Physical Enactment
Enactment of physical actions in games by players doing the actions themselves.
Some games make players enact the actions they want to happen in these games. Physical Enactment is a sub category of this type of action that occurs when players need to do larger, more physically demanding, or dexterity-requiring actions.
Contents
Examples
There are two main groups of games using Physical Enactment: Live Action Roleplaying Games and Computer Games that use sensors to track players' actions. The former, with 1942 – Noen å stole på and Mind's Eye Theatre as two examples, require players to together act out what their characters are doing and respond to each other actions. Examples of the latter are Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and SingStar series.
Using the pattern
Unless creating Robotic Players, designing for Physical Enactment in games consist mainly of identifying which actions should be enacted in this way and how the game state should be able to be updated by these actions. One potential reason to limit certain actions is to avoid or require Player Physical Prowess, another is the appropriateness of players actually doing these actions. Dexterity-Based Actions and Physical Navigation are to examples of action categories that can be used as the basis for Physical Enactment. Combining Mediated Gameplay with Physical Enactment as for example Kinect-based games and the Rock Band series do requires the use of some kind of sensors, and give rise to Mimetic Interfaces. While perhaps most appropriate for games with Player Physical Prowess, Reserves can be used for any type of Physical Enactment in games with Teams to let players or Coaches decide which players should try to perform what actions.
Physical Enactment can be augmented in various ways since these games many times want to be able to convey information between players while they are enacting actions. Examples include using Meta-Postures and Prompting Techniques.
One reason for using Physical Enactment is to make Roleplaying into Live Action Roleplaying. While weakening Enactment, Substitute Actions can make otherwise unsuitable categories of actions (e.g. violence or sex) possible to be present in games.
The presence of Physical Enactment as part of gameplay promotes the recording of the players' performances, i.e. the creation of Replays.
Diegetic Aspects
All players need to engage in Physical Enactment for Live Action Roleplaying to have Diegetic Consistency. This means that Physical Enactment can instantiate that pattern but it is a fragile solution since it requires the cooperation and successful performance of all players.
Interface Aspects
Enactment is an Interface Pattern.
Consequences
Rather obviously, Physical Enactment is a form of Enactment and can like it cause Performance Uncertainty.
Relations
Can Instantiate
Diegetic Consistency, Enactment
with Roleplaying
with Mediated Gameplay
Can Modulate
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Can Be Instantiated By
Dexterity-Based Actions, Performance Uncertainty, Physical Navigation, Robotic Players
Can Be Modulated By
Player Physical Prowess, Meta-Postures, Prompting Techniques, Replays, Substitute Actions
Possible Closure Effects
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Potentially Conflicting With
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History
New pattern created in this wiki.
References
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Acknowledgements
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