Embodied Experiences in Games
By adopting an identity and an avatar within a virtual context, players engage in embodied experiences. In other words, a player can run a simulation in his or her head as to what the situation depicted in the game would look like in the real world.
Given the eminently active learning nature of game spaces, these simulations represent the recall of experiential information. As such, memories not only of conceptual but sensory and emotional information allow the player to predict what will happen next in the game.
Storyline and Player Decisions
Even though a game does not need an explicit storyline to be "good," the player’s interactions with the game system gradually accumulate into a historical account of his or her decisions. These decisions accumulate into a personal story as well as a story of his or her avatar, all of which contribute to Gee’s three identities (real world, virtual, and projective).
Story building centers around the decisions that the player makes at every turn in the game. Every time a decision is made, certain paths in the game are closed while others open creating repercussions for the player’s virtual identity which may constrain future decisions.
In the X-box game Fable, the player enacts the role of a character in a fantasy world. From the outset of the game, the decisions that are present affect what the rest of the game world and story look like to the player. Every interaction with other characters gives the player the opportunity to fight, talk or escape and the results of these decisions transform the player’s character. For example, if the character received a scar during a battle, it will remain with him or her during the rest of the game.
It is in the process of eliminating choices and opening new paths that learning takes place. Because games in many cases allow a player to replay scenarios previously untried, comparisons between results can be made, thus expanding the player’s notions of the system pattern that is at play.
Probe, Hypothesize, Reprobe, Rethink Cycle
The ability totry out scenarios multiple times and to undo previous decisions made isa true process of scientific observation. Before a player makes a decision, he or she must make a prediction as to its consequences, just like a scientist would do with a hypothesis leading to an experiment.
The consequences of such a decision manifest in the form of repercussions for the player (see the previous Fable example). However, if the repercussions are not what the player expected or wanted, he or she is always given multiple opportunities to re-attempt the challenge and use a different approach.
Between these try and retry events, however, the player must engage in a process of deep reflection on the feedback given from previous experiences. As a consequence, an experiential learning process takes place since the player must use this knowledge to design future strategies.