Why Are Game Developers Anti-Story/Anti-Aristotle?

While letters to major gaming magazines routinely express wishes for more story, substance, depth, character, and meaning in games, lead designers in the money-losing, jobs-killing, aging industry arrogantly dimiss story and classic, epic meaning, soul, and poetry, time and again exalting GTA IV as the end-all, be-all of storytelling and dramatic art in the realm of interactive gaming.

Everywhere one turns, one sees, "The death of the author!" "The death of story!"

"The death of the author!" "The death of story!" They shout as they bring down the classical soul and spirit, while shooting more hookers and innocent cops and civilians, and then campaigning against those who suggest games are capable of exalted dramatic art, if we only created them to serve the customer deman, instead of the fanmba's massive money-losing, jobs-killing, inovation-averse ego.

They basically give the customer (who is yearning for story and epic,exalted art) the finger, and then they wonder why their market caps are shedding billions and their culture is declining.

Check out this article and contrast the sanrky, arrogant, story-dismissing tone of the article to the engaged, enlightened, story-exalting tone of the responses:

http://www.edge-online.com/magazine/death-of-the-author

As you can see, vast opportunities exist to serve the maturing customer, who is not being served!

Instead of serving the demand for meaning, profundity, character, depth, and story, the industry is instead saying, "OMG! LOL! The author is dead! Bang bang bang! Just like in GTA we can kill innocent civilians, and in fallout 3 we can shoot women in metallic bras, we can kill story in real life! Bang! Bang! LOLZ! ROTFL! Shoot them giant walls of text! LOL! All your giant walls of text are belong to us!"

Well, the responses to the article are redeeming and inspiring!

http://www.edge-online.com/magazine/death-of-the-author
"On October 8th elguachojkis said:
Totally agree with _Sylvain... the opinions expressed in this article are truly worrying!
I hope these two people read your 'lack of substance abuse' blog entry... actually I feel like (for my own gamer sake) mailing it to all the shmucks out there "writing" video games that think movies from the 30's are radically different from movies made now, just because the editing is faster and the shots are shorter!
Experiences are NOT Stories!"

On October 7th Raul23 said:
Aside from Ragnar, these guys clearly don't care about storytelling or being an author because they have nothing to say, not that there's anything not wrong with that.

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On October 7th michael_sylvain said:
I found this article infuriating, and it made me into the equivalent of an old woman shouting at a news programme as if in some way I'd be heard. Somebody needed to question the opinions rather than asking for more. Because there's so much stuff here that doesn't make sense, and seems substanceless in practice - big claims without real logic.

Anyway, assuming you've read this because you're interested in the way narrative and gaming goes together (or fails to) here's a longer and slightly too wordy response I wrote to try and explain why this piece was so frustrating: http://www.edge-online.com/blogs/lack-substance-abuse

http://www.warcry.com/articles/view/edi ... ory-Part-I

I have noted in the MMO industry (as well as films and, to a lesser extent in fantasy literature) a decline in the quality of storytelling. It seems that designers are generally more eager to make an easy-money sequel rather than create something new that is truly powerful. I suppose the good news is that games seem to pull it off better sequels than movies, yet this doesn't avoid a stagnation of creativity. The same old thing gets regurgitated again and again.

http://www.warcry.com/articles/view/edi ... ory-Part-I

http://www.destructoid.com/nothing-is-s ... 2013.phtml

Well, all that this means is that vast, billion-dollar opportunities exist to break out the Jospeh Campbell and Aristotle and Homer, and rock some rockin' games with depth, character, meaning, and profundity, while exalting the gold 45 revolver technologies!

I've got nothing against GTA and Fallout 3--rather the corporate-fanMBAs hate story, narrative, and exalted dramatic art. They are holding the industry back, creating opportunities for narrative designers.

I'm wondering if we read the same article here, Doc. I thought the article was fascinating stuff, but for the life of me, couldn't remember the name of it, so thanks for the link.

