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"But if you think that there is a dearth of Innovation in this industry, and that its scarcity confers upon it the high value that other rare materials command, I urge you to seek out a well-written narrative. You will find an industry in crisis."
Well said, Penny Arcade.
1. An area of interest you've identified.
I think Peggy hit the nail on the head last week in her analysis of my analysis. I’m interested in the process of telling stories. To refine that: I am especially interested in formal structures that allow users to have the freedom to construct their own narratives within larger stories I tell. I’ve said before that I believe there is no substitute for good writing and experience bears out that most people when given no guidelines construct somewhat uninteresting stories. Too much control over it kills the fun, though.
2. A couple of questions (stated in the form of a question) and opportunities suggested by your area of interest - what do you (or a potential viewer) want or need to know about this area?
What’s the best vehicle for this?
Is there something like this that already exists? How effective is it?
Is this a game? Or is a part of something else?
3. Identify a method or process that can be used to explore your question.
I need to take a critical look at a lot of things, not just electronic games, but storytelling games and structures of all types and start recording research about what I think makes them work or not work.
4. One to three actual topics or subjects that address your interests/questions. (Not ‘a game’ or ‘experience’ or ‘interactive film,’ find a subject/setting/character/narrative.
High school – our first chance as children/adults to really re-invent ourselves- we define our character class within a formal structure and then create our own mini narratives within the metanarrative of those four years. Also works for college, but I like high school better because I think in college we add another layer of story with a certain amount of revisionist fiction about those years.
There’s a TV series spec I developed last year- it’s a little too much for me to produce with my own meager resources, but obviously I’ve done a lot of world-building and tried to build it so there was a lot of room for stories within stories.
5. Pair your topics with a genre and an audience: Not just "a game" but the type of game and the type of player you envision.
I would have to say right now that it seems like a game reaches the audience I most care about- not really typical gamers, but the kind of people I believe would deeply enjoy the process of interacting with a game if only there was more there for them to find appealing. I don’t think it’s a question of subject matter so much as the method and rewards of the interaction that don’t currently engage them.
6. Commit to a term (participant, viewer, player, reader, user, audience) that you will use throughout the project.
We’ll say “player.” I think it’s pompous to invent a new term.
EDIT: Here's the madlib focusing statement...
I am designing a game because I want to demonstrate how to advance storytelling in order to help the player experience personal narrative in shared interactive experiences.
CHESTER, my ever-present kitty companion
a) Why this item is interesting/meaningful/important to you (or universally)?
I think it's one of the greatest crimes we do against children that we say "when you grow up, you have to leave all parts of your childhood behind." Some of those things are the most sacred cores of our beings, and I think a lot of people turn out screwed up because as a human society, we take great pleasure in ripping these things away as a rite of passage to adulthood. That's traumatic. That's cruel. (see: Lucy's attempts to rid Linus of his security blanket. Bitch.)
Take stuffed animals. Growing up, these are our friends. These are our most trusted confidantes. These companions go everywhere with us and are deeply tied to our emotional well-being. They are our protectors; from bad dreams, bad days, and bad thoughts. And one day we just put them in a box or worse. Just we're bigger and older doesn't mean we don't need those things anymore. You'd better believe we fill that void. On the whole, we tend to fill all those suddenly vacant holes inour lives with things that are not always so healthy.
So yes, I have a stuffed cat (I don't like to think of him in such vulgar times, by the way). Or I have a daemon/familiar, if you prefer. And I think it makes me seem crazier but be saner.
b) What are the issues, concerns, principles, processes or attributes that surround each item?
-I tend to document what amounts to milestones in my life using Chester- that’s the photographic aspect. I also tend to use him as emotional support/a companion on a lot of my personal journeys. This is interesting because I have a girlfriend whom I love very much and can’t actually handle being apart from for very long these days, but she fills a different role as companion
c) How is each item relevant: socially, technically, politically, phenomenologically?
Well, as I said above, I think we’d all be a lot better off if we didn’t cut things like Chester out of our lives just because we’re adults. I don’t even mean things we play with. I just mean things that fill niches in our psyche. I didn’t have Chester until I was 16. My other major deamon is a largeish Popple named Goo. Goo, to Goo’s constant consternation is too big to ride in backpacks or go most places with me. But Goo and I have been buds since I was 5. Chester goes with me where Goo cannot. Niche still filled.
d) What do you not know about the item, and would like to investigate?
Chester CAN be inscrutable. He doesn’t say much, compared to Goo, actually. Plays things close to the vest. I’d like to know what his equivalent is for other people.
My Music
a) Why this item is interesting/meaningful/important to you (or universally)?
Music is a part of my life on a fundamental level. I score my life. This comes from being raised on movies and from having an imagination that is filled with movies. I imagine everything as a movie, even if it ends up as a game or a comic or even just a story. Sometimes it inspires new stories in me- that happens a lot actually. Other times it helps me experience emotions or tap into memories I associate with music in my life.
b) What are the issues, concerns, principles, processes or attributes that surround each item?
I don’t think there’s inherently an issue or principle to music. It’s a universal experience, but how its experienced is deeply personal. I hear something and have one reaction and you hear something else and maybe you have a totally different reaction. That said, I play certain music for someone and they say “yeah, you’re right- that’s cowboy gunfighting music if ever I heard it.” – that’s a function of other cultural forces, though- like somewhere along the way, some cowboy gunfight was scored like that and now that’s how we think of music in that style. I think that dichotomy is interesting, especially as regards shared experiences on the whole.
c) How is each item relevant: socially, technically, politically, phenomenologically?
