An Example of Technique Stacking 1

An Example of Technique Stacking^[1]

^[1] Technique Stacking means layering several Emotioneering techniques on top of each other simultaneously, or utilizing them very close to each other in time, to create complex emotional impacts.

Because a number of other Emotioneering techniques are used, this scene is also a good example of Technique Stacking.

For instance, here you find yourself siding with an alien you don't know and fighting someone you considered a friend. Defending a being you know nothing about, and turning on someone you know and care about, is an Emotionally Complex Situation (see Chapter 2.15).

It's also a big plot twist: A friend becomes an enemy, and a stranger becomes a friend. Plot twists can be valuable tools in eliciting a player's emotional involvement in a game (see Chapter 2.16).

If your lieutenant insists he's going to shoot the female alien, you've got to make tough a choice: Let him do it, or kill him. The two of you bonded due to earlier use of Player Toward NPC Chemistry Techniques (see Chapter 2.11). Because you care about him, the decision is even more difficult. Tough choices cause a player to reach inside himself or herself. This choice is a First-Person Deepening Technique (see Chapter 2.21).

Although there are many ways to create emotional immersion in games, if you want to begin to emulate the immersive qualities of life itself, one way is to carefully start layering Emotioneering techniques. In artful Emotioneering, techniques and layers of emotion are stacked like the crossing instrumental melodies and harmonies of a symphony.