Adam Jerrett, Peter Howell and Neil Dansey created a spectrum of emotions varying from pity to
\ncompassion in their article \u201cDeveloping an empathy spectrum for games\u201d (2020). Empathy is a
\nrather vague term that often includes many other emotions, so the idea of the spectrum is to clearly
\ndefine pity, sympathy, empathy and compassion from each other. The article examines how these
\ndifferent emotions come in to play in games. This empathy spectrum is supposed to help players get
\na more immersive experience and understand the game better, as well as offer designers and
\nresearchers an opportunity to study how games and empathy intertwine.<\/p>\n
Researchers used four different games as case studies, and placed each of those games somewhere
\non the spectrum. Each game placed differently, showing the variety of ways games can make a
\nplayer feel certain things or utilize different emotions.<\/p>\n
The game The beginners guide<\/em> acted as an example of pity and a little bit of sympathy. Player does feel bad for Last two games move to a specific domain of \u201cempathy games\u201d, meaning that empathy is either a Parallel empathy gets introduced by The Walking Dead Season 1<\/em>. The game itself moves from Lastly the article moves to That Dragon, Cancer<\/em>. This game is particularly moving, as it\u2019s about the Compassion was not reached, as it\u2019s seen as an outcome. In this context, the player should go from This article was done as a qualitative research based on analysis on how a player feels while playing Jerrett A, Howell P, Dansey N. Developing an Empathy Spectrum for Games. Games and Culture. Empathy spectrum defines several emotions often associated with empathy and explains how it can benefit both the player as well as game developers. Four different games are used to express stages of the spectrum. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":8726,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[237],"tags":[1331,1330,391,1106],"class_list":["post-8723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-research-highlights","tag-emotions","tag-empathy","tag-firewatch","tag-gaming","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nthe character, but is still very detached. Firewatch<\/em> takes it a step further, aiming to cognitive and
\nreactive empathy. Cognitive empathy comes into play when the player understands why our main
\ncharacter in the game, Henry, feels the way he does. When a relationship and a mystery story line
\ncome in to the picture, player gets more involved and shifts to reactive empathy\/sympathy. Player
\nstarts to feel emotions caused by the situation of our main character, but they do not match those of
\nthe emphatised.<\/p>\n
\nbig part of the games message or an important mechanic.<\/p>\n
\ncognitive to parallel empathy. Player, who is controlling the games protagonist Lee, gets introduced
\nto a young girl called Clementine. As the player takes her under their wing, emotions become more
\ninvolved. Reflecting Lee\u2019s emotions and immersing themselves deeper in to the game, player moves
\nin to parallel empathy. Player is now starting to feel the same way that their emphatised would be
\nfeeling, mirroring it.<\/p>\n
\nstory of a family that battles with their sons cancer and eventually loses to it. On the spectrum this
\nmoves from reactive to parallel empathy. A clear example of parallel empathy comes in the end of
\nthe game: family\u2019s son is seen in \u2018heaven\u2019, giving the player a sense of the relief his parents would
\nfeel seeing the image.<\/p>\n
\nexperiences to actual actions in an order to be compassionate.<\/p>\n
\nthese games. Experiences are subjective and may vary, which can influence the results.<\/p>\n
\nSeptember 2020
\nhttps:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/1555412020954019
\nPicture from: Firewatch promo pictures, https:\/\/www.firewatchgame.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"