compulsion loops, ui, sound

[chronovore]

Reuters | Industries | Consumer Goods & Retail | China dumpling poisoning may be deliberate:

The mystery of the poison dumplings is a delicate matter for sensitive Sino-Japanese ties and a domestic headache for Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, given criticism from media and opposition lawmakers that it took too long to alert the public.

(...) Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao called on Japan and the Japanese media to look at the issue "calmly, scientifically and responsibly", and not jump to conclusions.

I love the concept of China urging Japan to have calm and responsible reactions. The irony, it's rich pungent, and hard to control, like runny cheese on a concave cracker.

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Suspension of disbelief as strong as weakest link, says Entis // GamesIndustry.biz:

"Gameplay über alles," Entis remarked.

I like that quote, but it's not the point of the article that I wanted to focus on... which is: immersion is not necessarily most strongly served by graphics. Sound is apparently critically important (I've heard it catchily but counterintuitively phrased "Audio is 50% of the visuals"), and user interface is also sometimes wildly under-appreciated (which has been described by yet another source as "user interface equals game").

As a guy who gets tickled when my footstep sound changes in-game when I walk from concrete to gravel to grass to wood floor, I have to say that sound is important. But even as a game artist, I preferred world-building to any other production task... After finding nearly all the holes in Assassins Creed's control scheme, usually at the worst time possible, I agree that user-interface is huge in maintaining immersion.

Side note: It's weird that a google search for "compulsion loop" returns my backwater-licious del.icio.us page entry "WTF is a 'complusion loop'?" as a first-page result. Even weirder is the even-higher ranked search result for some asshat at MTV's Virtual Pimp My Ride claiming he coined the phrase in an interview last year. For my own purposes, this works:

Core Compulsions and the Compulsion Loop
At the center of a game design are its core compulsions, “things to do” that, in turn, inform the
core game mechanics. Fulfilling these compulsions should yield incremental rewards, in the
form of story advancement, new game elements, etc. These rewards should drive the player to
continue playing, and unlock further rewards, etc. This cycle is commonly referred to as a
“compulsion loop”. (.PDF)