Semiotics in Games

Whether you’re a veteran gamer or picking up a controller for the first time, semiotics plays a pivotal role in relaying information from the developer to the player as quickly and easily as possible. Semiotics are defined as “the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation” by Oxford languages, and show up in games much more often than you might think. Let’s take a look at some examples.

UI: Shadow of Mordor

The UI (User Interface) is probably one of the most common places you will see semiotics. If there was ever a way to quickly relay information to the player, it would be directly on their screen that they cannot look away from. Everything from health to objectives stays with the player, and the symbols they use to represent these must be clear and easy to understand so that the player can recognize them without a second thought.

In Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, there are already countless icons on the screen that may overwhelm someone who is unfamiliar with symbols in videogames. To someone familiar with action-adventure games like this, it may seem fairly obvious, but the developers need to make sure they design for new players as well. This is why the signs they use have very deliberate characteristics that will communicate as best as possible to the widest of audiences.

1. This symbol appears to be brighter and more detailed than any other on the screen. In-game, it is also flashing repeatedly and seems to follow this single character. Without a single other piece of information, it can be inferred that the player really needs to see this. Whether it’s a good thing or not, at the moment, is irrelevant, but what does matter is that the player should pay very close attention to it. Now, by this point in the game, the player will also be aware that most moving things in the game want to kill you, and this creature looks very much like anything else that has wanted to kill you so far. Given that every other enemy has a red arrow over their head, this one being a bright flaming orange one with a crown likely implies it is the leader of the enemies, or is a particularly dangerous one. All of this can be summed up with a single flick of the eye before the player has absorbed everything they need to know. Blinky orange symbol means big mean baddie.

2. Amidst a sea of red arrows that surround the player on the map, their radar also displays red arrows. That should be a quick giveaway of what those arrows are already, however there is one extra arrow that does not seem to reflect the world around the player. At the very center of their radar is a blue arrow, and it is always there no matter where they go. Why is it blue? And why does it follow you? After a big of experimenting, the player will start to realize that this blue arrow must mean it is them! The arrow turns the same direction the player is turning, giving them a visual representation of where they are facing within the world.

3. How about something more complicated? The three red lines on the minimap are also the same shade of red as the rest of your enemies, so those are surely dangerous as well. You can’t see them currently in the world, but there must be a different danger somewhere on the map. While these could be interpreted as spikes or fire or just really mean lines, the fact that they turn in circles and move about like the red arrows tells the player that this is something that can move, a creature most likely. They may not immediately know that this means it is a beast, but the symbol of three claw marks can be seen in many symbols even in the real world, such as Monster energy drinks or the Toronto Raptors. Once the player sees them, however, the image will stick.

4. Many symbols do depend on the players making quick connections. The player has already had access to arrows for some time before seeing their first arrow symbol on the map, so at the very least they will recognize that it may be related to them. Likewise, the white color means it probably isn’t an enemy, as all of those are always red. Even if the player does not understand why there is something related to arrows there, a quick investigation will show them that it is meant for picking up more arrows, and they will from then on know to go towards them for a resupply.

5. Lastly, and maybe the hardest to see but not the hardest to understand, is the blue arrow above one of the enemy’s heads. The only other time you have seen a blue arrow was the player’s own radar, and that was indicating them. They can assume that blue must mean good, and arrow must mean some kind of target like the red enemies, so with this quick bit of symbolism they have already told the player that this enemy must be friendly, or at least non-hostile.

World Symbols: For Honor

Symbols can also appear within the world space. They can come and go depending on the situation, and is often something a player needs to pay attention to much more carefully because the game needs them to see it in a rush. While the radar, for example, is off in the corner to give basic directional information, a flashing icon in the middle of the screen is something the player will need to see much more quickly. For Honor may look similar to the previous title, but the way it handles alerts and symbols is much more in-your-face. And it has to be, because its pvp-focus requires twitch reaction time from both competitors.

1. One of the most important things a player needs to be able to recognize is the unblockable symbol. In a pvp-intensive game like this, developers don’t want the player to have to guess symbols, so they instead introduce them through a series of tutorials. However, it is still important that the symbols they use are quickly memorable, and the player has time to adjust their strategies accordingly. The “Unblockable” symbol appears as a bright, glowing orange symbol directly in the middle of your opponent. The player’s eyes will be zero’d in on the middle of the screen for just such a symbol, and with how abrasive it is, they will recognize it immediately.

2. Players will also need to know very quickly whether another player is an opponent or an ally. With the ability to customize your characters, it is important to convey faction quickly without any guessing as to what shade of blue warrants an enemy or not. Instead, the symbol and color of the player is shown directly next to their health, and the use of complimentary colors helps the two stand out so dramatically that a player does not need to spend more than a moment to determine who is who.