The first question on the second page of the interview really is the crux of the discussion:

In terms of meshing these narratives together with the gameplay, what can be done? What’s failing at the moment and how can that change?

The discussion the three designers have regarding this is really at the center of the Narrative vs. Gameplay Discussion, and even amongst these industry professionals, have very different opinions on the role of Narrative and Story in games.

There is the desire to have more water-cooler moments, that is, a player-generated story within the rough confines of the existing universe, where - specifically - they used Left 4 Dead as an example. Yes, there is a really rough story that is fleshed out by how the players proceed through the game world. The narrative, then, is based less on classical structure and more on emergent gameplay. The story changes each time the players proceed through the game - sometimes, they survive, others, the zombies overwhelm them. That's a very powerful difference between other story-based entertainment (Drama, Literature and Film) where they finish .

That isn't a bad thing, conversely, the story of Half Life and Half Life 2 is the Monomyth writ large. Excellent stories, to be sure, and also very directed.

The quote from Ragnar Torquest, who worked on Dreamfall, one of the great Story-based adventure games, said it best at the end of the page with:

I think what games can do really, really well is to create a world where there is a story but only if you look for it. Then you’re being told the story you want to be told and not the one we want. I think that’s the great potential of games.

That sentiment has been shared here before, and I agree.

Using GTA IV as sole examples of narrative in games is disingenuous, and even in this article, they don't particularly care for the narrative or story of GTA IV. As Hocking said:

I actually stopped playing it (GTA IV) after about five or six hours because I didn’t want to pay attention to what was going on with the characters and the authored narrative.

Chet's pretty critical of GTA IV above that, even though he enjoyed the story when he said:

I got interested in your choices there (in GTA IV) – who you got to hang out with. The storyline kind of opposed the goofy gameplay, so there was a point where I just kind of got aggravated with it and wouldn’t have minded just being able to watch the cutscenes.

What I got out of the exchange about GTA IV was how the tone and style of gameplay provided to the player was very different from the tone and style of the story as it was delivered to the player. For a game that is about giving players choice, it's hard to take Niko's remorse over becoming a murderous monster in Serbia seriously when you spend hours indiscriminately BEING a monster. You're forcing an emotional connection on the player that is contrary to the gameplay freedom that is given to the player.

I'm wondering if we read the same article here, Doc. I thought the article was fascinating stuff, but for the life of me, couldn't remember the name of it, so thanks for the link.

The first question on the second page of the interview really is the crux of the discussion:

In terms of meshing these narratives together with the gameplay, what can be done? What’s failing at the moment and how can that change?

The discussion the three designers have regarding this is really at the center of the Narrative vs. Gameplay Discussion, and even amongst these industry professionals, have very different opinions on the role of Narrative and Story in games.

There is the desire to have more water-cooler moments, that is, a player-generated story within the rough confines of the existing universe, where - specifically - they used Left 4 Dead as an example. Yes, there is a really rough story that is fleshed out by how the players proceed through the game world. The narrative, then, is based less on classical structure and more on emergent gameplay. The story changes each time the players proceed through the game - sometimes, they survive, others, the zombies overwhelm them. That's a very powerful difference between other story-based entertainment (Drama, Literature and Film) where they finish .

That isn't a bad thing, conversely, the story of Half Life and Half Life 2 is the Monomyth writ large. Excellent stories, to be sure, and also very directed.

The quote from Ragnar Torquest, who worked on Dreamfall, one of the great Story-based adventure games, said it best at the end of the page with:

I think what games can do really, really well is to create a world where there is a story but only if you look for it. Then you’re being told the story you want to be told and not the one we want. I think that’s the great potential of games.

That sentiment has been shared here before, and I agree.

Using GTA IV as sole examples of narrative in games is disingenuous, and even in this article, they don't particularly care for the narrative or story of GTA IV. As Hocking said:

I actually stopped playing it (GTA IV) after about five or six hours because I didn’t want to pay attention to what was going on with the characters and the authored narrative.

