Virtual worlds are an integral part of Anshar Studios’ cyberpunk detective RPG Gamedec. And as such, we get this lore-rich article where the setting’s creator Marcin Przybyłek explains how those worlds go about emulating reality and what it’s like for a player to interact with them.
Welcome to the third episode of our gamedecverse-related articles. This time, we’re looking closer to the aspect of emulating senses and pain in the virtualia. How does the system deal with such a complex physical factor? Is it possible to inflict real-life pain while gaming? Is it legal? Listen what Marcin Przybyłek has to say about this fascinating topic.
There is a problem when you create a vision of virtualia, which are supposed to be so real, the player cannot see or feel the difference between them and reality (reality is known in Gamedecverse as “realium”). When I was writing about the games of the future, I asked myself several questions. I will not write down all of them, just a few, the most important as far as this text is concerned:
- Would I like, as a gamer, to feel the pain in the games of the future?
- How would I like to feel the death of my avatar?
- Will there be future games that would allow the pain?
- If so, to what extend? Will they allow the pain to be as strong as the real one – for example, in a fantasy game, would I like to feel the torture of an axe cutting off my hand or a sword piercing through my stomach?
- Will some games specifically concentrate on pain?
- Would it be dangerous for the players to deal with strong digital pain?
- Would I like to feel the actual weight of the stuff my avatar would carry?
- Would I like to feel the tiredness of the digital body/muscles?
- Would I like my body to get dirty and smelly?
- Would I like my body to feel the hunger and urge to open the bowels / urinate?
As you can see, even though I said, there are not all the questions I asked myself when thinking of the games of the future, there are quite a few. My answer was (to all these questions): “It depends on the game.” I decided that most gamers playing “typical” games wouldn’t like to tire too much, nor feel the pain, nor feel the real weight of the guns and stuff, nor feel the physiological needs. The last ones would require additional sophisticated programming because the body of a person in virtualia in Gamedecverse doesn’t urinate, open bowels or eat. So there would have to be an outstanding program differentiating certain reflexes of the real body.
In Gamedecverse, if you play a simple shooting clan MMO game, for instance, Crying Guns, you don’t feel pain nor weight nor tiredness, nor hunger. You are there for the fun of shooting and fighting, not for a sim-like adventure. On the other hand, if you enter the Brahma world, everything is like realium. I mean, everything. Brahma was created to emulate realium, and its target is people forced to live in the net (zoenets), who don’t want to play games but live everyday lives. It is also for children zoenets, whose parents wish to their younglings to see how they grow, how their bodies change, and so on. So “normal games” like Crying Guns and Brahma are the opposite sides of a specific continuum. Is there something in between? Yes!
Take a quick look at some of the worlds we’re talking about in this article [click to enlarge]. These concepts come from the Gamedec: Boarding Game, released in 2013[…]
Some games allow pain if you let it. Like Twisted & Perverted. Generally, you don’t feel any discomfort in this game, even during a fight. When you die, it is a slightly nauseous sensation, but that’s it. You don’t feel even a pinprick when someone stabs you or shoots at you. But if you agree with another player for a PvP mode, you will feel the pain. Not some excruciating torture, but big enough to… cherish it.
There is also a Goodabads game. It is an esports arena where devils fight angels flying in the skies. When a gamer gets a hit, he/she feels the pain. And it stays. When he/she gets hit again, the pain is added to the previous one. As above the head of a player, the audience can see that a Hammerfield ribbon unfolds, showing how much he/she suffers (it’s a made up scale, don’t look for it in the net). The top of the scale is 20, and, according to my books, there is only one player who can withstand this torture for several seconds. Goodabads is a trendy game because the audience knows that the pro-players are real heroes who learn to control neuro-induced pain and are good at it.
Now, there is a problem with the pain. On the one hand, it is just a neurological sensation informing you that there is something wrong with your body. So if only your brain can feel it, and your body is perfectly healthy, as it is the situation with the games of the future, nothing bad should happen. Well, theoretically, yes, but practically – not so very much.
When the brain feels the pain while playing a game, it doesn’t understand that there is nothing wrong with the body. It starts the cascade of stress, and certain hormones are being released, the blood pressure rises, as does the pulse. “But that’s also the case when a player is just excited,” someone could say. Well, almost. The hormones of “bad” stress are slightly different from the ones of the “good” one. To sum things up, when you decide to play a game with the pain, you have to accept the possible health problem consequences so that the producers wouldn’t have legal problems should something terrible happen to you. In other words, It will be all on you, and you’ve pressed “OK” – didn’t you?
There are some illegal games, and they cross all the boundaries. The most (in)famous one is the Happy Hunting Grounds. It is a game of a hunt. Players who enter it dwell in the misty swamps and look for fantastic beasts, which… look for them too. In this game, all the sensory gates are open. If an animal puts a claw into your belly, you will feel it; if a predator opens your veins and tears your muscles, you will feel the blood loss and the pain of macerated tissues. You will feel it all, inside and outside. It is not like in the Brahma world.
When facing a serious accident that can mutilate your body, the program will protect you from such feelings. Nobody wants you to suffer the pain of dying. Happy Hunting Grounds doesn’t protect you from the pain. What happens when you play this game and get injured in your stomach so much, your intestines go out, and you bleed to death? First, you feel the actual pain of such an event. Then your brain gets the message that you are bleeding out. What is a physiological reaction to such a thing? The organism tries to maintain blood pressure by contracting blood vessels. You see the problem here? The actual blood pressure is OK; he/she is not bleeding.
The brain gets contradictory messages so that it can react in two ways. One: go with the first protocol and contract arteries and veins, causing a rapid increase in blood pressure. Two: respond paradoxically, tuning to the game image of bleeding – widening the blood vessels in the stomach, causing most blood to go there (it is called an anaphylactic shock). The first scenario is dangerous – it could lead to a heart attack or brain stroke. The second one is even more dangerous. The lack of blood in the heart, brain, kidneys, and other essential organs may lead to death, as is the case in anaphylactic shock.
Happy Hunting Grounds is dangerous – playing the game and being injured can lead to real death. Of course, when injured, you can log out of it using a standard log out gesture with your hand. But what if your hands get ripped off? HHG doesn’t forgive. Playing that game is forbidden, and if you get caught, you will face legal problems. So be warned.
And so, more or less, we have covered the topic of feeling and pain in games. As you can see, it is a continuum – from games where you don’t suffer or face discomforts to games that are so real that they can be fatal.
Which one will you choose? It’s your decision, my friend. You are the sum of your choices.
