RE: Interactive Drama: Why I've lost interest

["Brandon J. Van Every" <vanevery@indiegamedesign.com>]

From:  Dan Lyke
>
> So from my perspective, playing computer games, as they've evolved,
> has become an impediment to better social experiences,

I find the idea that 'story' is or should produce 'better social
experiences' bizzare.  When I read a book, I'm reading the book.  I'm
not afraid to go to movies alone.  I do discuss movies with friends,
sometimes in great detail, but that's not the primary benefit I gain
from watching them.  To put such an extraverted emphasis on a medium
that is so often introvert, I think you'll have to call your own
personality type into consideration.  I'd refer you to the Myers-Briggs
Type Indicators (MBTI), which you can learn about at
http://www.humanmetrics.com  I'd pick you either for an Extravert, or an
Introvert who has recognized the need for social balance in his life and
is now "taking it out on" storytelling.

As a Game Designer I am openly hostile to what I call "fish stories."
These are the stories that groups of people tell about *their own*
online experiences.  "Whoa, I caught a big fish!  And then it jumped
around a whole bunch, and then... whoa!"  These stories are completely
boring drivel to those who didn't have the experinece.  Storytelling is
a craft and most people don't know the craft.  Yet the whole game
industry is in love with this idea of getting players to tell their own
stories to each other.  I believe this is because the vast majority of
people in the game industry don't know how to write.

Similarly, I'm deeply suspicious of the writing prowess of anyone who's
worked heavily on "automated storytelling."  I've sunk some time into
the craft of writing, and although I don't have any public work to show
for it, I am at least conversant with the principles of screenwriting.
I'm ready to write a screenplay or a novel right now if I want to.  At
present I don't; I'm focused on game AI problems for 4X Turn Based
Strategy ala the Civilization genre.  There are only so many hours in a
day to follow a particular Muse.  But having gone up my learning curve,
it seems far less work to learn how to write well, and then write well,
than  to keep pursuing this chimera of the computer generated story.  I
honestly don't know why most people bother, except that they have little
prowess as writers, and concentrate instead on their core strengths in
technology.

> So if compelling artists are so cheap that they're playing for tips in
> the local bars, an experience which leads to social interaction (and
> if I'm inspired to join in the music, me practicing skills which have
> real world application), why am I trying to automate that task?

Indeed, at some point an artist has to embrace self-promotion and
business acumen, if she wants to make a living on her artistic freedoms.
Many artists are not disposed to do this, as it is a lot of work and not
very creative.  As an artist, the automation tasks I actually work on
are open source tools that will empower the programmer-artist with the
means of production.  Within 10 years, I want 1 programmer to do what a
team of 100 programmers does in an art production pipeline right now.  I
want the little guy to be empowered with amazing tools, so that he's not
beholden to corporate anything.  It is ambitious, but it is a far more
fungible and tractable problem than asking computers to invent something
for nothing for us.

I think that's what gets the techies into the whole interactive drama
dream.  They play a text adventure, then they think, "Wouldn't it be
great if text adventures just appeared out of thin air for me!  I could
have all the text adventures I want, all the time!"  So they drive
themselves crazy trying to make this pipe dream come true.  If at some
point they realized that TANSTAAFL, they would have gotten on with the
ardurous but necessary task of pulling the drama out of their own minds.


Cheers,                     www.indiegamedesign.com
Brandon Van Every           Seattle, WA

"The pioneer is the one with the arrows in his back."
                          - anonymous entrepreneur

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