Chet's pretty critical of GTA IV above that, even though he enjoyed the story when he said:

I got interested in your choices there (in GTA IV) – who you got to hang out with. The storyline kind of opposed the goofy gameplay, so there was a point where I just kind of got aggravated with it and wouldn’t have minded just being able to watch the cutscenes.

What I got out of the exchange about GTA IV was how the tone and style of gameplay provided to the player was very different from the tone and style of the story as it was delivered to the player. For a game that is about giving players choice, it's hard to take Niko's remorse over becoming a murderous monster in Serbia seriously when you spend hours indiscriminately BEING a monster. You're forcing an emotional connection on the player that is contrary to the gameplay freedom that is given to the player.

Thanks for the enlightened & well-reasoned response Steve.

Overall I think there are huge opportunities for narrative designers and people such as yourself and the visionaries behind this board in tomorrow's industry--opportnuities to build better, deeper, more engaging games.

Best,

Dr. E

On that, we agree

I think the most interesting point made is that each modern advancement in entertainment has built on the previous generation, but has taken time to really understand the new media and, more importantly, how it changes the rules compared to its predecessors. The designers in the article cited something to the effect of film simply started as placing a camera to record a stage play, and that film followed many of the viewing conventions of drama because that is what was known. A film like Memento or Pulp Fiction, with their fragmented narrative structure, would never have been considered fifty years ago because the unique abilities of film as a media to tell a story and to change the narrative was not fully understood compared to now.

With that in mind, computer games as a true story-telling device have existed since 1980 (As an aside, I'm using the Infocom Interactive Novels like Zork, which hit shelves in 1980, as the starting point for the beginning of telling classically structured stories in games). In those almost thirty years, we have used the narrative structures we have used through film, drama and literature to great effect in some cases. I don't think the demand for story-based games is going to suddenly go away, but much like adventure games of the 1980's, I think they are going to become a niche (albeit, potentially large niche)

To put it into perspective, the first film was recorded in 1895 and the seminal modern movie - Citizen Kane - wasn't released until 1941, a difference of forty-six years.

We (Game Designers and Developers) are just now really beginning to look for ways to harness the most unique aspect of games - player choice - to allow games to find their own voice compared to Film, Drama and Literature. We are fortunate to just now be able to have the processing power and storage capacity to begin to embrace our unique voice, but finding and defining that new voice it isn't going to happen overnight, and when we do find our voice, I believe it is going to go beyond...

...the old the Aristotelian, formalized version of storytelling which became the play and the stage play and the radio play and the screenplay.

I think you also forget that there is a slight economic slump going on.

The games industry is faring better than many, because people in a recession go out less. As such, they play games more. But... The banks are less willing to lend money and so publishers are less willing to take risks. In such a situation, the established practice is to maintain the status-quo, pursue the safe options, even if they are not the most profitable on average, and weather the storm. What this means is looking at what sells, making sequels of it and making copies of it. It means clinging to solid well-loved licences. It means saying 'not now' to the designers with the big ideas.

Let's face it; you can evangelise about morality and story as much as you like, but the publisher, the CEO, the board of directors and the producer will just point to the sales figures for GTA. We can criticise the tastes of the 'core market' as crude and uncultured, but the core goal of any company in a recession is to stay in business.

My current project is a non-game licence. We are the second studio to get our hands on the licence, assuming we get the contract, but the brand is stable and ticks all of the marketing boxes. I could kick and squeal and demand that they respect my art, but I won't. I will make the story on this game as good as it can be. I will bend over and repeat "Thank-you sir, may I have another?" until this contract ends. In all honesty, I was 'promoted' to ND specifically for this game, so I will trust that it was done for the right reasons, do my job and hope that I can do something more in keeping with current views on narratology for the next game.

