The Best Games of 2010

Guardian lists their top 20:

Red Dead Redemption is number one, Mass Effect 2 is number two, and Heavy Rain is number three in their list. It seems that these games has win critics; they have been praised elsewhere also. Their also mention Alan Wake (17) and Angry Birds (12).

Fear and Disgust

I have proposed, following Power and Dalgleish (1997), that emotional reactions to monsters in horror games are disgust-based, not purely fear-based in Goals, Affects, and Empathy in Computer Games (Lankoski, 2007) and in Hear-Raising Entertainment (Ekman, Lankoski, 2009).

Power and Dalgleish (1997) argue that emotional reactions to snakes and spiders relate to disgust, not to fear. However, in the study by Mobbs et al (2010) people responded with fear to  a tarantula.  The study shows that amygdala grow more active when the spider approach and less active when it retreats. Amygdala activation is associated with fear reactions. For example, in a study by Anderson et al (2003) show evidence that anterior insula responds to the facial expression of disgust  and amygdala to the facial expressions of fear.

In addition to amygdala, Mobbs et al (2010) report also activation in the midbrain,  PAG, ventral striatum, BNST, bilateral anterior insula, and dorsar anterrior cingulate cortex when the tarantula was placed near to the subject’s foot. Anterior insulate correlate to disgust reactions. So, is there disgust reaction to the tarantula or only fear reaction?

It would be interesting to see a comparison between the brain activations of an enemy (e.g., human in the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion) and a monster (e.g., an insect-hybrid in Silent Hill 3).

References

  • Anderson et al (2003).Neural Correlates of the Automatic Processing of Threat Facial Signals. The Journal of Neuroscience 23(12).
  • Ekman, Lankoski (2009). Hair -Raising Entertainment. In Berron (ed.) Horror Video Games. McFarland, pp. 181–1999.
  • Lankoski (2007). Goals, affects, and empathy in computer games. Paper presented at the Philosophy of Computer Games, Reggio-Emilia, Italy.
  • Mobbs et al (2010). Neural activity associated with monitoring tbe oscilating threat value of a tarantula. PNAS Early Edition. DOI=10.1073/pnas.1009076107

Leisure Suite Larry Backrground

Al Lowe shares some design documents on his site http://www.allowe.com/gamedesign/index.htm, including Leisure Suite Larry 5–7.

Some concept art for the game are available on the page http://www.allowe.com/Larry/7characters.htm and then some information what connects Larry and Softporn Adventure on the page http://www.allowe.com/Larry/softporn.htm. An interview of Al Lowe on Hard Core Gaming reveals some details behind his games.