What happens when a brilliant psychologist puts gamers in testa di fare il game designer? È quello che ha voluto sperimentare nel lontano 1986 il dottor Peter J. Favaro, allora psicologo dell’UCLA (la più prestigiosa università di Los Angeles), cimentandosi nella creazione di Alter Ego, il primo e probabilmente l’unico vero “simulatore di vita” mai finora realizzato.
“Se potessi tornare indietro, col senno del poi… quanto sarebbero differenti le mie scelte?” Questa domanda, che sicuramente ci saremo spesso posti in molti, campeggiava sul retro della confezione di Alter Ego, prodotto da Activision per tutti i computer più diffusi dell’epoca: Apple Macintosh e serie II, Commodore 64 e 128, IBM e Tandy. Un gioco affascinante, provocative and even revealing, among the first to allow to play a male or female - there are in fact also a version specifically dedicated to the simulation of female life - and to present the warning (for parents) that, given the realism of the topics covered and the presence of sexually explicit material - still optional - I suggest using it for more than fifteen years.
The aim was to create a sort of role-playing game (text), which could lead to a lifetime alternatively from birth to death - a quiet and natural, accidental or violent - than in any game, living virtually a whole series of experiences (emotional, intellectual, familial, social, sexual and work) in front of which arise as a certain attitude and make different decisions, then experience the consequences more or less positive. It would therefore have been leading a dissolute life or honest, peaceful or risky, to determine the direction of their career, get married and set up a large family or even Don Juan to make the whole existence, and each choice would lead to a result different, thus changing the path of life, their own virtual personalities, and even the manner in which it was perceived by others within the game world.
"Many of us can fantasize about doing things differently, conducendo stili di vita alternativi, magari nei panni di qualcun altro”, ha affermato lo stesso dottor Favaro, “Io ho creato Alter Ego in modo che tutti possano soddisfare questo desiderio in modo divertente e privo di rischi”. E c’è riuscito? Sicuramente meglio di ogni altro videogame, inclusi diretti discendenti più tecnologicamente avanzati come la famosa serie di The Sims a opera di Will Wright ed Electronic Arts, maggiormente improntata sul voyeurismo piuttosto che sull’interpretazione diretta di un personaggio e meno approfondita nella ricchezza e nel realismo esperienziale rispetto ad Alter Ego.
Per conseguire il suo ambizioso obiettivo, Favaro, in modo da ottenere la maggior varietà e molteplicità possibile di situazioni di vita, intervistò centinaia di persone d’ambo i sessi e di ogni età, raccogliendo il loro vissuto più memorabile; selezionando poi gli episodi più significativi e maggiormente condivisi, ne valutò - grazie alla propria preparazione psicologica e al contributo di un gruppo di colleghi - le implicazioni alternative, l’impatto sulla personalità e sul relativo contesto sociale, e infine li assemblò in una sorta di database da cui poter attingere durante il gioco.
Come ha detto lo stesso Favaro: “Abbiamo compreso come da ogni singola risposta fosse praticamente impossibile fornire un ritratto accurato di una persona. Ma ci siamo pure accorti che, dovendo rispondere a centinaia di domande durante una partita di Alter Ego, avevamo un’ottima chance di tratteggiare la personalità del giocatore”.
E difatti il gioco si compone di numerose esperienze, ognuna delle quali influisce su un certo numero di caratteristiche psicologiche della propria personalità virtuale. Dato che uomini e donne vivono episodi peculiari durante la loro esistenza, Alter Ego, per fornire un quadro ancora più realistico e meticoloso, venne realizzato – come già scritto prima - in due distinte versioni: la maschile e la femminile, chiaramente giocabili indipendentemente dal sesso dell’utente, aspetto che ne aumenta ulteriormente la profondità e il divertimento.
Si potrà quindi decidere di giocare interpretando una replica of themselves, or to indulge in acting as it has so far only imagined, perhaps acting like we never have had the willingness or courage to do. And since any decision to take the consequences, you can also discover and learn something about themselves, thanks to comments from time to time bestowed by a voice - that of psychology - which aims, among other things, cause the player to stimulate different reactions. In Alter Ego
we first constructed a personality starting with an interesting psychological test that delineates the attitude through social, intellectual, professional, family and physical as well as through emotional characteristics such as rationality ol'impulsività, kindness ol'aggressività, safety or hesitation, optimism or pessimism, calm or anxiety, expressiveness or closure, reliability, or disloyalty.
