RE: Interactive Drama: Why I've lost interest

["Joe Andrieu" <joe@andrieu.net>]

Brandon wrote:
> You really expect them to achieve this by doing "anything they want?"
> Even with your sanity constraints, the range of their acting is vast.
> And hence their bad acting.

Sure. Anything they want within the boundaries of the simulation. Which is
to say, fundamentally you have to build some sort of interactive
environment. If you choose The Sims as a model, they get to have houses and
interact in constrained way with objects and other players.  If you choose
Thief as a model, they get to slink around hiding and stealing.  But yes, as
far as the story is concerned anything goes.

It is DEFINITELY not about their acting.  I don't want to turn players into
actors. Actors have specific lines and are directed by a director.  That's
not the interesting challenge.  The interesting challenge (to me) is that
the player does what they want and a story emerges.  The _player_, not the
character.

Window dressing on the same old stories?  We've been telling and retelling
stories for thousands of years. Story is a function of how we relate new
experiences to each other, to our society, and to ourselves. A great story
is simultaneously fresh, universal, timeless, and personally relevant.  The
truly great stories maintain over time precisely because they are universal
and timeless.  If your goal is to abandon traditional stories and make up
your own innovative aesthetic for stories, go for it. There is a fabulous
legacy of people creating really cool stuff challenging the "formula" of
prior art.  At this juncture, I'm just hoping to faithfully reinvent the
same formula in a way people can interact with it.  Heck, if we could get
the _simplest_ story form in a truly interactive context, we'd be
generations ahead of where we are now.

Your criticism of Hollywood is telling. You're dismissing the current best
of class in visual storytelling with an arbitrary personal attack.  You may
be tired of Hollywood, but they are doing so many things right we would do
well to model much of it, especially when it comes to stories.  Don't
confuse the frustrated elitist attacks of the failed writers who teach
writing with an honest appraisal of what works and doesn't work in story.
Hollywood is rich with a deep understanding that is generally absent in the
interactive fiction/interactive drama world. (Not always, but usually
absent.)

-j

--
Joe Andrieu
joe@andrieu.net
+1(805) 705-8651

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-idrama@mail.flutterby.com
[mailto:owner-idrama@mail.flutterby.com] On Behalf Of Brandon J. Van Every
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2005 2:49 AM
To: idrama@flutterby.com
Subject: RE: Interactive Drama: Why I've lost interest

Joe Andrieu wrote:
> So the player can do anything they want, and as long as
> they aren't
> acting schizophrenically or intentionally acting
> inconsistently, the result
> goes through a good story: introduction, complication, climax
> and resolution
> driving by their own interests and motivations.  They get the
> emotional
> power and engagement of a good story while being the interactive lead
> protagonist.

You really expect them to achieve this by doing "anything they want?"
Even with your sanity constraints, the range of their acting is vast.
And hence their bad acting.

> _Romeo & Juliet_ is the same "story" as _West Side Story_ on
> some level.
> Clearly, offering variability while maintaining that type of
> core story is critical to interactive drama.

It is?  The goal is window dressing on the same old stories?

> Once you strip away a particular
> manifestation of story, a particular interpretation in a
> particular medium,
> I believe you can define the core story elements in a way a
> computer can
> work with, so you can consistently generate experiences that
> feel like a good story.

But the story is in the telling.  *So many* Hollywood movies have
exactly the same underlying story 'core', like the hero's journey +
obligatory love interest or some such, yet they are boring films.


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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