David, I think you nailed it. The story elements you mentioned are quite exciting and proves again that in order to get story going, you need a story that is going somewhere. The case of mistaken identity is one of the strongest story elements in the book. Do you remember North by Northwest? The CIA has created a fictitious person, called Kaplan, who was invented in order to get more information on a group of post Nazi spies active in the USA. An advertising executive is mistakenly seen as being Kaplan by the group of Nazi spies. The fun part is to see how the executive, who knows nothing in spy culture, will catch up with everybody's story and become an pro-active part of the story.
I really like the idea of the other department using Williams as a means to inquire within the organization. There is a lot of potential in this. Also, it would be very exciting to see Williams, or someone who calls himself Williams appear on video for the 1st time . As for the accidental entrance into the organization secret zone, we need to think this process through a little bit. If I am a visitor, and all of a sudden, I'm granted passage, then what I would do eventually is try a second time just to see what happens. If the passage is granted every time with the same script, perhaps that would take away the magic. Perhaps, whatever device is used, it should not grant automatically entry every time someone fills out the poll. Perhaps, a technical glitch caused by hackers on the home page allows the visitor access to the secret zone, a worm, an cyber attack? On Fri, Dec 24, 2010 at 5:24 AM, david blanchard <[email protected]>wrote: > Hi > > Following a discussion I had with Aurélien yesterday, a few other > suggestions/ideas popped up regarding the context & first mission. > > Please tell me what you think, especially you Alex :) > > * first contact with game : the idea of the player entering by mistake in > the secret area of the organization at the very beginning seems actually > quite promising after thinking about it. Because of what can be done around > the fact that the player is taken for someone else : > ** to begin with, let's assume that the player, for a reason or another, is > mistaken for an existing agent, which grants him access to the secret area. > Let's say the name of the agent he's supposed to be is Williams. > ** The player is given a mission by the handler who thinks he's Williams. > Ok, as a player, he's not sure of what's happening but he does as he's told. > ** The second time he talks to his handler, the handler had some time to > realize the player is not Williams, so he's like 'who the hell are you ?'. > ** Then two paths can be followed simultaneously : the player can help the > handler by taking over the tasks previously done by Williams, because after > all the player has shown the handler that he has the skills to do it. > Second, we can imagine that Williams, who has disappeared, was in the middle > of some big story and the handler will ask the player to pretend towards > other contacts in the game that he is Williams (it's supposed to put some > pressure on the player, so the handler could ask him to do this only for a > short amount of time). > ** For instance, we want to introduce to the player the other departments > of the organization, apart for the one the handler belongs to. Well, if our > player pretends to be Williams, we could imagine that Williams was actually > a double agent secretly working for another department of the organization, > a department that is worried by the activity of the handler's department and > wants to see it shut down for instance. Then the player is contacted by this > other department who asks him to work against the handler's. This gives the > possibility to give a choice to the player, who will he chose to help, will > he report to his handler what is happening ? Opening two different paths for > the storytelling according to his choice, if we want to. > Also, we could imagine that the player is asked to do a mission that does > not seem to fit the ethics of the organization, and we let the player decide > if he wants to obey or not. According to his answer, he could be contacted > by some other department who has observed his choice and is interested by > his positioning. > Etc, there are many possibilities in this side i think. > ** Overall, this idea of trying to incarnate a Williams who is missing and > who has some secrets that the player will unveil can be nice for opening > paths in storytelling and entering in the game, what do you think ? > ** I think all of this would be possible to add in the game without much > new development, we basically need 1) the ability to 'push' missions to the > player instead of him just 'pulling' them through the mission menu, and 2) > The ability to chain missions (finishing one triggers some new available > missions), and with this I think we could start some small storytelling > based on what's above, if we want to. > > * poll for the first entry in the game: We need to make sure that the part > where the player answers a poll and is granted secret access does not look > too artificial - I see a little risk on this side when I try to picture it, > what do you think ? > > * Regarding the founder. Pretty classical to have a billionaire who > mysteriously disappeared, but it becomes more original when you make a > prophet out of him ! I think all the success of this idea will depend on the > treatment we make of it - I think it requires a lot of 'delicacy' :) (I'm > not sure of the word in english), I mean it should not be too obvious, just > little touches of mistery. I'm not sure how to express that, maybe when we > discuss the context further, it'll help me clarify what I have in mind. > > That's all for now ! > > Merry Christmas to all ! > > D > _______________________________________________ > Farsides mailing list - [email protected] > > Wiki: http://farsides.com/ > List: http://farsides.com/ml/ > Forum: http://farsides.com/forum/ > Ideas: http://farsides.com/ideas/ > Chat: http://farsides.com/chat/ > -- Best, Alex Vachon cartouchecreations.com Follow me on Twitter <http://twitter.com/cartouchefilms> Follow me on Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=602172865> Montreal Loves New York Loves Montreal<http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_135269469856078&ap=1> New York - Montreal - Vancouver
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