The greatest virtue for a small cog in a big machine is humility. Change will come, but it isn't for me to force it. It isn't my £10-million on the line if my epic Aristotelian ideals fall flat, so I will toe the line. I convinced the studio to create a ND role; for now, my whole aim is to show them that it was the right choice, to make sure that the first little snowball becomes part of a greater avalanche. Each time a narrative designer shows their worth, it becomes easier for the next one to justify their position. Once you have enough of us, each rolling our little snowballs, we will bring down the mountain and usher in a new age of interactive storytelling.

Patience, conviction and courage first, clue-bat and sermons later...

The thing is, story-based games FOLLOW the old Aristotle six keys of Poetics:

* plot (mythos)
* character (ethos)
* thought (dianoia)
* diction (lexis)
* melody (melos)
* spectacle (opsis)

So, it's not that designers want to turn their backs on it, it's that they want to say: yes, that is great, and that works, but the one thing Aristotle didn't take into account is a literal outside force that can manipulate the story. To use terminology that Aristotle would approve of, there is a Seventh Key to his Poetics as they pertain to the Poetics of Games:

*Anthropos (man)

How can we take this seventh key to make an interesting narrative? Which also leads me to this question, do we need to use all seven keys to make a good game story?

I think you also forget that there is a slight economic slump going on.

The games industry is faring better than many, because people in a recession go out less. As such, they play games more. But... The banks are less willing to lend money and so publishers are less willing to take risks. In such a situation, the established practice is to maintain the status-quo, pursue the safe options, even if they are not the most profitable on average, and weather the storm. What this means is looking at what sells, making sequels of it and making copies of it. It means clinging to solid well-loved licences. It means saying 'not now' to the designers with the big ideas.

Let's face it; you can evangelise about morality and story as much as you like, but the publisher, the CEO, the board of directors and the producer will just point to the sales figures for GTA. We can criticise the tastes of the 'core market' as crude and uncultured, but the core goal of any company in a recession is to stay in business.

My current project is a non-game licence. We are the second studio to get our hands on the licence, assuming we get the contract, but the brand is stable and ticks all of the marketing boxes. I could kick and squeal and demand that they respect my art, but I won't. I will make the story on this game as good as it can be. I will bend over and repeat "Thank-you sir, may I have another?" until this contract ends. In all honesty, I was 'promoted' to ND specifically for this game, so I will trust that it was done for the right reasons, do my job and hope that I can do something more in keeping with current views on narratology for the next game.

The greatest virtue for a small cog in a big machine is humility. Change will come, but it isn't for me to force it. It isn't my £10-million on the line if my epic Aristotelian ideals fall flat, so I will toe the line. I convinced the studio to create a ND role; for now, my whole aim is to show them that it was the right choice, to make sure that the first little snowball becomes part of a greater avalanche. Each time a narrative designer shows their worth, it becomes easier for the next one to justify their position. Once you have enough of us, each rolling our little snowballs, we will bring down the mountain and usher in a new age of interactive storytelling.

Patience, conviction and courage first, clue-bat and sermons later...

Aweome, inspiring words, man! Good to know that you're out there doin' it!

'Tis a beautiful thing--humility. Benjamin Franklin wrote as his thirteenth precept: Humility: Imitiate Socrates & Jesus

Congrats on creating a maverick role in a major studio. 'Tis no easy task to change bureuacracies!

And congrats for taking humble *action*--for action is that hardest of all things to take. Seems like you have a well thought-out gameplan.

The secret of getting things done is to act. –Dante Alighieri

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do. –Leonardo da Vinci

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way... you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions. –Aristotle

Dimidium facti qui coepit habet; sapere aude; incipe! (He who has begun has half done. Dare to be wise; begin!) Horace,
Book I, epistle ii, line 40

And finally, congrats on the overall strategy of forgiving the funders for not quite grasping it all yet. Hopefully you will be able to demonstrate the new way and new day via your work.

Best of luck with it all! 'Tis a unique position!

