Putting It Together
Initiating the project four weeks ago, I found that as a beginner, I made the mistake of thinking “in terms of ‘story plus interactivity” when “a story is a data structure, and you cannot interact with data; you can only interact with a process. Story is data but storytelling is a process.” Flipping through my interactive storytelling textbook, I chewed over the technical terms and enjoyed the quick mention of favorite stories, such as Shrek, Romeo and Juliet, and The Arthurian Tales. To communicate with his readers, Chris Crawford utilized stories that he surmised that the audience is familiar with; thus, he does not have to go through an in-depth explanation of the tales or leave the readers hanging. For our second life project concerning Red Riding Hood’s quest, we are depending on the audience to know, at least to an appreciable degree, the stories of The Little Mermaid, Peter Pan, Ratatouille, Red Riding Hood, and Alice in Wonderland. It is through these familiar tales that we hope users will find the grounds to build a relationship with the characters as they venture on the quest.
When I considered the methods in which a drama manager attempts to mold the storyworld into a desirable form, I thought of two examples.
Source: theamazingmeltingman.blogspot.com
One is the maze and the rat. The rat’s goal is to escape the maze and hopefully find a bit of food on the way. Escaping the maze would earn it 80 points, but finding the food would boost it to a perfect score, which is ideal. The goal of the maze is for scientist to test if rats do intend have measurable intelligence or is it just a trail by error process. How many shots of intelligence does a player require to play a fighting game like Ark the Lad Twilight of the Spirits or is it mostly a trial by error process? While the rat is roaming through the confusing environment, the scientist can install new walls to confound the poor creature even further. The scientist wants the experiment to take a successful turn.
Consider again the novel Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, which I had mentioned in an earlier post. Fenoglio, an author or storybuilder within the tale is one of few who can bring back dead characters or erase existing ones in the novel. Futilely, he attempts to bring back his beloved Cosmos character from the dead to defeat the army of the Adder (the Silver Prince), but each time he does, the story degrades even further until Fenoglio gives up his advantageous ability for a period of time. The point of Fenoglio’s mistake is perhaps it is better not to “correct” the player and to retain free will in the storyworld. Should Fenoglio really be messing around with necromancy? Probably not. It is better to treat the players as an “adult” by killing them off rather than treating them like a “child” by blocking their foolish actions.
Also, I wanted to add that the concept of “verbs” dominating and being an essential foundation for video games and computer software is new to me. Now, pressing the Microsoft sign in the top left corner of my computer screen, I’ve noticed a total of eleven verbs, which seven of them branch off to different verbs. I can understand why building Microsoft alone took the time of over 100 computer software designers.
Knowing history and keeping a file of it, whether in the mind, on the computer, or in a well-kept cabinet is essential to saving time, especially involving the long url addresses. I rarely want to memorize these addresses, because it is too much of a hassle, so I depend on the history feature on my browser, which allows me to search for a desirable place that I have visited in the past.
Gossip is significant in a game, especially when players are looking for interactivity. In games that I’ve played, I’m always instructed sometime down the line to talk to someone for important information relating to my quest. It is important to be cautious and weed out the malicious gossip. I find this relevant to my group’s project, since there will be characters in the different fairytale worlds with a wolfish characteristics, giving out false clues. It is nice to be updated on the latest news. Perhaps that is why Facebook and Twitter are such successful social utilities. They make gossiping faster and more efficient. Of course, the chapter involving “verbs” comes into play to define the way in which characters “gossip”. It would be awkward for me to say that I saw three businessmen gossiping during lunch. Somehow, the word “gossip” conjures up images of four women rolling mahjong tiles between their fingers and “gossiping” about what they saw, heard, etc.
Source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivcyCrTvMZbdp6p_cOb75xdjaOd0FScqyYGx3-01dbquC_eyfsUZfrhe1tZ-Pztr5gFePnY01pgX9i_MyRPTkh0KB_U3itU_bvThtA0Is1cp_xZzK9BCNKl318dIaqFvpnMwN9xoBg-g/s400/majong.jpg
The segment concerning “scoring system” will come in handy next week when my group will be discussing Little Red Riding Hood’s measures of success and the consequences of not retrieving all the items from the various fairytales. I think our group should consider Crawford’s point system for the tale of King Arthur.
