Characters & agents. 22/10/02 Day plan The idea of games telling stories Characters & agents Eliza Group progress report System Work

Theme differences between games and stories Games points space finding the ultimate solution getting better Stories intrigue meaning ambiguity lack of control

1983 ad from Infocom

Myst “Myst is real. And like real life, you don't die every five minutes. In fact you probably won't die at all. [...] The key to Myst is to lose yourself in this fantastic virtual exploration and act and react as if you were really there.”

Janet Murray: Hamlet on the Holodeck The ultimate dream of virtual reality. Wants to create virtual reality systems resembling the novels of the Bront sisters or Jane Austen. Beautiful fictive worlds where you play the title role.

Games and movies Games: Rules (dynamic systems) Movies: Characters and events. A game becomes a specific playing of the game in a movie (one level in Tomb Raider). A movie becomes a dynamic system (the death star fight in Star Wars).

Characters Flat vs. Round (E.M. Forster) Linda Seger: Consistent but unpredictable Personality Background story Lack or surplus Motivation

Cast Protagonist Supporting character vs. minor character Type character vs. stereotype Antagonist vs. bad guy

Eliza (1967)

Hamlet - the game? The focalisation changes; the audience has much information that Hamlet does not have. Hard to make the rules - what are they? “You play the title role”: You father has been murdered! With much effort, fail to avenge him and die a meaningless death!

Characters in games ”Brian is a pig” (real-world) vs. ”Brian is a pig” (game) vs. ”*Brian is a pig” (movie) When you ”are” a character, you usually don’t want to see that character hurt. Game protagonists tend to be quite blank or undeveloped. Detail is often easier to add in backstory. Do you find the character you’ve created interesting?

Creating believable characters Easier to do someone crazy. Than someone not crazy! Easier to do clichés (where the cliché is part of the fun) or well-defined situations. Than general conversation. Look up the Turing Test for more...