It then goes on to decide whether to face a lifetime of his alter ego from the very beginning, or if starting directly from one of seven stages in which it is divided: the birth and infancy, childhood, adolescence, youth, adulthood, Middle-aged vecchiaia.Ogni stage will present a series of experiments (ie, for the most unexpected events) and lifestyle choices (where then allowed greater control of events, as in the case of educational or financial decisions) concerning various aspects of his life and personality, represented by icons that symbolize the specific context (social, emotional, professional, family, etc.). These episodes can be selected as desired by the player and in the order you prefer, each episode will increase the time counter for a while, until you get to reaching that marks the end of the current phase and the transition to Next, with new experiences and choices available suited to the cycle of age in question. Sometimes you can not select some experience, although present in the same phase, perhaps because it has not yet reached the right age in the game or because you do not have the appropriate requirements, for example, you can not experience it was working before they find a job or get married before they are built up a relationship with a partner.
episodes that you could experience in every phase are so numerous that they can not get to meet them all, each episode presents a narrative context against which provides the player the option to choose an attitude of character to be coupled with a decision selected from a list of possibilities: it has done so only action but also the behavior with which it implements. The mix of these two factors will lead to answers that will change the values \u200b\u200bassociated with the characteristics of their personality, and that tangibly affect the outcome of their decisions for the future: the computer, in fact, take into account the values \u200b\u200battached to each feature and allow or prohibit as a result of certain actions by the player, also determines the outcome differently. For example, I happened when I was a child, a rather delicate episode: one day while I was at the supermarket with my boyfriend, it began to pilfer, putting some objects in your pocket. Although I do not have imitated and even attempted to dissuade him, he continued. But the ominous thing was that I was stuck behind my back pocket in a bag of candy and, worse, the salesman I was also caught with the stolen goods on me and accused me of theft, even calling my mother (while my friend was not caught in the act and came out unscathed from the store). At this point, the game, going to evaluate my level of confidence (which was quite high because I had always behaved like a copy boy), determined that my mother decided to trust me, believing in my innocence rather than to punish a guilt that I had not actually committed. Similarly, one evening, the first time I had to go to sleep at a friend's house, worried that my parents could not be more at home on my return the next day, I heard from my father who he and mom could have been abducted by aliens, was clearly a joke, and in fact I decided to worries not for this, but at this point, the narrator told me that the understanding of the measure could be excessive for a child, and therefore checks the value of my intellectual sphere, revealing, finally, resulting in very intelligent for my age, I was actually able to discriminate as such a joke of my father. The
personal qualities have a percentage score (always viewed by the user) that the qualification in one way or according to their opposite: for example, a high value indicates a low degree of rationality of impulsivity and vice versa, as well as a high standard of aggression is a symptom of a low rate of kindness and vice versa. In reality there are characteristics necessarily right or wrong as in real life, some qualities are more suitable than others depending on the situation or context, so each feature ends with the present strengths and weaknesses at the same time: for example, if on one hand ' aggressive character can be a disadvantage if you need to know how to ask a favor in the right way, on the contrary - if we try to impose within a group or maybe even compete for a coveted job - could be an advantage.
In many cases, the game considers an ensemble of quality to assess the outcome of the user's choices: just to take the example of the job, if you want to be groped teens to be hired as a clerk in a store , must possess the right social skills, and also be reliable and intelligent. So, while perhaps possessing the necessary social skills and are quite intelligent, if you are assessed as fairly reliable, however, you will not get the job.
is of course possible to vary groped voluntarily improving its properties in this or in that of his character (although this may not be easy, just like in real life) and to do enough to focus especially on experiences and life choices regarding the area that you want to improve: in this respect, if we continue to collect the depressing two of spades during emotional events, will probably be wise to increase their social skills and charismatic, this will need to experiment with the largest number of social experiences as possible (and clearly complement in the most suitable in order to refine the right qualities of behavior) because of what you can then check that prospective partners begin to interact with us in a more compliant and forgiving.
Alter Ego, despite its spartan interface and its audiovisual sector is virtually nonexistent, is still an excellent game. Every joy and pain of life are represented accurately and objectively, without taboos and with a touch of humor that never hurts: the early family experiences with childhood friends, from teenage rebellion to the discovery of sex, from the successes and difficulties in schooling in those careers, by operating more or less careful of their personal finances (including shopping sprees and home loans) to the choice of a partner from liability for double extramarital temptations, the joys of fatherhood (or motherhood) to concerns for their children, half of the ailments age to the thousand problems of old age.
Although at the time of its release has not received the complete success it deserved (in my opinion because too far and too different from all the games of the time), Alter Ego, however, has been praised by critics and has sold enough to allow the Dr. Favaro to buy a house and car (lucky him). Alter Ego is still left in the hearts of many fans, and is can play a fairly faithful remake online at: http://www.theblackforge.net/ . If
Peter Favaro, the beauty of twenty-two years ago, was able to almost single-handedly create a game like this, think what - wanting to take over the project Alter Ego - you may be able to do today with a large team of developers and today's technologies ...
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