Thought Control (was Re: Gameplay theory: leaving object behind..)


11 Sep 1995 17:56:01 GMT

In article <THONI.95Sep11155401@rabbit.softlab.se>,
Thomas Nilsson <thoni@rabbit.softlab.se> wrote:

>In article <42rahq$s3q@nntp4.u.washington.edu> scythe@u.washington.edu (Dan Shiovitz) writes:
>>
>>be a one-way trip. In general, I prefer the author to stay out of the game
>>as much as possible. I wouldn't like getting a "strange feeling I'm
>>forgetting something" (and that could be *real* frustrating if you can't
>>figure out what
[..]
>But these "subconsious" messages can, if they are used consistently,
>be used to inplant thoughts and ideas in the player. A 'book'
>(non-interactive?) author can always describe the thought process of
>the hero, but in the IF genre this is more difficult, especially if
>you are going along with the feelings&emotion-algebra proposed by the
>Oz project and others.
Well, yes. A book can always describe the thought process of the hero because
the author always knows the thought process of the hero. The i-f author can't
know what the player is thinking, which is 900f what the character is
thinking.

>I can imagine some story lines which require more precise control over
>the order of the thoughts and insights the hero experiences. If we
>consider the idea of trying to mimic the experience of reading a
>(non-interactive) book, this involves laying out a story which evolves
>in which where the hero plays an essential role, or at least is the
>view point to that story. To create an experience that has the same
>high quality I think we must aim for the goal that the actions of the
>hero significantly influences the river of events that surrounds him
>(or at least makes him/hero believe so). One way to limit the
>simulation of the entire universe (and all the parallell multiverses)
>we could 'create' ideas, feelings, opinions and emotions in the player
>in the same way that authors of non-interactive fiction does.
I agree, trying to simulate the feel of a good piece of literature would be a
worthy goal (don't jump on me yet, folks, let me explain ...) However, it's
vital we understand the differences between books and pieces of i-f before
we start messing around with the player's thoughts. IMO, the biggest
difference is that in a book, we have predestination. The author always knows
what's going to happen, 100accurately. No such thing in a game, alas. OTOH,
the game has something the book doesn't, namely the ability to make the player/
reader feel central to the story, and experience the story in a way reading a
book about it can't. Minor digression here: One common tactic for subverting
POW's to the cause of their captors was to ask them to copy out statements of
belief in the cause. Action tends to influence thought, and the act of copying
the statements often leads to them feeling the statements are true. Similarly,
we have a lot of potential in games to make the player feel the effects of
their actions. For example, in one of the various authoring guides there's a
reference to the creator of _Trinity_ mentioning how many people were upset
about killing the lizard. When we actually do the stuff, imo we're much closer
to it than if we just read about "someone else" doing it, even if we're allowed
to see their thoughts. (Forcibly wrenching this back to the topic I started
with..) So, in conclusion, I think the best way to create thoughts/emotions
in the player is not to tell them, but to show them. If they go east in the
cornfield, don't say "The cornfield is endless, and you eventually decide to
stop." Let them walk for a dozen rooms in that direction, and they'll get a
much better impression of an endless cornfield. Similarly, the best way to
have the player think of the NPC as a friend is not to have the game print out
"Gee, Igor is sure a nice guy," but to put the player and NPC in a situation
that naturally leads to friendship (say, have Igor help the player out in
something), and the player will feel it better, all by themselves.

>Anyone care to comment, or give suggestions on how to do this?
>/Thomas
>S-582 47 LINKÖPING Email: thoni@softlab.se

--

------------------------------------------------+-------------- The Grim Reaper ** scythe@u.washington.edu | Dan Shiovitz ** shiov@cs.washington.edu | Aude ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Sapere _Music of the Spheres_ : Coming Nov '95 | ------------------------------------------------+--------------