Epic fail.

Want to knnow why I haven’t posted anything in a while?

My laptop’s screen died for the second time. I am having it replaced, and it’s taken over a week to get the new screen in.

Meanwhile, I’ve been using my old desktop computer, which was infected by a Trojan four days later through what I can only assume was an infected blog post that I read about something innocent like fashionable hairstyles of the 1900’s. I’ve cleaned it up (thank goodness my parents had spare licenses with their Norton account), but… urgh.

At least I got my HTC Desire, where I can actually browse the internet and sent emails in a relatively trouble-free manner. So that’s where I’m at. I can’t finish a lot of my writing because it’s on my absent laptop.

I am also attempting to balance my body more my training myself to use the mouse with my left (non-dominant) hand. I’ve tried brushing my hair and brushing my teeth with my left hand, and it’s pretty hard to do. Maybe the next step will be writing with both hands…

Also, I have bought some cards for NaNoWriMo, on which I plan to write such phrases as, “B has an exciting story to tell A,” and “D knows B’s secret.” The idea is to draw one of these at random every day (two if necessary), and then use that to guide the ~2k words I need to write to hit the target of 50k in a month. I also have other cards on which I’m going to write types of characters, places, times, etc, to generate concepts for writing challenges. I got the idea because I thought about two of my favourite flash games, Zombie Hooker Nightmare and Robot Unicorn Attack, and how it sounds like they just took two random things and another word and developed a game around that idea. I don’t know if they’re developed by the same people, and if so, if that’s what they did, but it seems like a good idea to me.

by Categories: Game Writing, Thoughts Leave a comment

Research on Web Content Viewership

Recently I saw this report on the behaviour of viewerd of web content vs that of tv.

There are a number of interesting results regarding demographics and percieved value (ie how much they want to watch it) and the social/viral nature of web content’s success.

But most interesting to me was the level of engagement that viewers typically afforded to web content.

Similar to what I suspected, viewer behaviour is somewhere between the typical behaviour of film viewers and television viewers: not as loyal and stead fast as film viewers, but not as promiscuous and you’d-better-keep-me-entertained-because-I’ll-totally-leave-you-for-another-station’s-show.

What I take from this is that, again, the structure is bound to develop into something similarly hybrid between the two types.

by Categories: Game Writing, Online Finds, Thoughts Leave a comment

National Novel Writing Month

OH MY GOD!

I just remembered that November is National Novel Writing Month!

When I was 16, I started writing a novel. It was going to be part of a trilogy and everyone I showed the four chapters to seemed to really enjoy it. Then I guess exams and university got in the way. Or I became self-conscious. Either way, those four chapters were all I ever got done.

But now, here’s an excuse! And a deadline! And it doesn’t have to be good, because that’s not the point 🙂 So I’m going to attempt something I’ve always really wanted to do, but always been too afraid of. That’s right, I’m going to write a Murder Mystery!

by Categories: Game Writing, Thoughts Leave a comment

Fables from the Future

I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with a couple of writing premises I’ve had rolling around my head for a couple years. It took me to explaining them to a friend of mine to really notice that they were both Science Fiction.

Now, I’m not the biggest SF fan… I mean, basically my entire awareness of them is the Red Dwarf series, and Brave New World (oh, my beloved Aldous Huxley, how I only put off reading more of your books because I have too many research books to read!) But when I try to write short stories, I seem to go for Science Fiction. I once had a SF short story published in an anthology of student writing when I was in year 9 or 10… Actually that’s not as impressive as it sounds. But still!

So I decided that these two stories should be pushed out into short story format, and then I’d try and write some more, and create a set of fables or cautionary tales (I loved Aesop’s Fables and Grimm’s Tales growing up!)

So I guess, stay tuned for the first of these, which I think is probably about half done, at around 700 words.

Hm. I just realised that my PhD supervisor (who was my Honours supervisor) is a SF buff 😉 I might hide them from her!

by Categories: Game Writing, Thoughts Leave a comment

Writing Player Motivation

The other day, someone asked me what the biggest difference between writing for Stage, Screen, and Games was.

Explaining the difference between Stage and Screen was easy: for Stage, you show the whole scene continuously, costume and scene changes need to be taken into account, and unless you use a projector or something, you can’t really show detail in props etc; for Screen, the storytelling is a lot more visual, you can have close-ups and cutscenes, montages, fast changes, and not only are these possible, they’re actually expected.

