Video games as an art form are defined by their interactivity. Allowing players to input commands that will affect a game world or story is the foundational principle of all video games. A lot is gained through this interactivity, such as increased emersion and engagement in a particular story, as well as a feeling of ownership over a character or game world that players have direct influence over.
However, someaspects of more traditional video mediums like film are lost when making a video game, such as direct control over the pacing of a story. Video games also require a “game” element to challenge players and keep them engaged, which takes away the more casual viewing experience that less interactive video mediums possess.
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A new patent filed by the major gaming publisherActivisionhopes to bridge this gap between the interactivity and engagement that is possible with video games and the more casual viewing experience that is afforded by other video-based mediums. The patent discusses how many players are now choosing to play games while simultaneously enjoying other entertainment mediums, such as online streams or television shows.The idea for both gaming and TV on the same screen isn’t a new one, but this new patent looks to automatically analyze the video currently being watched in order to generate a suitable game to play alongside it.
TheActivisionpatent also hints that data from the video currently being viewed could be used to dynamically alter the content of the video game. It is unclear, however, whether this means that the game will simply be dynamically paused or moved around the screen in time with the other video content in order to keep the player from missing something important, or whether the content of the game could be directly influenced by the content of the current video.
It is a delicate balancing act when trying to split a viewer’s attention between two similar mediums, as viewers can quickly become unable to focus on either in any meaningful way. Activision did, however, publish theGuitar Herogames, which successfully balanced the player’s attention between the audio of the licensed music and the video inputs for the game itself. The ability to focus equally on both meant thatGuitar Heroplayers often entered a satisfying flow statewhile playing the game, and so perhaps Activision’s patent is hoping replicate this gameplay style only with two overlapping video mediums rather than one audio and one video.
Guitar Hero’s success was due to the game and music being perfectly in sync with each other, however. Thegames created for Activision’s latest patentwould likely need to be slow-paced and easy to play without paying too much attention, as splitting a viewer’s attention too much could easily lead to frustration with both mediums.
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