Comments on: What Does Your Game Believe In? Thanks! We learned that trick over 10 years of live gaming. New players often balked at having a secret built into a character, but it's often vital. Everyone has internal secrets, and those secrets effect the way we behave externally. There's no reason they need to be known to the character. In fact they are usually better when they are unknown. A powerful storytelling secret is one of the rare examples of 'Good' meta-gaming I ever found. Thanks! We learned that trick over 10 years of live gaming. New players often balked at having a secret built into a character, but it’s often vital. Everyone has internal secrets, and those secrets effect the way we behave externally. There’s no reason they need to be known to the character. In fact they are usually better when they are unknown. A powerful storytelling secret is one of the rare examples of ‘Good’ meta-gaming I ever found.

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By: Michael Jungbluth/2011/05/25/what-does-your-game-believe-in/#comment-5685 Michael Jungbluth Wed, 15 Jun 2011 18:34:07 +0000 Great article about characterization in storytelling. It reminds me of a trick from back in my LARP and RPG days to tell define great characters quickly. We created a short hand method of character creation, that also kept us in the right mindset to keep playing the character over time. All of the things in this ultra simplified character needed to have synergy. They all had to go together to make a whole. Each needed to be considered carefully, but also enhance all the others. Name - what is the character called? Hook - what makes the character unique or different? Goal - what does the character want to obtain? Secret - what is the character desperately trying to hide? Two words (borrowed from the Minds Eye Theater LRP) - pick two words which describe the character. If you are ever in a situation where you are not sure if you are making a choice based on your own interest or the characters interest, compare the two words to the choices. If there is a choice or action which matches one of those two words, go with that one. LARP is, of course, a bit different from computer games. But that lesson stuck with me over the years, and I think that it can be applied very well to non linear computer games in ways to tell stories. This is a technique that helps me tap into the verisimilitude of any game world or character that I think about. Great article about characterization in storytelling. It reminds me of a trick from back in my LARP and RPG days to tell define great characters quickly. We created a short hand method of character creation, that also kept us in the right mindset to keep playing the character over time. All of the things in this ultra simplified character needed to have synergy. They all had to go together to make a whole. Each needed to be considered carefully, but also enhance all the others.

Name – what is the character called?
Hook – what makes the character unique or different?
Goal – what does the character want to obtain?
Secret – what is the character desperately trying to hide?
Two words (borrowed from the Minds Eye Theater LRP) – pick two words which describe the character. If you are ever in a situation where you are not sure if you are making a choice based on your own interest or the characters interest, compare the two words to the choices. If there is a choice or action which matches one of those two words, go with that one.

LARP is, of course, a bit different from computer games. But that lesson stuck with me over the years, and I think that it can be applied very well to non linear computer games in ways to tell stories. This is a technique that helps me tap into the verisimilitude of any game world or character that I think about.

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By: indieus/2011/05/25/what-does-your-game-believe-in/#comment-5008 indieus Tue, 31 May 2011 06:18:31 +0000 100% agree with you on the ability to sleep with any of the women on the crew of the Normandy as a betrayal to many of their beliefs. Another reason that having a blank avatar requires a supporting cast and world to have deep convictions to their beliefs. Especially as more options for choice present themselves, getting the same outcome to happen for each is a mindset of 100% completion that we need to break players out of the habit of. I love One Chance because it give choice, allows for the player to exert their own beliefs, but doesn’t have to make each a winning proposition. I think L.A.Noire does something commendable as well with the interrogations in that there is a right or wrong answer, but getting it wrong makes me feel the failure without making me feel that I NEED to reset and choose the right answer this instant. The reward for being right isn’t necessary in the same way a new, more powerful item or new stat point to max out my character.

I do have to disagree with you in regards to Valkyria Chronicles. The game is all about tactically setting up your troops before battle, trying to figure out who would be best in which position on the map, and how to break up your team into smaller 2 or 3 person teams. When you have a core cast of characters that are fleshed out, but then another large pool of what are essentially just names with stats, the addition of a core belief system that dictates how and who they could fight best or worst with is a game changer. Strong bonds are created in the trenches, and often times they betray the most basic of beliefs. It is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in full effect. Someone like Wavy, who is much more about defending others that are persecuted like him, might be an another example of its success. But I stand by Dallas’s beliefs being accurate. First, you are sensationalizing your point by saying that her fighting better in a war/combat scenario with either truer aim or stronger defense is akin to you trying to impress a co-worker in a short skirt. You are speaking to a carnal sense of impressing the opposite sex when the game is speaking more to an emotional sense. But beyond that, impressing someone else is something that makes much of the world go round. Be it the ring toss at a carnival or trying harder at work, we instinctively try harder when we are around people that impress us. Likewise, when around people that we don’t understand or distrust, our actions and abilities betray that because we are distracted. VC makes those core levels of needs and wants felt for everyone on your team both narrative and gameplay.

Beliefs definitely fall under ludo-narrative dissonance, and is hopefully just another means or key word to keep in mind towards something more harmonious. You make great counter points which I think really get into the convictions of people’s beliefs, and how including them isn’t a silver bullet. But the level of each person’s convictions is different, as I think Bioshock illustrates perfectly. While Clint did a great job of showing its dissonance, for many people, just the inclusion of any belief system made it stand out of for them. Maybe I am just more of an optimist, but if there are games being made that are fostering this type of discussion, it isn’t as bad as you make it out to be. They are the first steps towards addressing the next set of issues. Admittance is the first step, and its becoming more and more universal that developers on every level admit we can and need to do more.

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By: Alan Jack/2011/05/25/what-does-your-game-believe-in/#comment-4920 Alan Jack Fri, 27 May 2011 11:09:54 +0000 Great article. I noticed (and loved) the bit in Unchartered 2 where Drake balks at using a gun, and then later cheerfully yanks a guard off a roof to plummet to his death several stories into the icy water below. The moral dissonance here was entertaining though: "there's a guy below you, there's a guy below you". Great article.

I noticed (and loved) the bit in Unchartered 2 where Drake balks at using a gun, and then later cheerfully yanks a guard off a roof to plummet to his death several stories into the icy water below. The moral dissonance here was entertaining though: “there’s a guy below you, there’s a guy below you”.

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By: Michael Jungbluth/2011/05/25/what-does-your-game-believe-in/#comment-4876 Michael Jungbluth Wed, 25 May 2011 20:47:02 +0000 This is by far one of the best entries I've read on #alt I think this post should also mention that many, if not the majority, of games, are "casual" and expect the player to be detached morally and spiritually. However, I think the games you really remember and benefit from that aren't casual, connect with you on a deeper level like some of the games mentioned in this post. Those games are hard to make imho. This is by far one of the best entries I’ve read on #alt

I think this post should also mention that many, if not the majority, of games, are “casual” and expect the player to be detached morally and spiritually. However, I think the games you really remember and benefit from that aren’t casual, connect with you on a deeper level like some of the games mentioned in this post.

Those games are hard to make imho.

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By: Michael Jungbluth/2011/05/25/what-does-your-game-believe-in/#comment-4865 Michael Jungbluth Wed, 25 May 2011 17:08:53 +0000 Nice post. The best levels, like the best characters, tell their own story, and they do so through their visuals, their motion, and their sound. <blockquote>No one goes to Ravenholm anymore... </blockquote> A strong narrative, while in important in the game as a whole, is also dreadfully important in your level's themselves. Nice post. The best levels, like the best characters, tell their own story, and they do so through their visuals, their motion, and their sound.

No one goes to Ravenholm anymore…

A strong narrative, while in important in the game as a whole, is also dreadfully important in your level’s themselves.

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