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The Cosplay Experiment
Valentin Seleznyov
__BANNED USERS regular
__BANNED USERS regular
I believe that the best way to enjoy a video game is to fully immerse yourself in it. For most people this entails dimming the lights and turning on the surround sound - and that’s great, but for me it’s not enough.
Basically, i dress up as the character i am assuming the role of in a video game. Some people think of it as weird, but really it’s the next logical step up from surround sound and lowlighting.
I noticed that a side effect of this, above and beyond the added enjoyment it brings to games, is that it actually makes me a better player. When i’m dressed as my character, my reflexes are that little bit quicker. It’s as if i actually am the person, so in many cases i’m literally fighting for my life, and that is bound to have some kind of affect on performance.
I first noticed this when trying to unlock the “Big Baller” achievement on CoD:World at War. I was struggling with it. But one day the opportunity to purchase a replica SS officer jacket came up (i think they look stylish, so was looking to buy one anyway), i took it, and decided to put it on the next time i played Nazi Zombies.
Low and behold i got the 75,000 points required and the achievement was mine.
This graph shows my progress. I played the Der Riese Nazi Zombie map 20 times. 10 times in my regular clothes, and 10 times while dressed as a Nazi. To make the experiment fair, i switched costume after each attempt.
While this chart clearly proves that dressing as your in-game character has a positive effect on performance, you cannot conduct an experiment on yourself. Which is why i have devised a way in which to test the theory on a much wider scale.
In the meantime, i'm just interested to get the thoughts of other gamers on this. Maybe some of you have similar experiences? I'm confident that this is an avenue worth exploring, and that in doing so i will revolutionise the way that games are played, forever.
Basically, i dress up as the character i am assuming the role of in a video game. Some people think of it as weird, but really it’s the next logical step up from surround sound and lowlighting.
I noticed that a side effect of this, above and beyond the added enjoyment it brings to games, is that it actually makes me a better player. When i’m dressed as my character, my reflexes are that little bit quicker. It’s as if i actually am the person, so in many cases i’m literally fighting for my life, and that is bound to have some kind of affect on performance.
I first noticed this when trying to unlock the “Big Baller” achievement on CoD:World at War. I was struggling with it. But one day the opportunity to purchase a replica SS officer jacket came up (i think they look stylish, so was looking to buy one anyway), i took it, and decided to put it on the next time i played Nazi Zombies.
Low and behold i got the 75,000 points required and the achievement was mine.
This graph shows my progress. I played the Der Riese Nazi Zombie map 20 times. 10 times in my regular clothes, and 10 times while dressed as a Nazi. To make the experiment fair, i switched costume after each attempt.
While this chart clearly proves that dressing as your in-game character has a positive effect on performance, you cannot conduct an experiment on yourself. Which is why i have devised a way in which to test the theory on a much wider scale.
In the meantime, i'm just interested to get the thoughts of other gamers on this. Maybe some of you have similar experiences? I'm confident that this is an avenue worth exploring, and that in doing so i will revolutionise the way that games are played, forever.
Valentin Seleznyov on
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Interesting results though.
Unless your vision is augmented.
Which would be a pretty dedicated cosplay.
Obviously, there are some matters of practicality that would need to be overcome to make this a viable way of improving in-gamer performance in every single game ever made on a recreational basis.
However, with professional gamers, you often see top players pick one character in these types of games, which they master. If they were to dress as their chosen character, i have little doubt that it would help them master the moves much more quickly.
Good luck with that.
Let me be clear on something. I originally started dressing as my characters as a means of enhancing the experience. When i wore my Scorpion medium armour (which was made using a scuba suit as a base) while playing Mass Effect, i felt like i actually was Commander Sheppard. It made the game that much more enjoyable.
The increase in performance, for me, is a very beneficial side effect.
Some computer game characters are so different to me, be that because they are a woman, non caucasian, or bald, that no amount of dressing up will bridge the physical gap.
If i were to don a leather cat suit while playing Bayonetta, it just wouldn't work.
Only one way to find out
The power of.
Except that. No photos for that please.
I am currently making arrangements to rent out a local town hall. I'm hoping to get about 50 people to come in and help me with the experiment. In fact, if anyone is in the West London area, and fancies being on the cutting edge of computer game development, feel free to send me a message or something.
