[MUD-Dev] TECH DGN: Story detection

[Boyle, Paul]

"Sean Howard" <squidi at squidi.net> wrote:

> Ahhh.... Crawford. You seek Crawford! Chris Crawford was a great
> Jedi during the early days of the Clone Wars. Now he lives as a
> hermit out in the Dune Sea writing and scaring off sand
> people. His work on interactive storytelling is the best out
> there... actually, as far as I can tell, it's the only stuff out
> there, but that doesn't mean it's not brilliant.

That's the sort of thing I was looking for, thanks!

Mike Rozak wrote <Mike at mxac.com.au> :

> My take on your definition of story, for your post, is that story
> is a chain of events that lead to a known/desired outcome. What
> you want is for the computer to realize what outcome the player is
> looking for, and subtly manipulate virtual reality so the player's
> desired outcome is met? Example:

>   In Facade, the system realizes the player is trying to get a
>   fight > going between the couple, so it plays along.

I won't be so bold as to give a 'definition' for story, but the
nugget I'm after the is the experience, for the player, of feeling
like they are in the midst of an play experience that is both
determined by them, but recognized and enhanced by the world.  The
first criteria disqualifies most IF games, for instance, and
everything where the player is placed on rails.  They no longer
'determine' a story, they just advance through it at a slower or
faster pace.  Multiple endings and the like don't really cut it for
me either.

The second criteria eliminates games that operate on the level of
machinma.  There, the player is determining the story told, but the
game has no recognition of it.  Red vs Blue (www.redvsblue.com) is a
story telling experience, to me, but Halo has no idea that the
players have decided to start a truce and do something... else.  I
don't have the goal that could recognize something so completely
abstract, however, just the game would take a queue from the fact
that noone is being killed in a deathmatch and toss in something
different, perhaps.

> 1) You need to know what the player wants without asking the
> player...  which requires the creation of a device/algorithm many
> times more complicated than a personality test.

> 2) A rule of fiction writing is that you don't give readers what
> they expect. You give them something better (in their
> eyes). Again, another tricky issue.

> 3) What happens when a world has more than one player whose
> desires conflict?

> NOTE: I am interested in this idea, but I'm not sure that I'm
> talking about the same thing that you mentioned.

I believe we are talking about the same thing.  On the other hand, I
don't agree with #1.  My hope is that you don't have to recognize
the specific intent of a player or group of players.  My hope is
that you simply need to recognize a theme, or a few consistent
elements, and play off of it.  Recognize that, for instance, a group
of characters is focusing on building a city in SWG, a relatively
common behavior, and through in a twist, an NPC coming to town
offering to keep the baddies away for a bribe, something they can
ignore if necessary, but that will make them feel like the game is
trying to pull them in and recognize some of their intent, not just
specific elements of their behavior.
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