Perhaps, in an interactive piece, like a game, the story should be treated as if it is already there. And not as something that needs to be developed in a linear fashion. Interaction does not need to tell the story, it should merely support its existence, not contradict it. Perhaps the narrative purpose of a game is to create the effect of having read a book, the feeling that you get after finishing the book, not the one you experience while you are reading.
12 thoughts on “Latent story”
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I’m not sure I understand what you mean… Do you mean we shouldn’t have any possible actions in the story, and that we should only discover a story that has already been fufilled and what it has become? Or am I absolutly wrong?
I don’t remember. It’s an old idea I found in the drafts section of the blog. I guess I was having some trouble with linearity. But this applies to life as well as to art. 😉 It’s probably just a dream. I want everything to exist simultaneously. I find sequences of events very tedious and hard to believe in. As if life is as simple as one thing causes another thing.
One moment that includes everything, including every possible action you might take. And then an ocean of time to explore this pool of possibilities. Yes, let’s try and make that.
So a way of making that could be to unlink the different actions, and not have the “domino reaction” impression? Not a story but a universe to explore, and discovering different storys that happened in it, and having some small reactions to our actions?
It is my favorite way of seing what the evolution of the media could be. The fact that you are no hero but just an inhabitant discovering a new world and storys that you can not change is, for me, a magnificent idea…
In a sense, what you are describing Michael is the way some describe God’s experience of time. Some say that when God sees time, he sees it as one might see a parade from above, stretched out in a strip in front of himself. Maybe, perhaps, your desire to rise above causality is your desire to transcend above humanity?
Haha. Maybe. I do find causality hard to believe. And I doubt time exists for God, or in any other absolute framework.
But it’s really much more mundane than this. I just like the feeling of being embedded in a rich environment that doesn’t necessarily depend on me. Although it can be fun if that environment responds to my presence. En indeed, reveals itself and even changes in response to my actions.
A quick litmus test to decide whether I’ll enjoy a game is to simply leave the avatar alone for a while and do nothing. If that experience is engaging, I’m in.
Interesting point. Could you elaborate.
Did that quench your philisophical thirst Michael?
I’d love to elaborate, Monty, but that’s probably better done in deeds than in words. Lots of work to do.
I’m not a philosopher. I’m an artist. We don’t look for answers. We look for questions. 😉
Funny. Sorry my comment was in responce to that abstract comment left concerning “power ups” and “gold levels”. I see you had sense to remove it making my comment look a little odd.
Never feed the trolls! )
“Interaction does not need to tell the story, it should merely support its existence, not contradict it.”
I really like this idea. It’s something I’d like to play with.
Have you read Henry Jenkins’ paper “Game Design as Narrative Architecture”? He talks about four ways to incorporate story into games: evocative spaces (a Disney ride), enacting stories (most games), embedded narratives (Myst), and emergent narratives (The Sims). It seems like what you’re describing is closest to embedded narrative.
“create the effect of having read a book”
Wow, yes, totally – a game could impart the same sort of memory of the world, or the story, though the texture of the experience would be very different between a game and a book. It’s funny how different it can be to think back on a book that you read, compared to how it was to be immersed in the story and the sequence while rarely thinking back to what you’ve read so far.
“One moment that includes everything, including every possible action you might take. And then an ocean of time to explore this pool of possibilities.”
That would be interesting. There was one idea I had that is a lot like this – sort of like layering of time or different variations on a path through space. I don’t know how well it would work in practice. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to try making it someday. :p
“I just like the feeling of being embedded in a rich environment that doesn’t necessarily depend on me.”
Yes, definitely – I also find that very appealing.
“A quick litmus test to decide whether I’ll enjoy a game is to simply leave the avatar alone for a while and do nothing. If that experience is engaging, I’m in.”
Heh, I’ll keep that in mind for my future games, thanks.
“the story should be treated as if it is already there”
I’m very interested in this idea. I think it has implications beyond stories. For music and paintings too, it is possible to gain an appreciation of the underlying language of a whole piece, without having to consume the whole work. Or to extrapolate from a fragment geometrically or otherwise to propose a larger, hidden portion. That whole which is not contradicted by our tiny support. Like love at first sight?