Allow me to throw this into the mix, as we are talking about the double jump as a gameplay mechanic.
I find myself using a double jump when i don't need to. Take God of War for example, i would find that even though i could make a jump quite comfortably with a single jump, i would use a double to sort of 'spot' my landing as it were. I would even only push the stick slightly so that the end of my first jump only went half way and then finished the rest with the double.

Was this intended by the designer? Why would i do this? Does the fact i can double jump make a single jump redundant?

Discuss. :D

It is all about control.

In games we don't actually have the kinds of control over the character that a skilled athlete would in real life (and the characters are usually supposed to skilled athletes).

So in translation to computer game, we loose some control. By giving players these means (air control and double jumping) it returns some control over the ends. Control that we lost.

This is why it is not quiestioned too much as we would ahve some control. In real life during the take off due to the positioning of our feet, timing of our muscles, etc. Where as in a game we use a binary system (usually a single button that is either pressed or not).

We have lost a lot of that fine control and these methods of air control and double jumping give us back the control that we lost.

Quote:

Original post by Captain Griffen Quote: Original post by Kest Quote: Original post by Captain Griffen Double jump makes more sense than having significant control over directional momentum while in the air (as opposed to rotational momentum). I don't understand. A double jump is having significant control over directional momentum while in the air. Air control, not including double jumping. It simply doesn't exist in reality (well, unless you are skydiving, but then you are moving a hell of a lot faster relative to the air). You can't, for example, in RL jump off a ledge, and then use some super powers to bring you back to under the ledge, whereas in many games you can.

In real life you can simply turn around and grab on to the ledge and then climb back up. What the double jump serves to provide in games isn't really analogous to changing your direction in mid jump: it allows players to:

A) More intuitively compensate for judging distance. There is far more sensory input involved in calculating jumping and movement in real life than there is in a video game. Being able to jump again allows the player to re-judge their trajectory given a moving frame of reference, compensating for the loss of body position, sound, and 3D perception that occurs in real life.

B) Substitute for grabbing, climbing, and changing body position without altering trajectory. In reality, double jumping serves as an abstraction to cover those sorts of actions that are effectively impossible with standard game controls, game play design, and control devices.

The immersion breaking aspects tend to be more of a side effect than an intended effect. Of course, as usual, many developers have utilized those immersion breaking aspects as parts of game play (Super Smash Bros comes to mind).

In essence, pretty much exactly what Edtharan said above with some addendum's.