Are Amnesia players adults or teens?

[Nice]

Anybody who can't figure out how the controls in Amnesia work (which are as minimalistic as you get) is retarded. Sorry, but it's true. It has nothing to do with tech savvy, but the basic skills all mature human beings have: the ability to manipulate muscles and joints, functional memory and the ability to react to visual and aural stimuli. Even a child could master the controls after only playing the "tutorial".

yeah because every human is born with the knowledge that W means forward, S means back, A left and D right. And its completely obvious shift means sprint.

let me point out again that my cousin DOESN'T play games. How could a person that never played anything know that ? Also, to be clear.. She only played first 15 minutes. She was clumsy those first 15 minutes, so she didn't have any time to "adjust".

[Yuhaney]

Anybody who can't figure out how the controls in Amnesia work (which are as minimalistic as you get) is retarded. Sorry, but it's true.

Sorry, but this statement is pretty close minded.

[jiersk]

Fifteen, but having suffered severe depression and trauma at a young age I was forced to mature very quickly.

I'm sorry to hear that I hope you are doing better now.

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I think the reason some adults might not be scared by Amnesia is because they're not used to playing FPS games, so that the controls become a barrier between them and the game. Since a sense of presence is created by an uninterrupted flow of information and feedback between the player and the game, their lack of fluency in FPS controls prevents them from immersing themselves and getting scared.

When I made my uncle play Amnesia, he was quite clumsy at first and sometimes during fast-paced moments he got confused because he simply wasn't sure what was going on. But eventually he got into it and started feeling 'em shivers.

Well I let the people who I let play Amnesia get used to the controls first. Otherwise they won't immerse, like you said.

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I want to thank everyone who has responded to this thread. I really like it to read through these threads and to write somethings myself too. So thanks

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Anybody who can't figure out how the controls in Amnesia work (which are as minimalistic as you get) is retarded. Sorry, but it's true. It has nothing to do with tech savvy, but the basic skills all mature human beings have: the ability to manipulate muscles and joints, functional memory and the ability to react to visual and aural stimuli. Even a child could master the controls after only playing the "tutorial".

Sorry Bridge but I really can't agree with you here. Learning these controls for the first time can be hard. You might know what WASD and the mouse do after the tutorial, but that doesn't mean you can move as good as people who are really used to it.
And do you still remember playing a game on pc for the first time? I don't think you directly knew how to play it good, even after the tutorial. No offence ( really ).

[Bridge]

It has to do with basic deduction skills.

First off - The game tells you that WASD controls the character's movements. Here is the thought process anybody goes through.

Press W - notice that character moves forward. Submitted into short-term memory
Press A - notice that character strafes left. Submitted into short-term memory.
Press S - etc.

Not to mention the cartographic universal of up/forward = North, etc.

The game guides you through every other step. It teaches you how to check your notes and mementos, how to turn the lantern on, everything. And these are some of the simplest controls you can get for this type of game.

Now all you need, assuming you can actually produce short-term memories and eventually turn them into long-term ones, is the ability to manipulate the muscles to press the keys. Admittedly, these are fine motor skills that take time to perfect, but 15-20 minutes is enough to be able to actually do it on a basic level. Like how people with no knowledge of music can physically depress the keys of a piano and after mere minutes learn to play simple melodies. The game makes it easy enough for you, it's not like it's a complex RTS that maps every single key on the keyboard. It's essentially just WASD and the mouse.

You gotta come up with a bigger challenge than operating a 50s radio. It's not even analogous, because those radios often came with a visual representation of what frequency you are currently tuned into. The basic concept, ignoring everything else, is: one knob adjusts frequency and the other volume. Not difficult. In fact, even if the numbers were totally unintelligible and the frequency was adjusting by means of tapping the antenna, you can figure it out with relative ease.

As I said, it's a basic skillset that all mature human beings possessed, with the crucial discrepancy being that the keyboard/mouse is a totally foreign idiom to many. The concepts are the exact same however, just like I can listen to a conversation in Hebrew with visual aids (body language, setting, external stimuli) and come up with rough definitions of basic words. Even if they completely suck at the game, it's not like they are going to be thinking 15 minutes into the game: "Uh, which button was up again?" It's something that's constantly being practiced while playing the game, making it effectively impossible to forget, and it takes a surprisingly short amount of time for the body to develop habits out of muscle memory.

So there.

