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ETC Applied Research Team

ETC Applied Research Team. Final Presentation December 15, 2003. The Team. Ben Smith. Eben Myers. David Jimison. Shanna Tellerman. Brenda Harger, Faculty Advisor. Original High Level Goal.

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ETC Applied Research Team

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  1. ETC Applied Research Team Final Presentation December 15, 2003

  2. The Team Ben Smith Eben Myers David Jimison Shanna Tellerman Brenda Harger, Faculty Advisor

  3. Original High Level Goal To research character and emotion in online games from a fresh perspective (Art & Drama) and to write a research paper that provides practical applications to game design.

  4. Emergent Stories in Massively Multiplayer Online Games:Using Improvisational Techniques to Design for Emotional Impact

  5. Distinct Medium of MMOGs

  6. Defining Characteristic • Hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously inhabit the same persistent game world.

  7. Unique Features of MMOGs • Play together • Real-time • Unscripted • Potentially never-ending

  8. Design Challenges • Unpredictable player behavior • 1,000 heroes • Multiple play styles and skill levels

  9. Stories • Stories are important to human beings • Satisfying stories have an identified structure

  10. Stories and Games • Linear stories tend to be used in linear games. • Multi-linear stories are also used in games.

  11. Emergent Stories • Authored on the fly.

  12. Improv Storytelling on the fly • Real-time • Unscripted

  13. CROW • Character • Relationship • Objective • Where (setting)

  14. Character • External and internal characteristics • Physical body • Status • Given circumstances • Personality traits • Inner needs

  15. Relationship • Three types • Biological • Professional • Social

  16. Objective • Objective is a goal • Physical • Psychological • Combination • Objective should be expressed as a verb

  17. Where (setting) • Time period and location for the story

  18. CROW Web • CROW elements are dynamic and interrelated • Action should cause change in one or more elements of CROW • Change in an element of CROW can affect other elements of CROW

  19. Moments of Truth • “...we rely on works of fiction, in any medium, to help us understand the world and what it means to be human ... we lose consciousness of the medium and see neither print nor film but only the power of the story itself (and) think about what truth it has told us about our lives.” (Janet Murray, Hamlet on the Holodeck)

  20. Moments of Truth • An empathic connection to a universal feeling through a specific incident in a story

  21. Moments of Truth don’t have to be profound.

  22. Important Points • MMOGs are a distinct medium • Emergent stories can help meet the challenges of this medium • Improv techniques (CROW and CROW web) create a foundation towards moments of truth

  23. Challenges • We’re not gamers • We are 5 people writing together • The scope of our topic and our ideas is huge

  24. Together Individually Always discussed from a critical and analytical angle Aliens vs. Predator: Extinction * Animal Crossing * Def Jam: Vendetta * Earth & Beyond * Final Fantasy X * Grand Theft Auto III * Grand Theft Auto: Vice City * Halo * Ico * Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy * The Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker * Max Payne * Metal Gear Solid: Substance * Metroid: Prime * No One Lives Forever 2 * Silent Hill 2 * The Sims * The Sims Online * Splinter Cell * Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic * Super Mario Sunshine * Toontown Online We’re not Gamers:Playing Games

  25. Point of View and Camera

  26. Linearity

  27. Reward Structures

  28. We’re not Gamers:Talking to Gamers • Surveyed ETC students • One-on-one conversations

  29. We’re not Gamers:Research • Gamespot, Gamespy, IGN, Mobygames, and many others… • Talked to designers at EA

  30. We’re not Gamers:It’s a Strength Ultimately, being non-gamers meant we could bring an outside (artistic/dramatic) perspective to the topic.

  31. We are 5 people writing together:Managing time together and apart • Meetings/discussions • Outlines • Divided up writing • Group editing

  32. We are 5 people writing together:Communication

  33. We are 5 people writing together:Greater than the sum of our parts

  34. Huge Scope:Expanding the Scope First • All games not just online games • Breadth first study of video games

  35. Huge Scope:Narrowing Down • Looked for topic areas that were new and different.

  36. Sparks

  37. Deliverables: Written Words • Paper • Documentation of our thoughts/process

  38. Deliverables: EA Workshop • January 9th • Held at Maxis • Open to all of the EA community • Our objective: • Present our ideas in the form of practical applications that game designers can employ

  39. Future Publications? We will take ideas from our paper and write them into different published forms. • Conferences (ACE ‘04, ICEC ’04, GDC ’05) • Magazines/Journals (Game Developer, Journal of Game Studies) • Online (Gamasutra)

  40. The Sims Online Jeff Lind - Dev. Dir./Team Lead Andrew Boyd - Designer Jessica Lewis - Associate Producer Earth & Beyond Chris Klug - Creative Director Sean Dugan – Writer The Sims 2.0 Lucy Bradshaw - VP Production/Dev. Lisa Dennis - HR Bob King - Animator Billy Hsu - Console Development LotR: Return of the King Eric Leive - Artist Jane Ng – Artist ETC Students/Alumni Jon-Paul Dumont Richard Colvin Jon Parise Nate Jones Ira Fey Ted Hung Special Thanks

  41. …Questions?

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