From: "Brandon Van Every" Subject: Re: ENTERTAIN: what to do in Cyberspace? Date: 18 Oct 1996 07:30:24 GMT Message-ID: <01bbbcc4$83287820$189072ce@hammurabi.blarg.net> Organization: Blarg! Online Services - 206/441-9109 Ola Fosheim Grøstad wrote in article <32647BCE.2EDF@ifi.uio.no>... > > I think this is a gross oversimplification. The main problem with > roleplaying is to keep the players in character. There is no evidence, > to my knowledge, that immersion will achieve this. I think there has > been a fairly elaborate discussion on this topic in > news:rec.games.mud.misc recently. That's a very interesting point. Who indeed, will fuel the economy of Cyberspace entertainment experiences? Will it be, of necessity, the province of Hollywood actors? Are they the only ones capable of providing the "alter-egos" consistently enough, often enough? Consumers will attempt to experience Cyberspace as a participatory fantasy (and since this thread is about entertainment, I see nothing wrong with that.) Will the performances of professional Cyber-actors compete with, frustrate, and marginalize the consumers? Let's put it another way. Suppose that a hypothetical "CyberTheater Productions, Inc." puts on a virtual performance/simulation of Shakespeare's "Hamlet." CyberTheater provides a full cast of live performers, including the principal characters, minor characters, and some "puppetteers" who control large numbers of "extras" (such as the onlookers at the court, townspeople, etc.) How does the consumer participate in such an event? Do they ever get to play the principal parts? If they do, then don't we have to worry about them mucking it up, and ruining the quality of the performance? Do they get to invent new parts, that interface to the main storyline in novel ways? If so, then how do we control the "damage" that they can do to the script? Or do we simply force the consumer to be a passive observer? Or, do we offer a universe that contains a continuously running re-enactment of "Hamlet," and merely offer other forms of entertainment that borrow from the "atmosphere" of Hamlet. i.e. you don't get a part in the main drama, but you can be a shopkeeper, or a pick-pocket, or a foreign aristocrat travelling to strange lands, etc. Consumers might be able to take a more active role if they are given good "authoring" tools. At one end of the spectrum, a "good" authoring tool would be one that makes up for a consumer's lack of acting/artistic panache. At least, that's what would be "good" from the perspective of CyberTheater, Inc! Whether certain consumers would find this entertaining or not, remains to be seen. But you could have avatars that already look and say things "in period," and that aren't allowed to do things that are grossly out of character. The consumer would merely have the option of changing what is said or done at any given time, according to the available options. This isn't that far removed from current computer adventure game design. Typically, a single avatar moves through a sequence of finite states, along a nearly linear "plot path", to reach the game's conclusion. For the multi-user case, rather than design a single "adventure," you'd design a number of "roles" that fit into the general storyline/atmosphere of the Cyberspace. Each "role" would still be a series of finite states. However, the interactions of many different "roles" might lead to more interesting results. And probably, longer development times and design headaches! Cheers, -- Brandon J. Van Every | Free3d: old code never dies! :-) | Starter code for GNU Copyleft projects. DEC Graphics & Multimedia | Windows NT Alpha OpenGL | vanevery@blarg.net www.blarg.net/~vanevery