Dr. E

It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new. This coolness arises partly from fear of the opponents, who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity of men, who do not readily believe in new things until they have had a long experience of them. . . Hence it comes that all armed prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed prophets have been destroyed. –Machiavelli Ch. 6, The Prince.

Hence I grant to all of ye The Gold 45 Revolver, which glows gold and fires Thor’s and Zeus’s lightning, bringing on down Moses’ thunder, as long as you are doing the right thing.

“May the lightning hold all evil away from Bófi. May Þórr (Thor) protect him with that hammer.” –from the The Kvinneby amulet (Öl SAS1989;43 ) is an 11th century runic amulet which was found in the mid-1950's in the soil of the village Södra Kvinneby in Öland, Sweden.

“Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.” –inscription in Thor’s Hammer (Mjolnir) in Marvel comics.

The thing is, story-based games FOLLOW the old Aristotle six keys of Poetics:

* plot (mythos)
* character (ethos)
* thought (dianoia)
* diction (lexis)
* melody (melos)
* spectacle (opsis)

So, it's not that designers want to turn their backs on it, it's that they want to say: yes, that is great, and that works, but the one thing Aristotle didn't take into account is a literal outside force that can manipulate the story. To use terminology that Aristotle would approve of, there is a Seventh Key to his Poetics as they pertain to the Poetics of Games:

*Anthropos (man)

How can we take this seventh key to make an interesting narrative? Which also leads me to this question, do we need to use all seven keys to make a good game story?

Hey there Steve,

The important thing to note is that Aristotle ranked the story elements in "order of importance," and it seems that videogames often reverse this, placing spectacle first and story last. Story is the soul of the work, and the soul alone is immortal, and thus all enduring franchises must exalt story.


From: http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090017886

[0103]The remainder of the list of titles, spanning every aspect of the "rotten barrel" of cultural decline; from business, to marriage, to government, to entertainment, would consume the entire length of this paper. Aristotle said, "When storytelling declines, the result is decadence," and is it any wonder that when the classics are removed from education, the world is impoverished? Video games lack epic story and soul as films invert Aristotle's Poetics, placing spectacle first and character and plot last; and as Oscar Wilde reminds us, "life imitates art." Well, this present invention would place plot and character first, and spectacle last in video games, countering common fanboy opinion. The dumbing down knows no bounds, and the present invention would foster video games that allowed players to argue and reason with professors, in word and deed: [0104]Our society and our literature and our culture are being dumbed down, and the causes are very complex. I'm 73 years old. In a lifetime of teaching English, I've seen the study of literature debased. There's very little authentic study of the humanities remaining.--Harold Bloom, Dumbing Down American Readers, LA Times, Sep. 24, 2003

[0105]Screenwriting teacher Robert McKee quotes the great poet Yeats, in describing the postmodernized Hollywood. [0106]Flawed and forced storytelling is forced to substitute spectacle for substance, trickery for truth. Weak stories, desperate to hold audience attention, degenerate into multimillion-dollar razzle-dazzle demo reels. In Hollywood imagery becomes more and more extravagant, in Europe more and more decorative. The behavior of actors becomes more histrionic, more and more lewd, more and more violent. Music and sound effects become increasingly tumultuous. The total effect transnudes into the grotesque. A culture cannot evolve without honest, powerful storytelling. When society repeatedly experiences glossy, hollowed-out, pseudo-stories, it degenerates. We need true satires and tragedies, dramas and comedies that shine a clean light into the dingy corners of the human psyche and society. If not, as Yeats warned, ` . . . the center cannot hold.`--Robert Mckee, Story

[0107]The present invention, which would foster video games exlalting these ideals by allowing one to battle for them in word and deed, would be researched and developed at CREATE, thusly leading to expanded, enhanced, and novel commercial and educational opportunities. The present invention would begin in the ordinary world, and follow the hero's journey in allowing one to battle for the following ideals and ideas, which would have exalted consequences.

