image, as if the user is looking into the room through it. The walls of the room are
represented by the boundary of the screen.
In the scene the horizontal angle is ‘frontal’; the vertical angle is from above. The
frontal angle positions the user as ‘engaged’ and the vertical angle positions the user
looking down on the animated character and the room, a viewing angle that is
suggestive of a degree of user power. In addition to the angle this perspective
foregrounds (makes salient) the floor of the room as it occupies the majority of the
screen space.
The modal resources of sound-effect also serve to foreground the floor and to suggest
a closer social relationship between the user and the animated character. Once inside
a house the sound-effect used to represent the animated character’s footsteps alter and
the volume increases. The different sound effects indicate the move from a more
absorbent external surface to a less absorbent internal one (such as wood). The
increase in the volume of the sound-effect decreases the ‘sonic distance’ of the
character and user.
Representation Inside of a City House: Kneeling
In order to construct a ‘rule’ (and on a larger level a game) the user has to move the
character into a house and make it kneel on the floor, shown in Figure 5.4. This
marks ‘rule’ in an everyday game sense of rule as demanding a particular location (a
house) and position (kneeling) in order for the user to act. This is especially designed
for affect with primary school children. At this ‘sub-level’ in the city the screen
shows the floor of the house, the open toolbox and tools, and the arm of the animated
character.
As the user instructs the animated character to kneel on the floor of a house, the
representation of his or her point of view changes. The viewer is returned to a bird’s
eye view of the floor, she or he is positioned as looking down at the floor, in other
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