Emotionally Conscious Video Games
Erica Liszewski
Abstract
Video games have previously been used for recreation, but are becoming popular as a devise for learning, health and other “useful” activities. This paper proposes the idea of using video games to help a person recognize and handle emotions. The term created for these emotion awareness games is “emotionally conscious games”, which descends from “socially conscious games”. Emotional well-being is often derided in today’s fastpaced, business oriented society, but emotional awareness can actually help a person make better decisions. Specific hardware devices, such as an EEG or the Emotiv EPOC headset will be needed to read brainwaves and/or emotions from the player. This data can than be processed in some meaningful way, providing some kind of useful in-game feedback. Since the “big picture” of emotionally conscious games may be too extensive for a master’s thesis, some smaller milestones are presented as more appropriate goals.
Emotionally conscious games will draw from many areas, including psychology, signal processing, and game development.
Introduction
Emotionally conscious games are games that increase awareness or highlight the player’s emotions during gameplay. The term “emotionally conscious games” is modified from “socially conscious games” which are games that highlight or raise awareness of social issues. Emotionally conscious games are somewhat similar in goals to socially conscious games, but may share more with “games for health”. Games for health are games that are designed to improve the health (physical, mental, etc.) of the player. Emotionally conscious games will be designed help the player recognize, and deal with emotions.
Today’s business-driven society has been taught that emotions are bad. How many times have people heard the phrases “don’t let your emotions get in the way”,
“you’re just too emotional”, or others that are similar? This type of thinking has led to people blocking or fighting their emotions to the point were people no longer know what they are feeling. In reality, emotions provide information and insight important to making decisions in life. Emotions can provide feedback that can warn of a dangerous situation, or as a measure of how much work a person can handle. Emotions are also important in guiding people towards goals that lead to feeling fulfilled. Emotions should be regarded as neither good nor bad, but as information useful in making decisions.
One side-effect of suppressing emotion is emotional incongruence. Emotional incongruence is where a person feels an emotion they consider “negative” (fear, sadness, etc.), so they act out another emotion (confidence, happiness, etc.). Animals, as well as some people, are particularly sensitive to emotional incongruence, which can cause the

animals or sensitive people to “act out” the suppressed emotion. This is the cause of many “behavioral” problems in animals and some people. A person who can deal with their own emotions without suppressing them is a person who is more likely to succeed in dealings with animals and sensitive humans.
Conceptual Foundation
Emotionally conscious games will likely draw from several areas, including: psychology, game development, storytelling, signal processing, algorithms, computer hardware, and human-computer interaction.
Psychology will be important for dealing with the “emotion” part of emotionally conscious games. It will be important to have a reasonable grasp on how emotions affect the body (as this is something that could potentially be used as input into the game), as well as how the game will (likely) effect a person’s emotions. This is probably the area where I am the weakest, and will therefore require the most study before getting the project underway. Since emotions are integral to emotionally conscious games it is critical that I understand them.
Game development will also play a crucial role in creating an emotionally conscious game. The ability to create a unique, yet playable and fun game will be important in developing something that is actually useful as opposed to purely theoretical. I have some experience in game development, and I will need to remember to keep the “game” in mind at all times.
Digital storytelling may prove useful in learning and modifying the emotions of the player through the game. Stories have often been used to evoke emotional responses, and may prove useful in triggering emotions in players. I have little experience with digital storytelling, but several faculty members may be able to provide useful feedback.
Signal processing and algorithm development will be needed to interpret input data from a hardware device into some sort of useful manner. It is unclear whether I’ll be able to get a hold of a neural headset (specifically the Emotiv EPOC), or be using an EEG to read brainwaves. Either way, the raw numerical data will need to be processing into a form usable to a game. I have some past experience with signal processing, but mostly related to image processing. The basic concepts are similar, however, but image processing is somewhat easier to visualize. I have taken many classes in algorithm development, but this task may require an entirely new algorithm.
Human-computer interaction studies will be helpful in creating an interface that is learnable and usable to the player. As far as I know, there have been no previous attempts to use emotions or neural data as inputs or controls in a gaming environment. It will be important that players are able to interact with the game in a comfortable and reasonably intuitive way. While I have some experience in interface design, I’ve never

worked with an interface this untried. Studying other ways types of human-computer interaction may shed some light on how approach a new type.
Project Goals
The overall goal of emotionally conscious games would be to provide a tool, which would provide players a way of identifying and processing emotions. This goal is probably too large for a masters’ thesis, so I’ve created smaller milestone goals that may lead to achieving this larger goal.
More narrowly, is it possible, using available technology, to create a game that responds consistently to emotion? I would be particularly interested in detecting and responding to emotional incongruence, which is where a person feels one emotion (fear, frustration, etc.) but tries to display another (happiness, calmness, etc.). This goal would depend on having a hardware devise that can accurately read emotions, and differentiate between “true” emotions and “false” emotions. The Emotiv EPOC may be able to accomplish some or all of this, or it may not.
More broadly, and perhaps more manageable in a masters’ thesis, is it possible to use brainwaves as input to a game in a way that provides consistent, learnable patterns in the game environment. It’s unclear to me at this time how accurate EEG’s are in their ability to read and process brainwaves. Is it even possible to use brainwave data in a way that allows the user to feel “in control” of the game? Can a player learn to focus in some way that makes brainwaves useable as a game controller? If not, can brainwave data be used to influence the game in other ways, that aren’t directly related to control?
Outline of Workflow
Determine what can be measured/detected with hardware (either the EEG or the EPOC)
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Create an interface that visualizes data from hardware in a meaningful way
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Create an algorithm to process data from hardware
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If applicable, design a game that used processed data in some fashion
Timeline
October:
Contact Psychology department about partnership/information
Begin experimenting with EEG
November:

Continue experimenting with EEG
Develop interface for visualizing EEG data
December:
Read a lot
January:
Continue experimenting with EEG or EPOC if available
Begin designing a game/algorithm
Feb-April:
Work on, test, and refine game and algorithm
May:
Write like mad
Starting Bibliography
Campbell, J. (2008). Hero with a Thousand Faces. Novato, CA: New World Library.
Goleman, D. (1995) Emotional Intelligence. New York, NY: Bantam.
Juul, J. (2005). Half-real. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Kohanov, L. (2001) Tao of Equus. Novato, CA: New World Library.
McKee, R. (1997). Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of
Screenwriting. New York, NY: Harper Entertainment
McLaren, K. (2001). Emotional Genius: Discovering the Deepest Language of the Soul.
Columbia, CA: Laughing Tree Press.
Moggridge, B. (2006) Designing Interactions. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Salen, K., & Zimmerman, E. (2004). Rules of Play. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Web Sites:
Gamasutra http://gamasutra.com
Design and Emotion Society http://www.designandemotion.org/
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org