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| Watch the YouTube video clip! |
Like a streak of lightnin' flashin' 'cross the sky...
Like the swiftest arrow whizzin' from a bow!
You'll hear his name just ev'ry-where you go.
The time will come when ev'ry-one will know – the – name – of –
Like the swiftest arrow whizzin' from a bow!
Like a MIGHTY cannon-ball he seems to fly;
You'll hear his name just ev'ry-where you go.
The time will come when ev'ry-one will know – the – name – of –
CHAM-PION, THE WON–DER HORSE!
CHAM-PION, THE WON—DER HORSE!
CHAM-PION, THE WON—DER HORSE!
No? Well that's a BIG problem if I want to use it as a nostalgia trigger.
Maybe you're too young to remember this slice of hokey western adventure.
Maybe you're old enough, but never saw it at the time. Memories are very personal, after all.
Verifying the affect of nostalgia triggers
I've finally got moving on the experimental phase of my research. The results of these experiments will inform the final production phase, where I will aim to create casual mobile game(s) which will act as a living demonstration of the added value of nostalgia in game design.
My first experiment starts by looking at an axiom: to verify that nostalgia triggers will actually provoke a positive emotional response. Existing psychology research proves the general case for this, but I need to confirm that my chosen triggers are effective before proceeding further.
Some triggers will undoubtedly get a muted response. Take the example below:
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| Image stolen from Flickr; copyright Marc Sayce |
Opal Fruits were launched in the UK in 1959 by Mars Confectionery, advertised with the long-running slogan "Made to make your mouth water". However, when Mars released the same sweet in the USA in 1967 they changed the name to Starburst. To simplify global marketing, the UK Opal Fruits name was phased out in 1998.
Will someone react emotionally to seeing the old name? Adsa thought so, reintroducing the old branding for a limited period in 2008. Was it a success? I think the fact that they haven't repeated the gimmick speaks for itself.
This is a concern that I must consider when selecting nostalgia triggers for my game. Therefore I shall be measuring the strength of response to a range of triggers in order to weed out poor candidates.
I'd considered full double-blind psychological tests, but realised that this would be overkill for the scale of project that I'm working on. A simple questionnaire -- asking participants to grade relative excitement upon seeing an item -- will be sufficient.
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| Rowntree Mackintosh (now Nestle) Toffo sweets. "A man's gotta chew what a man's gotta chew!" Produced from 1970s to mid-1980s; re-released in the mid-2000s for a short period. |
It'll also give me an opportunity to cross-reference the data with the age of participants, hopefully finding a correlation between their formative years and the periods in which products were active.