“Pilsner”: Toward an Accessible First Person Video Game

Robert Yang
Design and Technology
Parsons The New School for Design
yangr591@newschool.edu

ABSTRACT
“Pilsner” is a short, multiplayer, first person video game
that lets friends (or strangers) visit a virtual dive bar to try
to out-compete each other to have the most “fun” night out.
In leveraging an urban bar as the primary metaphor for
interactivity and gameplay, it targets a young adult
demographic (18-34) both obsessed with nightlife culture
and familiar with video games / social networks, but not
necessarily familiar with the first person video game genre.
It also attempts to solve several accessibility problems
endemic to the first person genre, such as difficulty of
interface, breadth of non-shooting mechanics and limited
audience of multiplayer games that rely on real-time
interaction.
In its next iteration, it will be a mixed-fidelity playable
prototype with most core mechanics implemented and
limited multiplayer functionality.
Keywords
Video games, HCI, interface, usability, first person shooter,
FPS, online, multiplayer, Unity3D, alcohol, bar culture.
INTRODUCTION
Few first person shooter (FPS) games cater to anyone
outside the predominantly 14-30 year old male “hardcore
gamer” demographic1 already familiar with the genre. [1]
This co-opting of the genre is utterly pervasive; there still
exists no widely used acronym or genre label for first
person video games without any shooting – as if it is
unthinkable that any first person game, such as this one,
would consciously omit graphic violence with guns.
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1 USD at brick and mortar retail stores and specialized online
Their research of 750 Dutch FPS gamers actually
indicates an even narrower age range, but the game
industry often insists on a wider distribution of age; cf.
their brief at http://www.theesa.com/facts/
And yet, people of all ages and genders are familiar with
the language of the first person camera. Countless films and
television shows feature a brief shot with a character
looking off-frame, followed by another shot that is
presumably their perspective, as if the viewer is looking
through their eyes. This “point of view” shot is a useful,
universally understood film tool and clearly not the sole
province of 14-30 year old men who enjoy graphic violence
and shooting virtual terrorists – yet that is its dominant use
in video games today. While media violence is not in itself
objectionable, the creative wasteland of generic game
violence is unimaginative. Simply put, more can be done.
In this way, Pilsner is an effort to impart a genre literacy to
players unfamiliar with first person games but who are put-
off by typical FPS games.
This general notion of “accessibility” can be broadly
interpreted in four (4) different senses: accessible
distribution, accessible interface, accessible consumption
and accessible game content.
CONTEXT
The problems of effective game distribution, interface and
content can all be classified as “wicked problems,” as
coined by Rittel and Webber [2]; these are problems that
are difficult to define – and because they are difficult to
define, there is never a definitive solution but only a
constant stream of adequate and better solutions. Namely,
the question of “what is accessible game content” is
incredibly complex and invokes numerous domains:
Virtual Distribution
While casual free-to-play 2D Flash games played in a web
browser have enjoyed widespread popularity, like PopCap's
Bejeweled series or Zynga's Farmville among countless
others, there has not yet been a popular equivalent of a
high-performance 3D web browser technology. Combined
with the large file size of most FPS games, distribution has
mostly been limited to large standalone offline
deployments, developed professionally, sold for $40-$60
download services like Valve Corporation's “Steam”
service.

1
This “hardcore” distribution model runs counter to the
simpler in-browser deployments of casual gamers' favorite
games. Thus, some form of a free-to-play web browser
deployment is essential to reach this wider audience.
Game Controls and Interface
At this time of writing, there are two main paradigms of
FPS hardware interfaces: the dual joystick “gamepad”
paradigm used on game consoles like the X-Box 360 or
Playstation 3, versus the keyboard and “mouselook”
paradigm used on computers.
However, because consoles are closed systems controlled
by commercial companies, for this project it is preferable to
focus on an unregulated platform for experimentation, such
as browser games played on personal computers.
It is also theorized that casual gamers find FPS games
difficult because they lack the thousands of hours of
specialized hand-eye coordination skills used by hardcore
gamers [3] – specifically, the act of coordinating movement
of one analog joystick with the other, or coordinating
keyboard input with mouse movement. It is similar to the
way that drummers can “separate” their leg and arm
movements as two different entities.
New players often spend the majority of the game spinning
in circles and staring up at the sky, or perhaps both; such
results are discouraging, implying that they are at fault and
should stop playing when in reality an alternate interface
could have suited them.