[0108]I'll keep repeating Aristotle--"when storytelling declines, the result is decadence," as art is culture's flagship. The present invention would allow us to exalt Aristotle, and finally render video games that are classical, epic art. As society forgets to laud the greater beauty of the soul in its art, character and integrity--freedom's foundations--become unfashionable. And so, losing trust in the moral soul, whose center no longer holds, society begins to trade freedom for security; and bureaucracies capitalize on this--growing to oppose the truth and freedom that is necessary for the natural, long-term wealth generation that classic capitalism affords. The late Nobel Laureate economist Milton Friedman made note of this in the introduction to the late Nobel Laureate economist F. A. Hayek's The Road to Serfdom: [0109]I said at the outset that "in some ways" the message of this book "is even more relevant to the United States today than it was when it created a sensation . . . half a century ago." Intellectual opinion then was far more hostile to its theme than it appears to be now, but practice conformed to it far more than it does today. Government in the post World War II period was smaller and less intrusive than it is today. Johnson's Great Society programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, and Bush's Clean Air and Americans with Disabilities Acts, were all still ahead, let alone the numerous other extensions of government that Reagan was only able to slow down, not reverse, in his eight years in office. Total government spending--federal, state, and local--in the United States has gone from 25 percent of national income in 1950 to nearly 45 percent in 1993.--Milton Friedman [0110]Nor is it just in government that bureaucracy grows, but in business too: [0111]Over the past century, a gradual move from owner's capitalism--providing the lion's share of the rewards of investment to those who put up their own money and risk their own capital--has culminated in an extreme version of manager's capitalism--providing vastly disproportionate rewards to those whom we have trusted to manage their enterprises in the interests of their owners.--John C. Bogle, Battle for The Soul of Capitalism

[0112]The present novel invention, which would foster video games exalting these ideals by allowing one to battle for them in word and deed, and oppose the growth of the wealth-transferring state and corporate bureaucracy, battling both of them in word and deed, would be researched and developed at CREATE, thusly leading to expanded, enhanced, and novel commercial and educational opportunities. The present invention would begin in the ordinary world, and follow the hero's journey in allowing one to battle for classical, epic, exalted ideals and ideas, in thought, word, and action, which would have exalted consequences.

Read more: http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/2009001 ... z0W0VsOFOO

0247]Aristotle's Poetics ought be required reading for every gamewriter, screenwriter, and novelist, along with Homer; for if the Greats cannot teach the art of storytelling, then it likely cannot be taught. And lawyers and MBAs would also read the masters at CREATE, as they played the novel "Ideas Have Consequences Video Games," as Madison suggested in a letter he wrote to Jefferson while contemplating the first textbook for the University of Virginia's nascent law school: [0248]I have looked with attention over your intended proposal of a textbook for the Law School. It is certainly the very material that the true doctrines of liberty, as exemplified in our Political system, should be inculcated on those who are to sustain and administer it. It is, at the same time, not easy to find standard books that will be both guides & guards for the purpose. Sidney & Locke are admirably calculated to impress on young minds the right of Nations to establish their own Governments, and to inspire a love of free ones . . . . And on the distinctive principles of the Government of our own State, and that of the United States, the best guides are to be found in-- [0249]1. The Declaration of Independence, as the fundamental act of Union of these States. [0250]2. The book known by the title of the Federalist, being an Authority to which appeal is habitually made by all & rarely declined or denied by many, as evidence of the general opinion of those who framed & those who accepted the Constitution of the United States on questions as to its genuine meaning. [0251]3. The Resolutions of the General Assembly of Virginia in 1799, on the subject of the Alien & Sedition laws, which appeared to accord with the predominant sense of the people of the U.S. [0252]4. The Inaugural Speech & Farewell Address of President Washington, as conveying political lessons of peculiar value; and that in the branch of the School of law which is to treat on the subject of Government, these shall be used as the text & documents of the school.