I'm still in the planning stages, but i'm sure i have devised an experiment that would stand up to scientific scrutiny.
I think the only correlation you can make is that the more relaxed you are, the better you play. For whatever reasons, dressing up as game characters makes you comfortable. I'm sure a psychologist could have a fun time with that one.
I see what you're saying, but i respectfully disagree. Well, not with the part about a psychologist having fun with it... but it's about more than being comfortable. In fact, many outfits make me uncomfortable. Both physically, and mentally.
The reason i dress up, and the reason the act of doing so makes you a better gamer, is that it further puts you in the game. You more become the character... so in many cases it is like you are actually fighting for you life. Your reactions get sharper. You see things you would otherwise miss.
Do you accessorize as well? Like, did you have a gun for the Mass Effect outfit, or just outfit only (what about a helmet)?
Interesting.
Needs more fat Zelda.
As for the 'experiment' at hand, I didn't see your variables labeled (or mentioned). So for example:
Did you test the same game each time?
Did you play first without the outfit and then with it? (Which could be attributed to the rise in performance as you got warmed up)
Was it a new game or an already mastered game?
Did you try having a person in costume first on a new game and then as they progressed taking them out with similar results?
You're experiment lacks clarification.
However, I have no problem with attractive female cosplayers, no matter what they dress up as. That's probably indicative of a problem with game design in general, though...
"This graph shows my progress. I played the Der Riese Nazi Zombie map 20 times. 10 times in my regular clothes, and 10 times while dressed as a Nazi. To make the experiment fair, i switched costume after each attempt."
Obviously, it's not perfect, but i did my best to add a control. This is why i'm intending to carry out a more proper experiment in the coming months. I intend to test on a much wider range of gamers with varying degrees of experience.
You need to control for the effect effect.
Make them cosplay, wear their own clothes, wear a set of somebody else's normal clothes and a set of socially unusual clothes (such as a dress for the guys).
It is those 4 vital categories which will be most valuable for adumbration.
I live on London's West End. A place famed for it's theatres. A production of the Sound of Music came to a close, and they had some surplus costumes left over.
I don't like what you're getting at, either. It's just a costume.
You tired this on Destructoid.
Yeah. The knuckledragger owner... Tecnhophile, or whatever, banned me. He lacks vision.
This is a completely different forum though, so i'd appreciate it if you wouldn't bring that up. I'm just trying to get some input on my hypothesis before taking the next step.
Thanks.
And the counter-arguments say something about that precious "immersion" people on this forum seem to go on about.
I... Really don't have anything else to add.
No, he banned you because you were being an idiot and tried to convince people that you were something you weren't and generally trolling.
And Tecnhophile isn't the owner, just the forum admin.
I'll leave for now. If the same thing happens, I'll be here to call you out on it tho.
Thank you.
As has been pointed out, i have posted about my ideas on other forums, but have largely been met with childish jibes and moronic insults. I would like to thank those of you that have responded in a more adult manner. This is serious business, so i appreciate it.
Anyway, it is all about immersion. If you really put yourself in somebodies shoes, you will perform better as them.
He took a disliking to me because i posted a picture of myself leaning on my $100,000 sports car. I can only imagine that he hated it so much because he is unemployed. It's not my fault that he, like many of the other posters there, were jealous of me.
If you go back and read my opening posts, you will see that i was more than polite and just wanted to exchange ideas. Destructoid is filled with idiots, though, so it just didn't happen.
Also, it would be worth controlling for this hypothesis by testing people against games which try to evince different emotions.
A scary game, such as resident evil, would logically scare people more the more immersed they felt, rendering them less capable.
Whereas if one is playing bayonetta one would logically expect to get taller and better as they became more immersed in their witchy alter-ego.
It seems like you just like to dress up. You get somebody else out there who doesn't like wearing costumes while playing games and they'll be worse beause they're uncomfortable.
tl;dr You're crazy and your theory that a nazi jacket will make me better at zombie nazi video game modes is crazy.
Aw, here we go again.
People use "Immersion" as some kind of ethereal esence that somehow makes a game better for them. Like the game menus being the wrong color or the save point being too close to the bed in the inn. Yet here you are proving that "immersion" happens outside of the game, with the truest character, the player having to immerse himself into the game! I do not have italics slanty enough!
And to back it up with cold, hard numbers? Bravo. Please keep up the good work.