EDIT: And of course I do not mean "retarded" literally, to all of you who think I am taking potshots at your parents (btw, if your father who received two Masters degrees, cannot figure out the controls of Amnesia after a reasonable amount of time, that is surely the ultimate testament that public education promotes stock, generalized thinking patterns instead of encouraging creative solutions and deductive logic).

[failedALIAS]

So there.

Basically all I read; so by Law of the Internet, I win.

[Bridge]

So there.

Basically all I read; so by Law of the Internet, I win.

Yea.

[jiersk]

It has to do with basic deduction skills.

First off - The game tells you that WASD controls the character's movements. Here is the thought process anybody goes through.

Press W - notice that character moves forward. Submitted into short-term memory
Press A - notice that character strafes left. Submitted into short-term memory.
Press S - etc.

Not to mention the cartographic universal of up/forward = North, etc.

The game guides you through every other step. It teaches you how to check your notes and mementos, how to turn the lantern on, everything. And these are some of the simplest controls you can get for this type of game.

Now all you need, assuming you can actually produce short-term memories and eventually turn them into long-term ones, is the ability to manipulate the muscles to press the keys. Admittedly, these are fine motor skills that take time to perfect, but 15-20 minutes is enough to be able to actually do it on a basic level. Like how people with no knowledge of music can physically depress the keys of a piano and after mere minutes learn to play simple melodies. The game makes it easy enough for you, it's not like it's a complex RTS that maps every single key on the keyboard. It's essentially just WASD and the mouse.

You gotta come up with a bigger challenge than operating a 50s radio. It's not even analogous, because those radios often came with a visual representation of what frequency you are currently tuned into. The basic concept, ignoring everything else, is: one knob adjusts frequency and the other volume. Not difficult. In fact, even if the numbers were totally unintelligible and the frequency was adjusting by means of tapping the antenna, you can figure it out with relative ease.

As I said, it's a basic skillset that all mature human beings possessed, with the crucial discrepancy being that the keyboard/mouse is a totally foreign idiom to many. The concepts are the exact same however, just like I can listen to a conversation in Hebrew with visual aids (body language, setting, external stimuli) and come up with rough definitions of basic words. Even if they completely suck at the game, it's not like they are going to be thinking 15 minutes into the game: "Uh, which button was up again?" It's something that's constantly being practiced while playing the game, making it effectively impossible to forget, and it takes a surprisingly short amount of time for the body to develop habits out of muscle memory.

So there.

While it is mostly true what you say. I think we were talking about different things. I was talking about controlling the game like gamer do, with skill.

[Bridge]

While it is mostly true what you say. I think we were talking about different things. I was talking about controlling the game like gamer do, with skill.

My entire point is that Amnesia's controls are so streamlined that they are deliberately designed not to get in your way. I do not see how it is possible for someone to say: accidentally run backwards towards the monsters instead of forwards. That, by the way, is probably the worst case scenario. You cannot fall to your death, you can not set off instant death traps, you can literally do nothing but move around, turn on the lantern and check notes/health.

EDIT: Forgot about the Study exterior and Choir. After succesfully avoiding the water monster, however, I certainly hope the player has a firm grasp of the controls. No way anyone can make it through that stage accidentally. By that time you have to be an expert at the (simple) controls or you will die.

[jiersk]

While it is mostly true what you say. I think we were talking about different things. I was talking about controlling the game like gamer do, with skill.

My entire point is that Amnesia's controls are so streamlined that they are deliberately designed not to get in your way. I do not see how it is possible for someone to say: accidentally run backwards towards the monsters instead of forwards. That, by the way, is probably the worst case scenario. You cannot fall to your death, you can not set off instant death traps, you can literally do nothing but move around, turn on the lantern and check notes/health.

If that is your point, I agree with you. Sorry I misunderstood you at first.

[failedALIAS]

My entire point is that Amnesia's controls are so streamlined that they are deliberately designed not to get in your way. I do not see how it is possible for someone to say: accidentally run backwards towards the monsters instead of forwards. That, by the way, is probably the worst case scenario. You cannot fall to your death, you can not set off instant death traps, you can literally do nothing but move around, turn on the lantern and check notes/health.

I'll have you know, good sir, that I once ceased in my cautious, systematically sound approach. My fault was in forgetting where the spacebar was located. Though this incident abruptly interrupted my advances for only five half-seconds, it resulted in both my knee caps eating themselves, and my dick tying into a knot and around my chandelier.

This is serious business.