Many alternative first person games have attempted to
mitigate the difficulty of keyboard and mouse interfaces
with a software implementation. Perhaps the most
prominent of these is the 1994 bestseller Myst, a puzzle
exploration game with a mouse cursor interface that allows
the player to simply click on the area where they wish to go
but was severely limited by its static prerendered 2D
images. Meanwhile, the 2006 cartoon-styled FPS Grotto
King maintained the keyboard and mouse setup, but used
code modifications to clamp mouselook on the Y-axis, thus
preventing players from looking up or down and solving the
“staring up at the sky” tendency of new players. Later, a
2009 adaptation of Oscar Wilde's Salome, the first person
game Fatale, used a deliberately obfuscated mouse-only
“click to fly” control scheme. Most recently, the 2010 tech
demo Epic Citadel used the gesture controls on the iPad to
seemingly update the controls from 1994's Myst; simply
“touch” an area on the scene to direct the player character.
Models of Consumption
Traditionally, many hardcore gamers have demanded long,
immersive video game experiences to get the maximum
value for the game they purchased as loyal consumers or as
2
young teenagers with limited allowances. This sense of
“gamer entitlement” was translated into multiplayer FPS
contexts as extremely difficult skill-based game modes that
emphasized speed and dexterity, especially in contemporary
games like Halo or Counter-Strike.2 The most “authentic”
gamers possess deep mastery of game systems. Here, games
are fairly long, uninterrupted, focused contests that demand
undivided attention from the player.
This model of game consumption contrasts harshly with the
way that many non-hardcore gamers play, such as the
average commuter on the subway casually playing Words
with Friends or Angry Birds on their smart phone with only
one hand and no sound effects enabled. These games are
small, short, highly fragmented and non-cinematic
experiences for people who do not have long uninterrupted
stretches of free time to devote to video games; their design
runs counter to the hardcore gamers' emphasis on
immersion, immediacy and uninterrupted / focused
stretches of play.
It should be noted, however, that many people play both
types of games – though this shared audience often takes
the form of hardcore gamers playing “less serious” mobile
games, rather than the other way around with casual gamers
occasionally playing Halo – Pilsner aims to encourage the
latter, less common phenomenon by giving casual gamers a
safe space to learn the conventions of first person gaming.
DESIGN GOALS / TARGET AUDIENCE
Pilsner targets these young childless adults in all aspects:
the branding attempts to come across as young, “hip” and
cynical. The subject matter ostensibly relates to the dream
lives of young adults, where every Saturday night holds
endless promise for parties, authentic social experiences
and recognition among peers.
With this (admittedly, broad and large) demographic in
mind, the primary goal is to dissociate the first person video
game genre with graphic firearm-induced violence, or at
least dissociate it temporarily to allow an appreciation of
various aesthetic effects through five (5) main modes:
1) Parody and satirize bar culture. By codifying the ritual of
“going out” as a set of mechanical rules and interactions or
a mere game, there is an underlying current of commentary
that critiques this lifestyle as hollow and ultimately
meaningless. Young adults may also appreciate the irony of
staying at home to play a video game about going out,
2
Both games trace their bloodlines to Quakeworld, the first
polygon-based online multiplayer FPS that forged the
genre. Within the player community, players with fast
internet connections were commonly known as “low ping
bastards” (LPBs), such was the importance of speed and
real-time interaction.
instead of actually going out – thus expanding their notions
of the possible artistic effects of video games.
2) Re-contextualize what it means to “look” in first person
games. Most first person games today treat “looking” as a
free action, the equivalent of doing nothing unless one pulls
a trigger. Computer-controlled AI actors typically do not
respond to being stared at.
In real-life, however, simply looking at someone for too
long can be interpreted as sexual harassment or at the very
least make someone feel uncomfortable – historically, this
concept of the “gaze” has also instigated a crucial current in
both literary and film theory. In Pilsner, looking at another
player must mean something.
3) Introduce new players to paradigms of interface in first
person games. A simpler mouse-only interface allows
beginners to easily navigate a space; various in-game
actions require progressively more sophisticated mouse
movements, thus teaching them how to control and harness
the “mouse look” interface common to almost all first
person games. Once they have mastered this control
scheme, players are far more likely to try similar games.
4) Exist as a legitimate and authentic alternative design
practice to mainstream commercial FPS games adored by
hardcore gamers. Many hardcore gamers are quick to
dismiss in-browser games as less authentic, “watered-
down” experiences compared to the highly immersive,
cinematic and expensive video games that they praise.
However, this project seeks to prove that in accommodating
casual gamers, one need not alienate this hardcore
audience. Perhaps the casual and hardcore can converge
together in this space between worlds.
