Experimenting with nostalgia triggers

Back in November I found a clinical psychology study of nostalgia and extracted a list of major triggers:

• Shared memories within social interaction -- "do you remember...?"
• Sensory inputs -- visual, sounds, smells
• Indirect association (e.g. hearing grandad's favourite song)
• Similar events
• Depression

A games designer cannot manipulate all of these; indeed, some of these triggers are highly personalised and unsuitable for manipulating a wide audience.  However, the majority of these triggers can be exploited by reference to common cultural experiences.

Remember the spirit-based "Banda" duplicators used by schools in the 1970s & early '80s?
If you do, you're already probably recalling that "freshly printed" smell as you read this.

Depression is certainly a tough one to address!  Certainly, it could be induced by narrative -- an excellent example being the final scene in David Fincher's movie Se7en -- but it is also something that requires careful handling to get right without alienating the audience.  I feel this would justify an entire MA project in itself, so I'm staying well away from this particular trigger.

At the end of my literature & contextual research phase, I came to the conclusion that there are specific triggers which are very well-suited to game design -- especially within the elements of aesthetics and mechanics.

• Visual triggers (aesthetic) -- sensory input & shared memories; association with time period
• Auditory triggers (aesthetic) -- sensory input, association with time period
• Mechanical triggers (mechanic) -- similar events (emulating an experience or how objects behave)

In the current experimental phase of my research, I begin by verifying the methods I can use to provoke a nostalgic affect.  Forthcoming posts will examine respective (potential) visual, auditory & mechanical triggers and then seek to verify their effectiveness in isolation.  Later stages will consider them in combination and in a game context.