On Sun, 2010-08-15 at 12:51 +0200, david blanchard wrote:
> o If we want to avoid the hardcore feeling, we should really rethink
> the sci-fi and AI idea and be open to other contexts that while preserving
> the kind of experience we wish to provide, don't give too much of a tech and
> dry feeling that will repulse part of the potential target (according to him
> the AI have this effect).
> Other way to put it, we should inject some human factor in our game
> experience, & some possibility for empathy.
> And try to relate the game to the life of
> people. See the success of many fb games that relate to the life of people
> (restaurants, gardening, fish tank, etc.
Yup. I've been thinking about this, and it's true that we need to find a
theme that looks less scifi. The gameplay itself will be mostly
contemporary anyway, so it makes sense to communicate this as a first
impression, otherwise we don't give the right impression.
I think I've got a theme that could match. It's not the storyline (that
would still have to be imagined by the writer), but it could help to
correct that wrong first impression people get when we say "AI".
You know the Gaia theory? It's a scientific theory that sees the Earth
as a living organism, with its own regulatory mechanisms - the name is
based on the myth of Gaia, the fertile Earth goddess nurturing mankind.
It was contested at first because of its theological inclinations, but
it has gained acceptance in the scientific community over the last few
years.
So, instead of presenting the AIs as AIs, why not talk about gods? It
could be Gaia, the goddess born out of the Internet and seeking to
intervene. Or even something more general, not only related to Internet
and technology, but also to the world around us - Internet would only be
one convenient way for the deity to gather fidels (aka what if Jesus
Christ was born on the Internet age? ;p It opens quite a few doors for
the ARG part... ).
>From an audience perspective, we have something that is much more likely
to relate to people:
* The myth of the prophetic deity that breaks the rules to prevent
doom (or whatever reason) is as old and ingrained in human
psyche as it can get
* Though religion is sometimes seen as obsolete by some people
nowadays, it is still very influential in our society, and many
non-religious people still believe that there is "something"
that shapes fate
* It draws from the habit of humans to see gods in forces that are
beyond their control (the formulation of the gaia theory is an
example of that, actually - link between technology/science and
theology)
* "Carl Gustav Jung suggested that the archetypal mother was a
part of the collective unconscious of all humans, and various
Jungian students, e.g. Erich Neumann and Ernst Whitmont have
argued that such mother imagery underpins many mythologies, and
precedes the image of the paternal "father", in such religious
systems." - W
* "Many religious mythologies had a view of Earth as being a whole
that is greater than the sum of its parts (e.g. some Native
American religions and various forms of shamanism)." - W
* It's still geek-friendly: it draws from the image of the
prophetic internet/technology that has a purpose in itself - but
it needs work and dedication for the purpose to be attained! (cf
free software ideology)
* Still linked to the game. It gets us out of the science fiction
theme, but it is still part of the inspiration for a large
number of the genre classics (like Ghost in the Shell, Final
Fantasy...).
And we don't need to be purely theological here. At the end, the goddess
could simply be something like a conscious aggregation of the collective
minds of the players (something some people call a "community" :D ).
There are scientific roots to the Gaia theory, we can use them too.
It could also be linked to a contemporary preoccupation - here because
of the Gaia theory, ecology comes to mind naturally. Btw, interestingly,
Lovelock (author of the theory) now believes it is too late to reverse
global warming
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8594000/8594561.stm
And we also have our multiplayer feature - maybe you get some less
gods/spirits to help you (aka the AIs), but you also need to keep the
goddess pleased at all times, and it would take the action of a large
number of players to do this...
There are quite a few things we could do with this, the list goes on...
The theme (serving a deity that arose through homeostasis) is quite
fertile, and could give a very good story if we have a good author.
References:
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_philosophy
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_%28mythology%29
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisyworld
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeostasis
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_%28mythology%29
Xavier.
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