Comments on: Why no hugs?

By: zoombapup

zoombapup — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:23:28 +0000

Time for a new blog post on this.

By: Melody

Melody — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:39:25 +0000

This also does not take into account subcultures within cultures and the difficulty of animating those. For example: In my group of friends, touchy-feely is the way to go. It's not uncommon to see a female or male go to greet another female or male with a sensual massage of the butt. Big hugs, big kisses, and just random behavior that in social public contexts of America (where I live) would be unnacceptable.

If one can't possibly animate something like a hug, or a kiss, without it failing, how you animate more explicit emotives of the body? A massage for example? If one could animate these physical emotions with some degree of accuracy, it is my belief that one would have a game or program that exceeds others on a graphical and emotional standpoint.

You're right, people don't spin on the spot. Instead, they plop down on the couch, wave to someone to join them, and stare them in the eyes as they converse.

- Melody

By: zoombapup

zoombapup — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 11:23:28 +0000

Time for a new blog post on this.

By: Melody

Melody — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:39:25 +0000

By: Timothy

Timothy — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 03:32:01 +0000

Non-contact greeting would be the easiest option, but, this circumstance can't be applied to all cultures and/or character that you may meet in a certain setting. Though, Markus does bring up a good point about how animation problems would be a problem with physical contact greetings between two characters, but, the overall effect on the player may not be as strong or as diverse if all greetings include no physical contact. At some point in time, consideration of physical contact greatings and interaction would almost have to be incorporated to include a new dynamic and different feel to the game-play.

By: zoombapup

zoombapup — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:43:19 +0000

It definitely feels like a better idea to have non-contact greetings. But it will probably feel quite formal in most circumstances and for cultures that are contact-based (the proxemic literature suggests that certain cultures are more touchy-feely than others).

Food for thought though.

By: Markus

Markus — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:07:42 +0000

Interesting thoughts. Given all the animation problems with greetings involving physical contact, it would seem prudent to use customs that do not involve physical contact. Namely gestures such as waving or a salute, but perhaps the easiest and most natural thing (depending on the setting) would be a system of bowing like in traditional Japanese culture. There is no contact and complicated social relationships can be expressed by exactly how two people would bow to each other.

By: Timothy

Timothy — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:35:15 +0000

Resin,

I see your point where, in a attribute based game, this would be a very cool concept to see. But, also take into consideration the varying degrees that that charisma level could take, and how differently other agents could possible react to another agent or your character, while also adding personality quirks to those different groups; the possibilities would be almost endless.

By: Resin

Resin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:02:15 +0000

The ideas here would be very interesting to see in games that utilize charisma or leadership attributes, like Morrowind or Mount and Blade. If these attributes were context sensitive and had to be based on observing non-verbal language of both characters and groups – well, that would be pretty cool.