When I considered the methods in which a drama manager attempts to mold the storyworld into a desirable form, I thought of two examples.
Source: theamazingmeltingman.blogspot.com
One is the maze and the rat. The rat’s goal is to escape the maze and hopefully find a bit of food on the way. Escaping the maze would earn it 80 points, but finding the food would boost it to a perfect score, which is ideal. The goal of the maze is for scientist to test if rats do intend have measurable intelligence or is it just a trail by error process. How many shots of intelligence does a player require to play a fighting game like Ark the Lad Twilight of the Spirits or is it mostly a trial by error process? While the rat is roaming through the confusing environment, the scientist can install new walls to confound the poor creature even further. The scientist wants the experiment to take a successful turn.
Consider again the novel Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, which I had mentioned in an earlier post. Fenoglio, an author or storybuilder within the tale is one of few who can bring back dead characters or erase existing ones in the novel. Futilely, he attempts to bring back his beloved Cosmos character from the dead to defeat the army of the Adder (the Silver Prince), but each time he does, the story degrades even further until Fenoglio gives up his advantageous ability for a period of time. The point of Fenoglio’s mistake is perhaps it is better not to “correct” the player and to retain free will in the storyworld. Should Fenoglio really be messing around with necromancy? Probably not. It is better to treat the players as an “adult” by killing them off rather than treating them like a “child” by blocking their foolish actions.
Also, I wanted to add that the concept of “verbs” dominating and being an essential foundation for video games and computer software is new to me. Now, pressing the Microsoft sign in the top left corner of my computer screen, I’ve noticed a total of eleven verbs, which seven of them branch off to different verbs. I can understand why building Microsoft alone took the time of over 100 computer software designers.
Knowing history and keeping a file of it, whether in the mind, on the computer, or in a well-kept cabinet is essential to saving time, especially involving the long url addresses. I rarely want to memorize these addresses, because it is too much of a hassle, so I depend on the history feature on my browser, which allows me to search for a desirable place that I have visited in the past.
Gossip is significant in a game, especially when players are looking for interactivity. In games that I’ve played, I’m always instructed sometime down the line to talk to someone for important information relating to my quest. It is important to be cautious and weed out the malicious gossip. I find this relevant to my group’s project, since there will be characters in the different fairytale worlds with a wolfish characteristics, giving out false clues. It is nice to be updated on the latest news. Perhaps that is why Facebook and Twitter are such successful social utilities. They make gossiping faster and more efficient. Of course, the chapter involving “verbs” comes into play to define the way in which characters “gossip”. It would be awkward for me to say that I saw three businessmen gossiping during lunch. Somehow, the word “gossip” conjures up images of four women rolling mahjong tiles between their fingers and “gossiping” about what they saw, heard, etc.
Source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivcyCrTvMZbdp6p_cOb75xdjaOd0FScqyYGx3-01dbquC_eyfsUZfrhe1tZ-Pztr5gFePnY01pgX9i_MyRPTkh0KB_U3itU_bvThtA0Is1cp_xZzK9BCNKl318dIaqFvpnMwN9xoBg-g/s400/majong.jpg
The segment concerning “scoring system” will come in handy next week when my group will be discussing Little Red Riding Hood’s measures of success and the consequences of not retrieving all the items from the various fairytales. I think our group should consider Crawford’s point system for the tale of King Arthur.
Comments
Your mention of the Arthurian Tales, Shrek and others reminded me of Joseph Campbell's work (quoted by me in one of the most recent comments). His work is essential reading, or viewing if you see the recorded talks, for any one interested in thinking about our human life, I know it sounds broad, but such is the world view of this extraordinary thinker:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell
I encourage you and everyone to seriously check his work. It is absolutely fascinating.