Talk:Indirect Manipulation

From Gameontology

I've added a new proposed child for "Indirect Manipulation" called "Synchronized Button Press". It seems that there is a certain type of indirect manipulation in which there is no real manipulation of an entity in the game world. I'm thinking of what happens in games like DDR where all you have to do is coordinate button presses to some (usually visual) cue. In these cases you aren't really manipulating anything (even though certain visuals may change based on your success rate) In this sense there is an indirect manipulation. Jp 11:07, 19 April 2006 (EDT)

I'm a bit concerned about the distinction between direct and indirect. In both the case of direct and indirect manipulation, you're choosing one action from a set of available actions. In the case of a menu-based system, the set of available actions is explicitly depicted (ie. choose from the explicit set A, B, C). So if the distinction is whether the action set is implicit or explict, then typing (e.g. a natural language interface) is in fact direct manipulation - the set of available actions is implicit rather than explicit (versus, say, dialog menus). Another possible distinction is whether the action selection is made within world or out-of-world. For example, if you buy an object from a merchant by walking up to the object in a store, the action (and possible action choices) are depicted in-world. If you buy an object by selecting from a menu, then the action selection is out-of-world. For direct vs. indirect, do we mean one or both of these distinctions?

michael

I think you have a good point about some of the children of Indirect Manipulation. I think there are cases of games where a Point and Click Interface is used for Direct Manipulation. I'm also not sure that the direct/indirect distinction maps to the in-gameworld/out-of-gameworld. I can think of examples where there is indirect/in-game manipulation. (giving units orders in an RTS game using a pointing and clicking with the mouse. You basically, click on a unit, click somewhere else and you've ordered the unit to go to that location. (as opposed to manipulating it directly). Examples for direct/in-world seem trivial.

Do you think we should add these (in-game/out of game) as new proposed entries? (children of Manipulation Method)

I've added a note to the point and click discussion page where we can talk about what we should do with that particular entry. --Jp 21:36, 26 April 2006 (EDT)