5) Re-define “architecture” in video games. The course of a
game of tag is determined by the environment – stairs,
grass, concrete, walls – that affords players varying degrees
of movement and surveillance. Likewise, the architecture of
a video game level also heavily influences the flow of
gameplay. It is theorized that a dynamic architecture, one
that does not remain as static walls, will result in an ever-
changing and perpetually compelling game experience.
In real-life, however, walls do not usually move – but
people do. Pilsner seeks to cast the actual “bar patrons” as
the real walls and columns of the game level, an
architecture that is constantly moving and responding to
players' actions, forming what Gordon Pask might
characterize as a “cybernetic architecture.” [4]
With movement also comes an increased ability to express
emotion. For example, the famed Mexican modernist
architect Luis Barragan's work in “emotive architecture” [5]
emphasized static walls that were calm and proud, set in
tranquil gardens that evoked Mexican traditions and
3
cultural strength. In Pilsner, the so-called “walls” are drunk,
jealous, or any range of emotional states we afford to
people. This dynamic can also be mapped to current
understandings of environmental narrative in games. [6, 7]
GAME SYSTEMS IN “PILSNER”
Here, this paper attempts to outline the basic multiplayer
game mechanics, systems and consequences in Pilsner:3
Core Mechanics
The goal of Pilsner is to have the highest “Fun” score at the
end of the night.
To have Fun, players must perform Actions. The player
begins the game with basic actions like “Talk” or “Wink at
Someone” or “Buy Drink,” then progressively unlocks more
sophisticated actions like “Flirt” or “Dance” by drinking
more alcohol.
These higher level or “sloppier” actions earn the player
much more Fun than lower level actions. In this respect,
binge drinking is advantageous and necessary to have a
good time or seduce sexually attractive, high-value targets
of opportunity.
All of these actions are taken through a combination of two
mechanics: (a) moving and (b) looking, e.g. move to the bar
and stare at the bartender in hopes of ordering a drink – or
move behind a person and leer at their butt to assess their
attractiveness, etc.
Play as Performance
Because the players are all in the same bar, it is strategically
advantageous to earn the most points while sabotaging the
other players' efforts.
However, in order to sabotage a player, one must be able to
discern a human player from a computer-controlled “bot”
player that performs a generic schedule of actions.
Thus, a skilled player must also perform when playing, to
pretend that they are simply another bot and to avoid
detection (and subsequent sabotage) from other players.
For example, attempting to buy someone too many drinks,
too often, may arouse suspicion from other players;
whenever they see this player approach the bar, they will
attempt to occupy all open slots at the bar, thus preventing a
player from buying any drinks.4
3
Because video games, by their very nature, rely on
complex combinations of audio / visual / interaction to
create a deep system that requires learning and mastery, it
can often be difficult to describe in words what was always
meant to be played as a game. It is analogous to the
considerable gulf between simply reading a film script and
actually seeing the film realized onscreen.
On an underlying, sociological level, it is also interesting
whether human players identifying as heterosexual seduce
characters of the same sex, or whether they will insist on
following their real-life sexualities. (Later iterations of the
game will have tracking analytics built into the game
systems to facilitate sociological research like this.)
Asynchronous Multiplayer
Throughout the Night, all the players actions are logged in a
database. When a player is finished playing through the
Night, the next player takes a turn.
Because the previous player's actions are all logged, the
game system can use it as a “schedule” to program an AI
bot to take the previous player's place when another player
takes their turn in the bar. This way, players play together
but at different times – this is “asynchronous multiplayer.”
This system also allows for considerable strategy: if the
player begins drinking at 8 PM (in-game), they will likely
pass out from fatigue by 1 AM.
However, when Player 2 takes their turn in the game, they
may buy Player 1 an extra drink at 10 PM to force them to
pass out from intoxication even earlier. Thus, Player 2 can
obtain a much higher “Fun” score while Player 1 vomits on
themselves in the corner.
Of course, this scenario assumes that Player 2 can reliably
distinguish which character the Player 1 is, among a
crowded bar filled with 60 other characters.
Instrumentalization of Player Narrative
This strategic layer becomes more compelling with the
addition of teamplay. Assume, in the situation above, that a
Player 3 (allied with Player 1) then takes their turn.
At the end of the Night, Player 1 submitted a short text
account of what happened that Night – an attractive blonde
woman in red entered at 11:45 PM, among other details.
Player 3, with foreknowledge of the future course of the
night, can now plan ahead to try to seduce that woman,
assuming Player 1 is an articulate and accurate storyteller.
Player 3 can also intervene and prevent the second player
from poisoning the first player, thus “rescuing” the first
player to earn more points.
