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and indeed found that incorporating the body did appear to have a positive, powerful effect
on players’ experience.
There is no evidence to suggest that employing the emotional and cognitive
armature attached to human gesture and movement is a design strategy game designers
have considered employing. If one were to conduct a thought experiment and to imagine --
based on how gestural games have been designed thus far -- how designers would design a
gestural gardening game, a very concrete picture would come to mind: a game in which a
player would start by thrusting her arms to the left and then over her left shoulder, as
though using a shovel. Next, she would wave her arm right and left a bit in front of her to
water the shoveled spot with a hose, and then squeeze some sort of atomizer or depress the
button on the top of a spray can to distribute a pesticide and protect a seedling from
predatory insects.
That kind of design generates gestures that are relatively easy to learn and
remember; and it is perfect for some kinds of play experiences – experiences in which the
game world largely replicates the real world and, thus, where videogame play resembles
real-world play. Yet, the designs that employ gesture so literally fail to exploit a huge
number of the affordances that gestural play might provide. It also bespeaks a narrow or
flat view and deployment of gesture – one in which gesture is merely a source of data/input
to the computer system but not a potential source of enriching chemical, emotional, and
psychological experience in gesturing players – experience that could radically enhance and
deepen their play experiences.