DITCHWALK – Page 65 – A Road Less Traveled

And the Winner Is

June 24, 2002 By Mark 2 Comments

Five years ago I went to the GDC (then known as the CGDC) with one question in mind: did the industry know how much it didn’t know about the problems inherent in combining interactivity and narrative? After numerous conversations with some of the better minds in the business I came away with my answer: the industry was, as I had come to believe, essentially clueless.

In the aftermath of that experience I submitted my first roundtable proposal to the GDC on Creating Emotional Involvement in Interactive Entertainment, the intent being to use the forum as a vehicle through which to advance industry awareness. The subtext of these roundtables has been that we need to seriously address the threshold requirement of creating and sustaining suspension of disbelief over the entirety of the play experience, because without that capability we will always be seen as a lesser form of entertainment and artistic expression. (That may not be fair, but that’s the way it is.) As will become apparent, it’s also worth noting that of all the craftspeople involved in creating entertainment, none knows more about creating and sustaining suspension of disbelief than do writers. [ Read more ]

Making Do With Design

June 5, 2002 By Mark Leave a Comment

From the beginnings of the computer game revolution, way back when some Ph.D. geek first decided this amazing new technology just had to be turned to the lofty pursuit of tic-tac-toe, there has been an implicit assumption that technology can and will solve any problems that come our way. Indeed, back then natural language processing was thought to be right around the corner, and the development of sentient AI seemed easily within reach. It was only a matter of time before humanoid robots became our confidants and contemporaries.

In the harsh reality of the following decades all attempts to build AI that can handle believable language interaction have failed. On the interactive fiction and storytelling front, the most agile programs remain unable to sustain suspension of disbelief for more than a moment or two. Even comparatively simple pursuits such as pathfinding and NPC behavior often destroy suspension of disbelief, forcing developers to turn to scripting and predetermination in order to keep players imaginatively involved in their games. [ Read more ]

Putting the Customer First

May 17, 2002 By Mark Leave a Comment

For two years now I’ve been thinking about revising my site, the intent being to make more frequent contributions about the design and development of interactive entertainment that involves the user on an emotional level. The main motivation for increasing my presence is that I’ve hardened in my belief that too many games fail in this regard simply because there is a lack of understanding about how writing and design choices impact the emotional potential of interactive works. Leaving aside whether I’m personally qualified to exploit that potential, the fact remains that our industry is still struggling to define techniques with which we can reliably generate the same depth of emotional experience that audiences enjoy from movies, television, theater and literature.

It was with this lofty goal in mind, then, that I began to tinker again with a new site design prior to the 2002 Game Developers Conference (GDC). Unfortunately, as had happened several times before, I quickly ran up against my own limitations and the limitations of the web development software I was using. Frustrated as I was, however, I vowed to persevere against all odds this time, and committed to having the new site up before I left for the conference in mid-March. [ Read more ]