In this way, a player narrative is instrumentalized as a
strategic battle report, or possibly a banal story about how a
friend was drunk last night and vomited everywhere.
GAME DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
Pilsner underwent several drastic changes in both style and
content. It began as an avant garde interactive stage drama
4
This idea of “performance as play” was originally
popularized by Chris Hecker's game SpyParty.
4
called “Percival,” then shifted in concept to some sort of
photorealistic nightlife simulator before becoming the
multiplayer arcade game satire it is today.
Figure 1. Early style exploration for Percival; a forest
made of abstract tree sculptures modeled in Maya.
“Percival,” Initial Tech Prototype
After considering numerous interface precedents, it became
clear to follow the example set by Epic Games in their Epic
Citadel technology demo because (a) it offered a mouse-
only control scheme, (b) required relatively few discrete
actions, such as mouse-clicks, (c) regressed seamlessly with
a traditional “hardcore” WASD5 control scheme, (d)
allowed for a full 360 degree arc of mouselook along the X
and Y axes, (e) allowed for looking around while moving,
which is an important skill in nearly all FPS games.
It is noted that this scheme would not work well with
gamepads or game controllers because manipulating a
cursor with a joystick is not particularly intuitive.6
Fortunately, this project does not target game consoles but
rather personal computers and laptops running browsers
because people who have consoles are much more likely to
be familiar with the FPS genre already – and console-based
FPS games already have their own highly sophisticated
control schemes [8] that do not merit additional research.7
5
WASD are the keys on a QWERTY keyboard that stand-
in for arrow keys that control character movement in
video games. W is “go forward,” A is “sidestep left,” etc.
6
For those interested in FPS control schemes on console
game controllers, Bungie Studios' work on the Halo series
is perhaps the seminal and defining implementation, using
player psychology and psychophysics to coin new control
concepts like “bullet magnetism,” “snapping” and
“friction.” [8]
7
Specifically, there are several professional, industry-
funded usability labs that seek to resolve this very
research question; academic research would be pointless.
Percival's method used for controlling movement is similar,
probably, to Epic's method: when the player clicks, the
game fires a simple raycast from the player's forward
direction vector to obtain a new vector, then finds the
difference between the two vectors to calculate a third
vector to the new position. For ease of implementation and
understanding, there is also no pathing solution – if there is
a wall between the player's destination and their position,
their character will simply run into the wall until the player
clicks to set a new route.
While the control interface test seemed to be promising,
early conceptual prototypes seemed too avant-garde with no
easily understood metaphor or meaningful interaction (i.e. if
it is a multiplayer game where one player is powerless, why
would anyone play?). The full details of the concept are not
listed here because, essentially, there was no real concept.
“Pilsner” Alpha, photorealistic prototype.
In beginning work on the look and feel prototype, it was
necessary to select an appropriate art style within the
overlapping contexts of first person games and in-browser
games. Browser games are often executed in a flat non-
photorealistic cartoon style because a photorealistic style
requires more texture memory, even eschewing the use of
3D entirely. In contrast, most commercial first person
games use gritty, desaturated palettes that focus on hyper-
photorealism and advanced shader technology.8
Thus, this initial visual style of Pilsner sought to situate it
somewhere along this spectrum of cartoonish casual and
hyper-real hardcore, because prospective hardcore players
would judge whether to play the game based on
screenshots. It was necessary to achieve a compromise
between the seemingly disparate styles: a stylized realism.
Upon narrowing a target audience, from “everyone” to
“young urban adults,” it became clear what this
demographic shared: unspoken worship of bar culture.
The first visual concepts for the bar possessed a realistic
treatment of materials, scale and dimensions. The lighting
will be highly stylized to emphasize the dim shadows
present in many bars.
As production deadlines loomed however, this
photorealistic treatment proved too expensive of a time
investment. It would've required substantial effort diverted
from writing the actual game code. Thus, it was decided
8
This is, of course, a gross oversimplification of the
breadth of art styles and visual representation in digital
media today – which would likely be the subject of
another paper. Here, the goal is to establish a conceptual
spectrum on which this project exists, not to document
and dichotomize the whole of game design practice.
5
that the style was untenable to maintain when aiming for a
reasonable level of visual fidelity in a short time.
In addition, a photorealistic aesthetic implies that the
project's aim is to accurately simulate the real-life practice
of bar-hopping, when it is not. Thus, it became clear that a
more stylized approach was necessary.
Figure 2. Initial photorealistic treatment of an upscale
urban bar, with dim lighting, tin ceiling and brick walls.
“Pilsner” Beta, (current) stylized satirical prototype.
