win, and by helping others he will earn 1 badge. When the player receives the badge from others, it’s unlikely player will feel appreciated because the player won’t regard it as a symbol of appreciation.

This observation appears in all of the games we made this week. In Aim, how many you killed is not the point of winning, but how many hostages the player saved. In The OCD Game, helpful pedestrians help the player not through doing the work with the player, but blocking out other pedestrians. In Beef Udon Shop, appreciation comes in the end as reviews, which has no strong relationship towards the goal, earn money, of the game. In Le Thief, the player feels appreciated when they give out some money, and later easier to gather more. In Demeter, villager’s initiative action to build a status in the memory of player is the source of appreciated, but it has no direct relationship with how many points earned in the game.

Lesson Five: Thank you is the most direct way to show appreciation in game. Compared to rewarding gifts, thank you is actually the most direct way for everybody to show appreciation in the game. After trying out a different method for showing appreciation, we figured that game design and mechanics can evoke appreciated, but with a “Thank you” append to them, the emotion of appreciation is much stronger than without it.

Final thoughts

Appreciation seems can be evoked in multiple ways. However, a lot of traps may lead you away from it. Be aware of thankfulness and the goal of your game. Specifically, it has to exceed player’s expectation for the game, the reward or feedback should be direct and very helpful for the player to win the game, but not win directly because of the rewards. Showing appreciation through only thank you dialog won’t achieve appreciated, but with other mechanics, the dialog can enhance the strength of this emotion very much.