What about writing for Games? For me, it’s somewhere between the two in terms of style, but not only that, it’s a matter of not just telling the story (or “showing,” as pedants may insist), but it’s important that the story is driven by the minor characters.

This may sound contradictory to common logic- that the player should be in the driving seat the whole way. But I don’t believe this is true: I believe that the player should feel that their next move is the most logical one in the context of the game. How does a writer make this happen? By writing in a situation where the minor characters communicate to the player that there is really only one option.

I found a quote that I think sums up how to do this in Alex Epstein’s Crafty TV Writing (in regards to “forcing” a character into a situation against their nature):

By “force,” I mean, of course, “give him a valid motivation he’d find it hard to resist.” (p54)

by Categories: ThoughtsTags: , Leave a comment

Oh hai

Yeah, so, it’s been a while since I’ve posted. There has been a lot happening in my life, a lot of setbacks, a lot of distractions. I don’t intend to go into it, but needless to say, once you stop posting, it become hard to start. Do I admit the lack of posts? Do I pretend it never happened?

Anyway, this is just a little bridge post because I decided that I would mention it, and I’ll post again shortly.

by Categories: Uncategorized Leave a comment

Games as art: the deeper issue

My friend Simon just wrote his opinion on whether games should be considered art. I wrote a wordy response to it, and I either planned to or already have written my opinion on whether games should be considered art. It doesn’t matter.

DISCLAIMER: I’m going to be awesomely ageist here, for (I believe) good reason. Also, please note that someone is “old” to me when they start acting “old.” You can be an old fuddy-duddy at 10, and young at 100. It’s a mindset, not a physical thing, mkay?

Continue reading →

by Categories: Online Finds, ThoughtsTags: 2 Comments

I’ll remove the cause… but not the symptom!

I admit. I was listening to my original Roxy Cast recording of the Rocky Horror Show (the one where it’s impossible to tell the difference between Janet, Columbia and Magenta), so I couldn’t help this title.

What I actually wanted to talk about is a bit of short-sightedness in regards to dealing with new media and bullying of behalf of well-intentioned parents and grandparents.

Continue reading →

by Categories: ThoughtsTags: , 1 Comment

Branches vs Stakes

Oh, how wonderfully witty and punny of me.

Anyway. I was talking to my friend on Tuesday night, and we were discussing Bioshock. What was interesting was that he said something like, “I don’t know, I didn’t like it because it lacked what I liked the most in System Shock. You basically can never die because there are health stations everywhere. It wasn’t scary.” I asked him whether he meant that, in System Shock, the stakes were higher, and therefore there was a real fear that you’d lose. This was exactly what he meant.

While personally I am a big fan of “safe,” linear use-your-brain-puzzle-solving-adventure games with witty dialogue, I completely understand what he’s getting at. Once, games were hard. Really hard. They were scary (and not being they had horror themes): they filled you with adrenaline, and while the loss was frustrating and disappointing, the win was less “epic” and more “masterly.” There was a struggle, and there was eventual success. I do need to clarify that I’m not talking about games that are so dicky and tricky that it’s almost impossible to play in the first place, though. I’m talking about games where the stakes were high: you had a lot to lose.

Recently, Peter Molyneux has… well, gone back on his advocacy of branching storylines, emergent gameplay, multiple endings etc. He says that people get annoyed when they feel they’ve “missed out” on parts of the story, simply because of a choice they made. Hmm, that sounds like good ol’ anagnorisis and peripetea to me! But I think this really touches on a mistake made by a number of developers.

I don’t think people need more choice or agency within the storyline of the game. Sure, branching narratives sound cool, but they basically boil down to an electronic choose-your-own-adventure book. Wait.. “book”? Shock! Horror! Games aren’t allowed to be like any other type of pre-existing media, are they? Well, apparently they are… hence branching narratives.

But what about situations where it’s so important that you do things right (ie, succeed in achieving the win-conditions), that you actually become so immersed due to the game gradually building to extremely high-stakes? Psychologically, he higher the stakes, the greater the payoff. The more options, the greater the chance of feeling “ripped off” by the “wrong” choice (I put these in scare quotes as these are both emotionally-driven, personal responses that may have nothing to do with the actual storyline, events, or writer/designer’s intentions). Statistically, we are happier when we have less options, less room to move, less potential we can potentially fail to realise. Once a peasant, always a peasant. Game didn’t quite go the direction you’d hoped? Oh well, time to go plant some seeds (aka, write some fanfic).

by Categories: ThoughtsTags: , , , , , Leave a comment