Early feedback indicated that people associate games with
teenagers, but bar culture with adults; thus, any game that
glorified bar culture was implicitly encouraging underage
binge drinking, resulting in a negative response.
Mitigating this criticism required a crucial tonal shift.
Simulationist aspects were stripped away in favor of a
satirical and sarcastic tone that criticizes the underlying
hollowness of bar culture rituals.
This hollowness is already well-known in society: that
going to a bar is sometimes a method for people to procure
or “pick-up” casual sex partners or mislead others in pursuit
thereof. Such “mechanics” are already codified in real-life
as militaristic terms – “wingman,”9 “grenade,”10 etc. [9]
The satirical aspect of Pilsner emerges from taking this
militaristic treatment of bar culture to its logical extreme:
hyper-militaristic squad maneuvers. This hyperbole takes
something familiar to many and exaggerates it.
In the rhetoric of Hollywood, it could also be described as
“MTV's Jersey Shore meets paramilitary SWAT team
tactics.”
9
from Air Force parlance, a platonic friend who facilitates
social interactions with “targets of opportunity.”
10
from MTV's “Jersey Shore”: The solitary ugly person
always found with a group of hotties. If the grenade
doesn't get any action, then neither does anyone else, e.g.
“Take one for the team and jump the grenade!” [9]
So far, this concept has tested extremely well with young
adults of all genders: it is understood that bar culture is not
being put on a pedestal. Rather, as the New York Times'
Neil Genzlinger says of Jersey Shore, it illustrates “how
much ignorance, narcissism, predatory sexism and hair-gel
abuse lurk out there in the real world.” [10]
This tone, combined with more stylized visuals, allows for
more flexibility in matching the metaphors to the actual
systems of interaction afforded to players.
Figure 3. Original stylized prototype (top) and current
iteration (bottom) of the dive bar arena.
Dive Bar aesthetics and nonphotorealism.
Most of the visual detail is clustered near the bar, because
the bar is the most important part of the bar. To match the
“dive bar” aesthetic, there are large accumulations of
useless junk and Christmas lights mounted onto nearby
walls to create a sort of “shrine” to alcohol. Many players
will no doubt recognize this pack-rat tendency in many real-
life dive bars and enjoy the visual hyperbole presented in-
game.
However, one difficult problem of translating a “dive bar”
aesthetic to a video game is that dive bars are dimly lit and
often black in color, but low brightness in a video game is
frustrating and a lack of color would fail to differentiate the
game from many FPS games with desaturated color
palettes. The goal was for the level to “feel” dark, but not
necessarily be too dark to play. More iteration on the visual
style will no doubt necessary in the future.
NEXT ITERATION / CONCLUSION
Preliminary testing indicates much audience enthusiasm for
conceptual prototypes; all that remains is to finish building
the video game, which will take place during Summer 2011.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Eddie Cameron for engineering consultation and
also thank the fantastic and beautiful Sabine Seymour for
remaining a shining inspiration through these dark times.
REFERENCES
1. Jansz, J. & Tanis, M. “Appeal of playing online
first person shooter games”, in Cyberpsychology
and Behavior , Vol. 10, No. 1 (2007): 133-136.
2. Rittel, Horst, and Melvin Webber. "Dilemmas in a
General Theory of Planning", in Policy Sciences 4
(1973): 155-159.
3. Isbister, Katherine and Noah Schaffer. Game
Usability: Advancing the Player Experience. San
Francisco: Morgan Kauffman, 2008.
4. Gordon Pask, “The Architectural Relevance of
Cybernetics,” Architectural Design 7, no. 6 (1969)
5. Pauly, Daniele. Barragan: Space and Shadow,
Walls and Colour. Basel: Birkhauser, 2008.
6. Pinchbeck, Dan. “Story as a function of gameplay
in First Person Shooters: an analysis of FPS
diegetic content 1998-2007.” PhD diss., University
of Portsmouth, 2009.
7. Smith, Harvey and Matthias Worch. “What
Happened Here – Environmental Storytelling.”
Paper presented at Game Developers Conference
2010, San Francisco, California.
8. Reeves, Ben. “Ironsights”, in Game Informer 215
(2011): 18-19.
9. Jersey Shore. Episode no. 6, “Boardwalk
Blowups,” first broadcast 7 January 2010 by MTV
Networks / Viacom.
10. Genzlinger, Neil. "Surf and Turmoil – What’
's Not
to Love About ‘Jersey Shore’?" The New York
Times, January 4, 2010. Accessed May 12, 2011.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/arts/televisio
n/04shore.html