Research on the Emotional Experience of Insensitive Characters on Game Players

In recent years, with the rapid development of narrative games, the deep integration of game emotions and mechanisms has become the core evolutionary direction and trend of contemporary game design, and players' requirements for character emotional expression have become increasingly diversified. Game characters are the bridge and carrier for players to experience the game world, so real game characters can better enable players to project their emotions and deeply experience the feelings that the game brings to them. Among them are insensitive characters - characters that appear emotionally cold and slow to respond to changes in the surrounding environment in the early stages but have gradually attracted attention because of their potential to trigger deep emotional resonance and in-depth thinking among players in the later stages. The purpose of this study is to explore the specific manifestations and significance of insensitivity characters in games, as well as their emotional experience with players. Based on the theoretical basis of the Three-Level Model of Emotional Design proposed by Don Norman, and taking the character May in It Takes Two as a detailed analysis case, this paper explores how her insensitive characteristics are reflected and whether there are any changes, and what kind of experience this brings to players, and then uses the software SPSS for statistical analysis. This study conducted a questionnaire survey on 255 players and analyzed the differences in the emotional experience that the insensitive characters brought to the players during the game experience. According to the research results, it can be seen that in the early stages of the game, players resist the insensitive characters and find it difficult to empathize with them. As the plot progresses, players gradually enter the heart of the insensitive character and begin to pay attention to the psychological motivations behind it, and their emotions turn into understanding and concern. In the later stages of the game and after the game ends, the player's emotions towards the insensitivity character change to resonating with it, which triggers the player's in-depth thinking, prompting the player to reflect on his or her own emotional reactions and be willing to continue to interact with such characters in the future. The emotional experience of players is consistent with the Three-Layer Model of Emotional Design theory proposed by Norman. By optimizing the personality traits of the insensitive character, the depth of interaction between the character and the player is further enhanced. In the future, game character design should also consider how to improve the negative impact of the character on the player while applying the insensitive character personality to bring a positive emotional experience to the player.