Read more: http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/2009001 ... z0W0WCaLTw


[0296]When movies forget the thundering third act whence justice is rendered, they shall cease being art. In the original 3:10 to Yuma, the good guy lives and the bad guy goes to jail. In the recent Hollywood remake, the good guy dies and the bad guy gets away free, as postmodern producers get away with murder. Again, "life imitates art," and modern mutual funds and financial institutions also get away with billions upon billions of dollars derived from financial "engineering," "sub-prime" accounting standards, and transaction fees; as if trading stocks is more important than creating products; as if Casinos generate more wealth than factories; as if gambling and subterfuge can replace long-term wealth generation via entrepreneurship's classic integrity, as if spectacle shall forever trump character and story. Well, in his Poetics, Aristotle ranked the elements of dramatic action in order of importance, placing story and character first; and spectacle last. Again, "when storytelling declines, the result is decadence," and in the original Beowulf our hero slays Grendel's mother, but in the Hollywood remake, he sleeps with her. The present invention would exalt video games over the current fanboy films and games; and allow the player to play for higher ideals, a higher score based on Character and Morality, as implied in an earlier patent application of mine, and exalted art.

[0297]Bogle laments our modern taste for spectacle over substance--for bread and circuses--and he calls upon us to join Odysseus in putting our house in order: [0298]I get right to the point in the very first paragraph: "Capitalism has been moving in the wrong direction." [0299]The introduction that follows doesn't let up. I start off with a remarkably light revision of the classic first paragraph of Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, adapted to the present era. Compare the two first sentences. Gibbon: "In the second century of the Christian Era, the Empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth and the most civilized portion of mankind." Battle: "As the twentieth century of the Christian era ended, the United States of America comprehended the most powerful position on earth and the wealthiest portion of mankind." [0300]So when I add Gibbon's conclusion--"(Yet) the Roman Empire would decline and fall, a revolution which will be ever remembered and is still felt by the nations of the earth"--I'm confident that thoughtful readers do not miss the point. But of course I hammer it home anyway: "Gibbon's history reminds us that no nation can take its greatness for granted. There are no exceptions." As one of two reviews--both very generous--of The Battle that appeared in The New York Times noted, "Subtle Mr. Bogle is not." [0301]No, I'm not writing off America. But my certain trumpet is warning that we must put our house in order. "The example of the fall of the Roman Empire ought to be a strong wake-up call to all of those who share my respect and admiration for the vital role that capitalism has played in America's call to greatness. Thanks to our marvelous economic system, based on private ownership of productive facilities, on prices set in free markets, and on personal freedom, we are the most prosperous society in history, the most powerful nation on the face of the globe, and, most important of all, the highest exemplar of the values that, sooner or later, are shared by the human beings of all nations: the inalienable rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."--John Bogle, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, [0302]http://www.vanguard.com/bogle_site/sp20070227.htm

[0303]Without the sanctity of epic story, we might as well just inflate grades and tuitions and transform the university endowment into the perfect Grand Theft administrative mutual fund, where the investors--the students--receive no returns on their investments, just like the civilians who have their cars stolen in GTA, and wherein the investors leave not empty-handed, but with great debt--both monetary and spiritual, just as the kids who spend their days playing GTA; just when they should be reading the Odyssey, launching entrepreneurial ventures, getting married, and working not just for houses, but for homes--society's fundamental bedrock, wherein the children learn all those fundamental virtuous entities that cannot be taught anywhere else, but only hinted at and satirized in government bureaucracies; which some see as useful in fostering the growth of further bureaucracies. If universities forget to salute 1984, Animal Farm, The Road to Serfdom, and A Brave New World by reading them, society will salute these works by reenacting them, as ideas have consequences. Entrepreneurship--that magical, mysterious mechanism of long-term wealth creation--must never be institutionalized as its opposite: burgeoning bureaucracies that must increase taxes and tuitions, which must promote debt and doublespeak, and which must exile the honest innovators and creative souls--society's true founts of wealth, who serve via frugality, thrift, and idealism. The present invention will foster video games that show the consequences of ideas.

