Re: Too Much reality?

["Todd Gemmell"]

Hmmm. I think it's in my list of life long wishes somewhere to be the victim
of a frivolous law suit where the plaintiff will claim damages for emotional
distress caused by my product. Unfortunately  in this litigious world that
is more likely a function of having deep pockets than having a very good
product....

The hope is of course to "suspend disbelief" in the game to the point where
the user will cringe at dealing with spiders in the enviorment if that is
one of thier fears. While perhaps not thinking they "are" the lead
protagonist, I think it is ultra important to identify with a character(s)
to get an emotional "buy in". I completely agree with Dan that the camera
should be 3rd person point of view but I am very curious what you all think
the player/user's perspective should be through the story. Do we follow one
character? or many?

-T


>>In a perfect world, all of the questions have to be immersive. You
>>can't just ask people what their phobias are if you're going to play
>>off of them, in many cases they don't know themselves or the answers
>>are too long to give in a single setting.
>
>We could get into a horrible Reality Engine in this situation. Scare the
>crap out of the players - after they play our game for so long, we give
>them a personality synopsis - what we've determined and how we modified the
>game based upon their actions. Sure to be scary for some people who don't
>expect it. They'd play the games again painfully aware of their reactions
>creating a whole different world.
>
>>I wouldn't have listed that as a phobia, but drop me in a realistic
>>simulation of a bunch of long-legged hairy spiders and the hair on the
>>back of my neck will crawl.
>
>This prompts an innocent question: if you were in an interactive fiction
>world, and we're immersed into it to a degree that we all want to create,
>would you be frightened of spiders in the game? Would this effect your
>decisions?
>
>>If you've ever wondered what "color timing" is and why the color timer
>
>To be honest, you lost me on the whole technicality of the lighting
>explanations - you can be the resident Atmosphere Engine Expert...