I think I’m far from alone in being so heavily influenced by my generation’s unprecedented access to media from such a formative age. Media of all kinds are deeply and intrinsically part of our lives. That is not going to change. In fact our access to them has doubled in a short period of years. In 1999 I owned the first commercial MP3 player and was the only kid in my class with a dedicated cell phone of his own. Look what’s changed.
d) What do you not know about the item, and would like to investigate?
I would like to know what it is about my connection to music that actually propels my imagination forward. I’d also like to find things other than music that do the same.
The Song I Wrote Recently
a) Why this item is interesting/meaningful/important to you (or universally)?
Well, this is related to the above- I’ve always wanted to be a rock star. I don’t have time for it really, and actually, my limited experience with it was enough to prove to me that it’s a very hard life. Much too hard for me to ever want to consider doing it. But I think it had enough meaning for me to share because I am very interested in diversity. I like to develop all of my talents. I don’t like to be locked into doing any one thing for too long before I do something else entirely. This is a different creative avenue with a different means of expression.
b) What are the issues, concerns, principles, processes or attributes that surround each item?
I think I’ve reached the point where I can write and play music at a professional level, if it’s only the bottom rung of the professional level. More importantly, I’m told that aside from any musical prowess, I have a good ear for tune, melody, and an ability to arrange things that catch in a listener’s head. But I’m not really a singer and I’m rotten at mixing by professional standards and it galls me/is my constant struggle. It represents something difficult for me as it’s something I’ve wanted to be great at since I was four and in typical fashion I’ve worn all the hats myself to get to that point but I haven’t been able to totally crack it. That’s a big thing for me.
c) How is each item relevant: socially, technically, politically, phenomenologically?
Well, we’re able to make things on our own in our garage that we’ve never been able to before. That attracted me to video, to computer animation, and to games, though less that than the other things. I think the fact that I cut a semi-pro demo entirely in my bedroom used to be remarkable. Now, in just a few years, it’s like “you did it with that computer and those instruments and it only sounds like that?” Qulaity is the issue again – the love affair with the fact it was a do-it-yourself is ending and it’s going to be about quality once again.
This is, as a side note, my actual problem with SCMRPG – I’m not impressed the guy made it by himself – frankly, he should have worked with a few more people and bounced his ideas off a few people rather than turn in a pithy game that adds nothing to the conversation and is a derivative bore to play to boot.
d) What do you not know about the item, and would like to investigate?
I know it really well. I’ve listened to it a hundred times, easy. I’d like to know… hmm… I’d like to know what I’m not hearing that makes me think it sounds okay until I play it for others.
Okay- if y'all are still with me, part 3
a) Look at your three items as a whole and see if you can discover similarities (literal or abstract), are there intersections?
On the surface level, I think all three are very directly related to my imaginative process. I think it also shows a little of my value system. I think it's too easy to point out the music similarity. The fact that I score my life almost guarantees that I'm also going to be a musician. That doesn't really count. I think they all show that I value a balanced creative diet... genre wise it's a little lopsided, but they're all at some level about interdiciplinary ideas- Chester is tied to photography and also storytelling, music is something I use when ideating all kinds of media, and my lasting involvement with music spread from wanting to be Mick Jagger to being a full session musician, songwriter, producer, and aspiring recording engineer.
b) Does your analysis suggest an area of interest, or (series of) questions?
Sort of. I don't think it was like a magic "thesis bullet" because my areas of interest are (see above) broad and diverse. If I had to commit to going on a jag about anyhting though, I'd say the idea that "diversity of experience keeps you fresh and interested" is worth thinking about.
A lot has been said in the past 48 hours regarding the Slamdance uproar.
First of all, I'm so very proud that so many indie game creators and their supporters have had the strength of character to do something which had to have been very, very, hard. As someone who's leading a team of hard-working young people on our own indie game initiative, I can only imagine how totally painful it must be to say, "We're pulling out. We can't be a part of this." ...all the while knowing that a decision to do what you think is right by the industry and by all of us as artists costs you and your team one of far too few chances to have your extraordinary efforts recognized. So my hat's off to all of you. I don't know how I would have reacted had I been tested and not you.
But let me entreat everyone about to take up the battle standard to keep one very important point in mind. There is a lot of talk going around that the decision to remove Super Columbine Massacre, RPG from the competition strikes a blow against everyone working to make games a respected legitimate medium. And from a certain perspective, that's very true.
But here's what I'm worried about, and it's a distinction that, for my part in the industry, I hope gets taken very seriously.
I hate the term "serious games." I hate how it's applied to reality-based games, or games that have a stated purpose beyond entertainment. I have worked in some capacity in the entertainment industry since the age of 12. That is in fact more than half of my natural life, and for all that time let me say that entertainment is serious. Games are serious in the same way that a movie is serious, even if it's a comedy. It is the result of the hard work of artists who have a stated purpose to accomplish one of the most difficult tasks on the planet: make a large number of people smile. The first step in being taken seriously is not being ashamed. Even if it's in some private secret way that makes us say that a game about a real-life genocide or a political viewpoint is somehow more worthy of the title "serious" than a game that filled a person's life with enough delight that they were able to go out there and face the terrible world head-on and make a difference... we can't allow ourselves to think like that.
So while I support the artist who created the little game that caused all this, I think the real blow that was struck was the one that in the end cost Slamdance Braid, flOw, and the rest. Well-crafted unique play experiences produced from a point of view that is driven by more than register receipts are the evidence I always point to when making arguments to people about the legitimacy of games as a medium. I make no distinctions between art and entertainment. I draw no lines between politics and fun.
The issue is not that the decision was based on politics or morals. The issue is that a showcase like Slamdance is suddenly not open to everyone. I shudder to think, as has happened to the poor comedy or action movie when it comes to opinion, festivals, and awards of merit in the film industry, that the reverse might someday be true for us, and that when opinion turns the tide, the only games taken seriously are the ones we've erroneously dubbed "serious."