The way that improvisation is used to promote self-expression is done differently depending if the game is single player or multiplayer.
Multiplayer games will tend to make people earn resources to express themselves with because having people around to show off to increases the desire to show off. These things would be special looking armour, armour with high stats or titles. Other games will also make players purchase cosmetic armour which players may use to express themselves with they customize their avatar.
Balanced RTS games also allow players to express themselves in a lesser way, because the players may choose certain races because they like it or choose to build certain units or follow certain strategies. People who play RTS games often will have some particular play style that they will use more often which will reflect the types of people they are or the type of victory they enjoy or the types of games they have previously enjoyed. For example in warcraftIII players who play many RPGs will probrably choose to level their heroes and use them as their main attack, some players will choose to defend themselves first with towers, others will build losts of small units hoping to overpower opponents with numbers. These things all reflect something about the person playing. Often these choices are chosen on the fly – Improvised. In an MMORPG, the way the players avatar looks will depend on what the player currently has on hand the titles, weapons and armour are based on what the player can achieve in that point in time and so the player makes a quick decision. In RTS games the player needs to react quickly to what the opponent is doing and often the player will have a number of options and will choose on the fly how to counter the opponent – the player improvises the counter strategy. Similarly for FPS games the gun you choose to use depends on what others are using, or what the player happens to pick up. The player may choose if they want a particular gun, etc
Single player games are different in that when the player expresses him/herself in a game, the only other person who really sees the result is the player. In choose your own adventure dating simulation type games the player may choose which path to take or which girl to woo. In RPG games like Baldurs Gate or Fallout 3, the player is given the option to customise the avatar and choose skills based on how the player wants to play the game. Choices such as skills directly affects how the player plays the game and so the dynamics and aesthetics experienced by the player will differ depending on these choices. Eg if the player chooses to be a Tanky character or a Quick character who would probrably die quickly if he ever got hit. Improvisation plays less of a role, because often single player games give players an option to save frequently, so if a particular path does not favour the player they will probrably load and try again. As such most games do not implement as many improvised choices, because they know the players won’t really improvise. Ways to actually make it work would be to ensure the optimal outcome has an really low chance of happening, such as shiny pokemon in the game pokemon. Some people will still be anal and do the save-load, but most sane people won’t. Another option would be to prevent the player from saving before a crucial decision, for example after a particularly hard boss fight. Another way would be to make the player choose something, even if they are trivial choices, very often, then sane players would not bother saving after each choice. Most people are sane… As such using methods of innovation, where players need to do things on-the-fly and will be forced to choose quickly allows the players to express themselves more honestly due to the lack of multiple attempts. Similar to the improv game, where the player can’t take back the actions they make.
RE: http://comp4431.wordpress.com/2009/09/29/journal-wk10-improv/
