The Brainy Gamer: Narrative manifesto - The Diigo Meta page

• 13 Jun 09
  

  Sarah Sutter

  Games trying to get to a "new mode of storytelling" with a "genuinely interactive narrative experience [for] the player".

  game games gamedesign narrative storytelling

• 15 Mar 09
  

  T. Storm
  • This core notion - that "interactive gaming" in its current state is essentially a sender-receiver relationship between designer and player - serves as the basis for nearly all the brainstorming and deep thinking about narrative video games tod
  • They believe what a growing number of designers now believe: the designer builds a system, but the player authors the story
  • 5 more annotations...
  • • "hands-off" creator who enables the player with the tools and agency to co-author her experience.
    • The player is an agent of chaos, making the medium
      ill-equipped to convey a pre-authored narrative with anywhere near the
      effectiveness of books or film.
    • These are player stories, not author stories, and hence they
      belong to the player himself. Unlike a great film or piece of
      literature, they don't give the audience an admiration for the genius
      in someone else's work; they instead supply the potential for genuine
      personal experience, acts attempted and accomplished by the player as
      an individual, unique memories that are the player's to own and to pass
      on.
    • "what did you do?" versus "here's what I did."
    • Rather than worry about how these relate to
      some grand linear story, simply leave them as short vignettes that
      connect and relate to one another through A.I. With enough potent
      symbols and a willing subject, you don’t really need much control over
      the narrative at all. The player will create the story for you.
• 08 Aug 08
  

  Gerhard Stoltz
  • And at the same time on the level design side
    isn't primarily there just to kind of help concoct missions, but is really
    there to try to make sure that every time the player feels like they ought to
    have a say in the way things are unfolding, that there's some system that
    supports it.
  • We just say, let's take the player as close as we can,...put him into this really, really difficult
    position, a terrible situation that probably most of us would like to
    avoid if
    we could, and try to get him to make decisions in a way that will help
    him
    survive, that will help him pursue his larger goals, that will allow
    him to
    potentially change those larger goals if
    he decides that he doesn't believe in them anymore, and to be able to
    deal with
    characters and situations on a case by case basis. In other words, give
    him the
    freedom to fuck up, give him the freedom to have a moment of triumph,
    or a
    moment of weakness, or moments of regret.
  • 5 more annotations...

  • • These are all things that we try to let the player do, but
      since we can't know what's in the player's heart, we can't know what the
      player's thinking - and hell, maybe 80% of our players are just like, "Yes,
      this is great fun! I'm blowing stuff up and burning things." Maybe only a
      small piece of that message gets though. And if that's the case, that's fine.
      We've still built a really good shooter. But what we're saying is, for that
      percentage of gamers who are affected by these things, and who think about
      these things, we want it to be there. [2]

      
      

      ---

    • 
      the game designer's role is to provide the player with an intriguing
      place to be, and then give them tools to perform interactions they'd
      logically be able to as a person in that place-- to fully express their
      agency within the gameworld that's been provided. [5]

    • he brings to bear his training as a tarot card reader to suggest players are hard-wired to create meaning.
    • This might
      shock you, but the real key is to not actually believe you’re
      predicting the future when you do a reading. Instead, pretend you’re
      giving someone an elaborate ink blot test. It’s like holding up a giant
      symbolic mirror that will, thanks to our mind’s natural inclination to
      assign meaning to chaos, create an incredibly personal and profound
      story for the subject.
    • I don’t need to be in control of the
      meaning the cards create for a person, because I know the meaning they
      create will be far more powerful anyways.

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