Digesis by Communication

Excerpt from the book "Beyond Role and Play" concerning diegesis construction. Article by Mika Loponen & Markus Montala:

"... every player's diegesis is different by definition (since it is constructed in the players mind). In the best possible situation the diegeses are equifinal. Two interpretations are equifinal when they are similar enough to cause indistinguishable consequences. Equifinality is easiest to achieve if all players have a good understanding of the genre, style and world of the game "

The opposite of equifinality is called arbitration - this occurs in all forms of communication when people have different interpretations of the meaning of symbols (language).

The authors go on saying that: "...it can be said that the more the diegeses are constructed through icons and indices the more (life)-like a game is."

To use an example from Mirror's Edge, let's look at Runners Vison (an object colored red in the environment) and how it can be interpreted by players' diegetically in at least 3 different ways:

Indexical interpretation: Faith actually sees some objects as red (allthough they are not), due to some special mental state or through some exotic technology.

Symbolic interpretation: Faith picks out important objects in the environment through her own perception and the red color is just an arbitrary way of showing this.

(Iconic interpretation: Someone has actually been nice enough to paint stuff red to help Faith.)

After discussing indexical vs symbolic interpretations of signs the authors state that:
"The more a game is based on indices, the less chance there is for misinterpretations, and the less need for non-diegetic communication."

However, the authors identifies at leas two mayor problems with a fully indexical game world.
1. The player need to have an extended knowledge of objects in the game world, its back story and so on, in order to fully interpret indexical symbols.

Example: In an FPS with no HUD a player has to know that an assault rifle holds 30 bullets and a revolver holds 6 in order to best time his/her reloads.

2. Every player will still have a unique interpretation of each symbol, and the designer can never guarantee that all player make the right (or even the same) interpretation.

-I found this way of using semiotic concepts to describe game world symbols very interesting and useful to us.