3. While some games keep health bars in the corners because of the slow pace of their games, others like For Honor need them smack dab in the middle of the action. The player needs to be able to see if their opponent is strong enough to keep fighting or not, and this is conveyed through white bars that slowly deplete as each player takes damage. The background of these bars starts blinking red, indicating something of importance. Like many other symbols in games, this blinking is telling the player that they are dying and taking a lot of damage. As with most games, once the white bar is gone, the enemy is dead.

4. While not a particularly exciting symbol, even the white circle gives information the player desperately needs. In this type of combat, players “lock on” to an opponent, meaning most of their attacking and blocking is based off of a single enemy. A white ring around an enemy highlights them, telling the player that they are focusing on that particular enemy, and the ring will appear from enemy to enemy based on the players movements. Only one ring exists at a time, so the player can easily infer that this must be their target.

5. Lastly, and pretty straightforwardly, a skull over a character. Skulls are used a lot in semiotics, and videogames are no exception. While they can typically mean danger or “beware,” having one hover over a player that is laying down and not moving pretty quickly conveys to the player that this person must be the more literal symbol for skulls: dead. Because this symbol is not as urgent, it can exist in world space rather than directly in the center of their focus, but the fact that it brightly stands out is still a testament to how quickly the player should be able to recognize this.

Interactable Symbols: Sea of Thieves

Games like Sea of Thieves typically have very minimal UI. The screen is pretty much just a health bar, and otherwise is completely up to the player to figure out the world around them. How, then, do they use semiotics to explain the game’s rules and parameters to the player? They simply use symbols within the world.

1. To someone who plays videogames a lot, a red barrel with an “X” on it clearly means it will explode. But why? Have we ever come across bright red explosive barrels in real life? More likely, it that the developers in Sea of Thieves recognize the consistency of these tropes and implement them into their game. Once again, the red stands out, the X stands out, and they very clearly look like something that can be interacted with. Why do we know they can explode? Well, in reality we don’t. Not until we see it for the first time. Then we learn very quickly.

2. Looking at the “stronghold barrels,” then, what can we infer? It’s also red, also has an X, and is also a barrel. If we’ve seen regular barrels explode before, we can safely assume this one will as well. So what makes it so special? By seeing it covered in symbols we as humans tend to consider bad, such as skulls, bones, spikes, and giving it an overall more flashy design, it’s likely that this isn’t a special barrel that dispenses ice cream. More than likely, it explodes even more than the previous one.

3. Again, to the average gamer, one doesn’t typically play with explosives. The barrel that is now on fire could mean almost anything, but through years of exposure to movies and videogames, we assume that explosives that are on fire typically, well, explode. However, this is still just a symbol. The fire can’t burn you, nothing is saying out loud “watch out this is going to explode,” instead, the player just has to see that it’s on fire and make an assumption as to what that is supposed to mean.

4. So, if all these barrels are so evil, why is it so easy to understand that regular barrels don’t explode? Aside from the calmer color scheme, lack of skulls, and player experience, these barrels likely don’t explode because the red ones do. Symbols interact with one another, and the best way to tell a player that there is a difference in the mechanics of something is to show them a difference in cosmetic. One is red and explodes, so one that isn’t red probably doesn’t explode. It’s a safe assumption that they would be right about.

5. To stop talking about barrels for a second, what about the key on the hut? This is quite literally a symbol, as the owner of the hut has painted it to display his faction. If the player finds an item with this symbol on it, regardless of what it means, they know that there is somewhere in the world that also has this symbol. After some dialogue and experience, the player will come to understand that key symbols mean key items can go to the key people. Who woulda thought?

Overall

The best part about semiotics is that you never even notice they are happening. Players don’t often say to themselves “aha, this is a symbol that looks like a good thing because it is a color that I associate to happiness. I must check this happiness symbol out for positive rewards.” They simply go to blue markers because patterns dictate it will have a positive result. Likewise, there are a hundred other examples just within each screenshot that is a symbol, such as the golden circle in Shadow of Mordor or the green bar under the white health bar in For Honor. These symbols and images need to properly convey their purpose the moment the player sees them so that they can use them to make decisions, not to slow them down to determine what the symbol is in the first place.

While many of them may need to be explained to ensure the player has a grasp of your lexicon, time in games will give players a faster and faster understanding of symbols until they get to the point where they will instinctively understand everything they are meant to, whether they are told or not. However, never rely on this, as you can’t make the assumption a player will know what you are presenting them. It’s best to make a game that clearly communicates its designs, and the players themselves can decide if they need to remember it or not. Till then, this was just a quick look at Semiotics in Games.