[0304]For 2800 years humanity has passed The Odyssey and The Bible on down--to the Adam Smith, The Founding Fathers, Cecil B. Demille, and Sergio Leone--as the epics contain the moral truths that were etched into reality long before Homer ever called upon the Muse; and which will prevail long after the bureaucracies of our day have faded away. For make no mistake; the great books cannot be deconstructed, and they will prevail. It is not wise to hedge against the immortal soul--one might as well bet against eternity, and those who hedge against the immortal soul in the video game worlds implied by this present invention, shall lose.

Read more: http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/2009001 ... z0W0Xq04S3

The important thing to note is that Aristotle ranked the story elements in "order of importance," and it seems that videogames often reverse this, placing spectacle first and story last.

Of course, I can also site several best selling works that do not reverse this: Half Life and Half Life 2 are near perfect representations of Phil Cousineau's The Hero's Journey. Now, do some games reverse this: absolutely but so do many Hollywood Blockbusters, a lot of music, modern fiction and television. That doesn't mean that they are worthless, merely that they do not follow the Aristotle ideal form of narrative.

Story is the soul of the work, and the soul alone is immortal, and thus all enduring franchises must exalt story.

Uh, what?

That statement doesn't make sense if you look at it critically.

Story is the soul of the work
+ What is your definition work? What is your definition of soul?
The Soul Alone is Immortal
+ Appeal to Belief; while you may believe the Soul (whatever it is) is the only thing that is immortal, others may not, so it is a poor proof for your assertion.
Thus, all enduring franchises must exalt story.
+ Non sequitur; I can put together a fairly healthy list of game franchises that have little to no story, yet have existed for more than twenty years in some cases (Pac Man? Space Invaders? Tetris? Super Mario Bros? Gran Turismo?).

And that is the critical break between the standard Aristotle framework and games - the old framework does not take into account player input.

The important thing to note is that Aristotle ranked the story elements in "order of importance," and it seems that videogames often reverse this, placing spectacle first and story last.

Of course, I can also site several best selling works that do not reverse this: Half Life and Half Life 2 are near perfect representations of Phil Cousineau's The Hero's Journey. Now, do some games reverse this: absolutely but so do many Hollywood Blockbusters, a lot of music, modern fiction and television. That doesn't mean that they are worthless, merely that they do not follow the Aristotle ideal form of narrative.

Story is the soul of the work, and the soul alone is immortal, and thus all enduring franchises must exalt story.

Uh, what?

That statement doesn't make sense if you look at it critically.

Story is the soul of the work
+ What is your definition work? What is your definition of soul?
The Soul Alone is Immortal
+ Appeal to Belief; while you may believe the Soul (whatever it is) is the only thing that is immortal, others may not, so it is a poor proof for your assertion.
Thus, all enduring franchises must exalt story.
+ Non sequitur; I can put together a fairly healthy list of game franchises that have little to no story, yet have existed for more than twenty years in some cases (Pac Man? Space Invaders? Tetris? Super Mario Bros? Gran Turismo?).

And that is the critical break between the standard Aristotle framework and games - the old framework does not take into account player input.

And the new framework does not take into account Zeus's/the Moral Premise's input. For instance, GTA would be far more interesting if one could fight for private property and love, as Odysseus did--entities which the Gods smiled upon.

By "franchise" I meant The Matrix, Lord of The Rings, and Star Wars--all of which have also inspired successful games. Have you seen the Gears of War or Halo movies? When might you expect to?

And do you think Pac Man and Space Invaders will endure as well as The Lord of The Rings, generating as much revenue and spinoffs for years to come? What's the diference? Story!

I never said that following Aristotle's Poetics is the only way top make money/gain success, but rather I stated that there are great opportunities to exalt its tenets in games.

Best,

Dr. E