[MUD-Dev] narrative

[Joe Andrieu]

Bradon wrote:

> Ok Bruce, I just spent 2 hours perusing the papers you cited and
> writing this e-mail.  I think you could have saved me the effort
> by simply stating "Yes, all these stories suck," but maybe your
> paradigm and focus precluded that.  Do you know of any writing
> tools along these lines that have acceptable writing of
> non-trivial length associated with them?  Otherwise, I don't see
> the point of discussing any of this stuff from the standpoint of
> "What does a writer need?"  Frankly, a writer doesn't need any of
> it!

Brandon, I think you are completely missing the point. That may be
just due to the semantics of the topic, so let me chime in with the
others and suggest a redefinition.

I am not talking about written stories, whether by computer or
otherwise. I don't think such a conversation would have much
traction here on MUD-DEV.

What I'm talking about is interactive stories or interactive cinema
as we at Realtime Drama like to call it: dynamic narratives.

The end goal is not a novel-length Homeric epic. The goal is a
virtual environment where the player's actions are effectively
unrestricted yet impact the plot of an unfolding dramatic arc in
real and meaningful ways. I want the player to do whatever he wants
and still receive a Hollywood-style story experience(tm).

If fictional examples will work better for you, check out the Star
Trek: The Next Generation episode where Data asks the holodeck for a
Sherlock-Holmesian story where Moriarity is capable of defeating
data. The results is a fabulously structured interactive narrative
where everyone is doing what comes naturally and the story arc is
synthesized in result.

Or read _Diamond Age_ by Neil Stephenson (author of _Snowcrash_),
the interactive children's primer in that novel is a wonderful
example of how interactive stories can be realized.

My point is, it aint about the text. It's about the experience.

> For all you folks that want automated or semi-automated user
> engagement: what's so hard about having your writing guy sit down
> and spit out a pile of plot summaries?  Then go implement 'em,
> leveraging game objects you've already built.  Why do engineers
> put so much energy into trying to avoid the writing?

Cost. Plain and simple. Writers don't scale well, while engines that
multiply writers' talents across a wide variety of situations still
maintaining the core of the story archetype, do.  Instead of
imagining the writer writing every word (especially since words are
not the point), imagine writers defining story archetypes with meta
definitions of settings, themes, and characters. Such archetypes can
be interpreted in realtime to generate thousands of story
experiences for every one story the author defines.

> On this mailing list, what problem are you guys trying to solve?
> Do you care about writing quality, or writing quantity?  Given
> that so many people will defend a pile of crap story like
> Morrowind's, I don't see how the latter can even be an issue.  You
> could write from the entrails of toilet paper, people would still
> buy it!

I'm not trying to write anything. As Dave Rickey said, we are trying
to craft adventures and entertaining experiences.  I personally
believe that the classic Aristotleian dramatic arc is one of the
best techniques known to man for creating emotional engagement in a
crafted medium. I'm working to realize the first-person experience
of being the protagonist in such a dramatic arc, with all the
freedom and agency to impact the story and the world around me.

> An output sample:

>   [sic] "once upon a time there lived a dog.  one day it happened
>   that farmer evicted cat.  when this happened, dog felt pity for
>   the cat.  in response, dog sneaked food to the cat.  farmer
>   punished dog."

> This may represent a great achievement for narrative AI, but as
> writing, it sucks!

It's not about the words, Brandon.  Your calling as a writer is
secure. It's about finding ways where the computer can follow the
essence of a story and keep on top of it despite the unpredictable
actions of the players.

Of course, much of what is going into research will explore areas
different that my own ideas. Great. They'll discover stuff I
wouldn't have thought of. And much of their early work will be less
than stellar. Pong wasn't so amazing either.

> I think most of these works lack character buy-in.  Why should we
> care about these characters?  I find I only care about the
> characters when I've heard the 2nd half of the story.  That's
> interest in the puzzle of their interactions, not the characters
> themselves.  Maybe the actors are capable of being much more
> engaging as they tell the stories on video.  But that's acting,
> not writing.  I think these writers present choppy experiences
> from moment to moment, and after a few paragraphs of that, I start
> to ask why I should care.

Ah! This is a great comment. You've identified one of the core
barriers to implementing good interactive
cinema/narrative/whatever. It is hard to develop empathy in this
medium, where you have no protagonist whose motivations and flaws
are under your control. And pacing the experiences so they are not
"choppy" as you say is a profound UI problem as well as a question
of narrative flow. How do you seemlessly move from one "scene" to
another when the player controls their own avatar?

These are current research questions in the narrative intelligence
community that started this thread. People have realized the
shortcomings of current efforts and are working to find solutions.


There is a saying in the research community: if research worked the
first time, they would call it "search".

If you want to see interesting solutions to dramatic engagement in
MUDs, it would serve you well to be more encouraging without
lowering your standards. The goal is finely crafted cinematic
experiences; in the meantime, we have to make progress as we can.

In a separate email you commented on writers and Crawford's
Erasmatron. I think you are looking at this from the wrong
perspective. If you think every writer out there is going to be able
to transform their focus on text generation into interaction design,
you're crazy. Generally speaking, most writers are just as bad as
game designers as game designers are bad at writing. What we are
talking about requires a synthesis of the two skills, as well as the
development of the tools that will enable the realization of a
creator's artistic expression. To oversimplify, writers need pen &
paper, actors need a stage, directors need a camera... what do the
artists in this new medium need?

Writers and writing is important to this medium, but they are not
the end-all-be-all, anymore than the writer is the most critical
contributor to a film. And yet, some of us know how much we need
good writers; the role they play is far more important than most
game designers give them the credit or freedom for.

-j

--
Joe Andrieu 
Realtime Drama
joe at andrieu.net


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