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Maybe my use of ''author'' in teh above sense is too abstract, or just not the one commonly assumed. Even in the case of a completely linear game, there is some freedom which allows for the creation of a unique player experience. This unique experience is something the player produces through the choices they make in a game, as limited as they might be.
So let''s cut to the chase. How are you going to affect me emotionally with a video game? Describe an example game and the desired effect. I have yet to see anyone appeal to anything but my sense of fun or my hindbrain.
Chris Crawford, for example, says he can do it with Erasmatron, which uses a facially oriented interface and complex set of internal motivations and negotiations. Having played it, I don''t think he''s succeeded yet IMO, but at least he''s put quite a bit of thought into how to describe a dramatically interesting character.
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We can get together afterwards and talk about how we successfully worked our way through some of the puzzles, or encounters we found particularly enjoyable or maddening, and that becomes our own personal story which we are the authors of within the context of the game.
That''s not really a story though, it''s, to borrow a term, a fish tale. Games that lead to great fish tales are great games indeed, but they aren''t stories. They have no emotional impact. They don''t change the way you look at the world. You won''t identify personally with any of the characters. They appeal to our sense of play, but not to our sense of identity.
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This is partly true, but the current tools and methodologies of game development don''t particularly lend themselves to the involvement of storytellers. If all you do is ask a writer to come in and fill in the backstory to the game you already developed, then don''t be surprised if that''s all they are able to do. Get someone involved from the beginning and see how much more compelling the experience can be.
Orson Scott Card and Harlan Ellison, two of the best writers alive, have done just that. The results were interesting, but they were still ultimately little more than adventure games with a better thought out backstory IMO.
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Also, with the proper tools and resources, I do believe that games can be used to tell stories, and not in a completely linear way (as we would expect from movies or books). The game examples you quote are ones I would categorize under ''not requiring story'', and frankly why would you expect a RTS to tell a story? That''s not what it''s for...it''s about strategy, resource gathering, and combat. In those cases, story is just a veneer to hopefully give the player some impetus.
So let''s think big for a moment. What is this Great American Video Game(tm) that will suck me in. Never mind the state of AI, 3D graphics, or PCs. Think out 5-10 years or so and tell me how you''re going to pull this off. Generalities won''t cut it, I want the beginnings of a specific plan of action. I''ll tell you mine below.
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I''m talking about a whole new methodology when creating a game, one which considers the involvement of a professional storyteller from the get go. Obviously, such system wouldn''t be useful for every game (RTSs for example), but for a first or third-person immersive action adventure (something what Deus Ex tried to be), this could be the first step towards creating truly flexible entertainment.
This doesn''t tell me anything. I might as well say that games will be revolutionized when we start using fnurbles and osselpoots because everyone knows that fnurbles and osselpoots make all the difference in the world. HOW will an author add that emotional impact?
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This may be true, but I think you have to expand your understanding of ''storytelling'' a bit. Just because someone isn''t sitting in a comfy chair reading from Aesop''s fables doesn''t mean a story isn''t being told.
True enough, everyone''s life is a narrative of some sort, but you''re not going to make Citizen Kane from "I got up, I ate some pop-tarts, and then I went to the potty, the end." For more evidence of just how ghastly this sort of narrative is, check out any journaling site.
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You''re right...all these things are needed. You''re also right that it''s extremely difficult to do it well. You also touch on an important point in your reference to ''pretty storylines''. Writers will have to come to terms with the reality that they are not there to control the story but rather to give the player the tools they need to tell the story themselves, and I think writers will be able to do this. And they''ll probably be more able to relinquish their control than coders have so far been able to admit that the majority of them could not tell a story to save their life, which sometimes seems to be at the root of this whole question. You say games are not about telling pretty stories. I say games are not about developing pretty code.
More strawmen. A great game designer or author needs to be technologically savvy lest he say things like "Our game will be better than the competition because it will have a human-like AI", but he need not be a coder, in much the same way that a great screenwriter must understand the process of filmmaking but he need not be a director, an actor, or a musician.
I agree that games are not about developing pretty code. But I think this is more an effect than a cause. First, graphics are a much easier way to differentiate than gameplay because Moore''s Law is on your side while gameplay requires non-linear thinking. And second, Sturgeon''s Law, 90% of everything is crap, has held from day one.
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You might be right -- only time will tell. In some certain game types (MMORPGs), having human GMs makes a lot of sense. But not everyone wants to have a multiplayer experience, and so we have to find out ways to make the same kind of story development possible with single-player games. You think AI is part of the answer, and it probably is. But, it''s far from the whole answer. I think auto-generated storylines are a lot of bull, just like I think computer-generated poetry is meaningless. But that''s a whole other issue.
I don''t think current AI is the answer. Though I do believe that there will be advances in describing NPCs by mining past work. What I think is needed is a human-level intellect inside the game itself to provide stories with a soul. Think about it.
And do we really need to restrict this to MMORPGs? Miss Cleo talks one-to-one with her customers, right (cue sarcasm)? Why not simply have the game attach to a central server where humans dispense new plots and twists using some sort of pro-tool? It wouldn''t cost any more than tech support, and I know fanboys that would LEAP at such an opportunity to get paid to do this. I pitched this very idea to MGM Interactive 6 years ago. They said I was out of my mind. They were right, but that''s beside the point.
Scott
