The second submission has the really long title of “Plot and Purpose: the Non-Existent Conflict Between Agency and Authorship in Game Stories“, which though accurate is a mouth full. My guess is if the lecture submission is accepted it will be shortened. Here’s the submission:
Plot and Purpose: the Non-Existent Conflict Between Agency and Authorship in Game Stories
Exercise:
Choose an action verb, past tense. [VERB]
Choose a game character sounding name. [CHARACTER]
Select a noun that is a familial or personal relationship [RELATIONSHIP]
“Hello. My name is [CHARACTER]. You [VERB] my [RELATIONSHIP]. Prepare to die.”
Congratulations, you’re written the premise of too many action-driven computer games.
Seriously, though, many recent top-tier games have fortunately moved beyond this structure. Entire discussions could be based on the meaning and execution of each portion of that sentence: The player/character, the inciting action, the emotional stake in the story, and so on. Instead, this presentation looks at the last part – “Prepare to die.” – the Desired Resolution – which is the Character’s response to the Inciting Action and how that’s crafted in a game story.
The Desired Resolution is what the Character wants… but it isn’t what the Character does. In order to achieve the Desired Resolution, the Character follows a Course of Action that brings about the ultimate outcome. This Course of Action is what the player/character can do within the structure, or allowances, of the game, which is the simplest expression of Agency, created by the “author” for the player to experience. Authorship doesn’t conflict with Agency – it enables it.
This presentation talks about defying the traditional story creation paradigm of conceiving of, and then plotting, the story from the beginning, through the middle, to the end. Once the writer has fleshed out the main plot – the primary Course of Action – that’s when they think about the alternatives… but look at the words used: Primary. Main. It establishes the desired set of events and it’s very hard to weave in alternatives. For telling interactive stories – game stories – don’t start from the beginning –start from the end. Construct possibilities based on desired outcomes.
Since there is no right plot thread or Course of Action, this presentation talks about determining what elements of the Desired Resolution are variables, affected by choice (Agency) – As obvious examples, is death required for the antagonist’s downfall? Does an ally change sides due to the character’s actions? And so on. Decide what the states for these narrative variables are and then devise what Courses of Action can affect these states. Once all these options are defined – within the constraints and allowances of gameplay and content creation –weave them together into the web of all of the possible Courses of Action leading to the Desired Resolution. Authorship enables Agency.
Attendees of this lecture will be exposed to not only theoretical talk about Agency and Authorship, and the false conflict between them in game and interactive stories, but also practical considerations and possible solutions to enabling and expanding Agency in game stories. What kinds of narrative variables are practical to work with? How do we deal with the constraints of content creation? How are gameplay and Agency interrelated, but not the same? Some answers to the big question of “Yes, that’s all well and good, but how do we do this?” will be presented.
(c)2009 Tom Dowd. All Rights Reserved.
I am reminded of the film Cape Fear, both the original and the remake. At the end of the original, the criminal is caught and the hero says, “You’re going to jail for a long time!” In the remake, the villain is much more violent and is killed. There is a subtext in the remake that the villain is doing all this for attention: a television shows a clip of “Problem Child” where the child is behaving badly because he wants to be loved. In most movies and video games today the person damaged by society who needs help is killed instead of getting the attention they need. I am not saying they shouldn’t be punished for their crimes, but what is the next step after that?
And what an interesting choice to put in the hands of the players? I had forgotten the differences in Cape Fear, but I remember when the Tim Burton Batman movies came out being surprised that the villains, apparently, had to die rather than delivered to justice. I remember being struck by that, but I could never decide if it was due to the darker edge put on the Batman, some reflection on the failures of rehabilitation and death being the only sure safety, or Hollywood contracts that required the villain character to die so that the part couldn’t be recast with another, cheaper, actor…
I very much agree that this is an option that should be open to the players. I have been running a role-playing game with my son. (Yes, with paper and pencil using actual dice!) He was flying after a winged bad guy carrying another villain. The one who could fly dropped the one who couldn’t to aid his escape. I was so proud of my son when he, without hesitation, elected to catch the falling villain instead of letting her fall to her death.