[MUD-Dev] narrative

[Brandon J. Van Every]

John Robert Arras wrote:
> Brandon Van Every wrote:

> However... If I had a really good simulation of the world and let
> it run, then people experiencing the simulation wouldn't be
> bored. They would find interesting things to do because the
> simulation is complex enough. Getting a simulation this complex is
> probably as hard as getting strong AI, but it would do what I want
> it to do. This is where I'm trying to go.

If you accept that the task really is this difficult, then you can
have your "complex simulation" or your "strong AI" simply by working
with a talented human writer, or becoming one.

>> Here, I think you're recreating the commonly received mythology.
>> Storyline and interactivity, oil and water, blah blah blah.  An
>> alternate thesis: interactivity is a psychological illusion.  You
>> do not interact, you go exactly wherever the game designer
>> already envisioned you could go.  What about Diablo II disproves
>> this?  Yet, people say Diablo II is interactive.  What about
>> Donkey Kong disproves this?  Nothing.

> I still think they're opposites. Diablo II isn't really
> interactive.

If Diablo II isn't interactive, then nothing in the game industry is
interactive.  Which agrees with my thesis BTW.  I think calling
Diablo II "non-interactive" defies both industry usage of the term
and common sense.  Even "Tommy" interacts, he's a pinball wizard!

> I am slowly coming to the realization that anything where there
> are predetermined endpoints or directions I have to go in don't
> cut it as "interactive" for me.

You and I are going to die.  That's the facts of life, as far as our
current medical science is aware.  Hope it changes but I'm not
counting on it.  Does the ultimate termination of Death render your
life non-interactive?  At a cosmic scale, perhaps it does!

Of course, some people believe they're like the Energizer bunny,
they'll just keep going and going and going and going...

> I am not interested in writing stories.

Then we're not on the same page.  Maybe you could start a new thread
with a different title?  Something about emergent behavior in
Artificial Life environments?  There are plenty of entertainment
issues in that, that I or others could comment upon, but it's not
narrative.


Cheers,                         www.3DProgrammer.com
Brandon Van Every               Seattle, WA

20% of the world is real.
80% is gobbledygook we make up inside our own heads.



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