On Wed, 2010-08-18 at 11:11 +0200, Michael wrote: > After thinking about it, I'm not sure the "Gaia lead" is interesting.
Hi Michael! Welcome to the mailing-list, and glad to be able to talk about the game with you. It's really good at this stage to get multiple point of views and perspectives, it helps to think, challenge assumptions and hopefully end up with a very solid game more quickly. : ) You've raised several interesting points, so let's go straight to them: >For one thing, it sort of kills the "mise en abyme" in the game, >which was fun. I'd be interested in an explanation on this point - I'm not sure what part you are referring to that would be lost with the Gaia theme? By "mise en abime", do you meant the blurring between reality and fiction? > Then there is the aspect of the presence of spirit (or gods) on the > Net, which is very much "ghost in the shell" like, a classic cyberpunk > theme - even stronger ref than regular Sci-fi. If it was true, then the Greeks would be cyberpunks too ;p The concept is much broader than that. I tried to show that it was the basis for many things, from ancient myths to psychoanalysis, scientific theories or even futuristic cyberpunk movies, but those are just examples. But in a way, it's my fault - I was so focused on describing how linked to the human psyche this theme is that I forgot the essential: a practical and consistent example of how it could actually be applied to the game. I'll try that now - it doesn't mean the game or the story has to be precisely what I'll describe, but I hope it will help to explain how this could be applied, and hopefully answer your concerns - or even make you think of a few new ideas : ) So, let's try for example to take the Gaia Theory very literally, although in its most poetic way - ie seeing the Earth as a living being, maybe even sentient in a way that is beyond us. So Earth is alive. And given the mess that we have been doing lately, she is probably not very happy with us, maybe even in danger herself. Or maybe she's starting to cause global warming voluntarily, to get rid of the disturbing parasites that have started infesting her - a bit like a fever when we have a cold. So it looks bad for us. Earth has been there for a long time, it has seen the birth of the solar system. It's not a little mosquito like us who will be able to resist her. If she keeps going on like this, we're doomed, and the human era will just come to an end. Happily for us, Earth doesn't "think" in terms of revenge or hatred, and she's also seeking other means to end the trouble we are causing. With our limited grasp of reality, we would probably call this giving us a second chance, but she is just trying to solve the issue, really. For this, she has to intervene. She gives signs in the real world (tsunamis, climate alterations, a mysterious crash of an airplane that transported anti-ecology politicians...) but also the Web (you didn't think the concept of computers and networks was beyond her grasp, did you?), to try to gently nudge us in the right direction. Talking directly to us would be difficult (she speaks veeery slowly, it's a bit boring), so she uses spirits. Internet is part of Earth, just like we are, and creating creatures to haunt it, just like there are spirits for the forests or the rivers, is fairly easy for her. They are closer to humans, they can talk to us and still have a much better understanding of Earth. They are thus responsible for choosing some people (the players), and make them play a role in this. Those who decide to join the cause will then be assigned a multitude of missions, that would help humanity to redeem itself. It could be things like recycling garbages (and proving it by posting a picture), posting comments (or even articles) about the danger of polluting the Earth on a large newspaper, clicking a Facebook "Like" button on an environmental NGO website, verifying the actions of the other players, making a few careful alterations on the Web.... All of this is meant to contribute to progressively restore Earth's satisfaction, and thus its faith in the fact that humanity will fix this big mess it has put everywhere. Since each player would be assigned a spirit of his own, it would also make the spirit grow, if the player is active enough, and thus gain a bigger role and status in this movement... Etc. Ok -- I think I've written enough. : ) I think it should be enough to give a better picture of the kind of things we could do with this theme. But if it's still unclear though, don't hesitate to ask - explaining something like this is complex, so I'll be glad to answer. > And finally, of course it's not final but calling our "entities" > gods can lead to strong rejection feelings from the public, either because > they see a blasphem or because they don't believe in anything and > think we are trying to be proselytizing. Agreed - I only meant religion in its broadest definition, aka the act of belief and passion for something beyond practicalities. If we tried to copy the big current religions too literally, we would certainly generate this kind of reactions yup. > After thinking about it, I come to the conclusion that the only "sci- > fi" aspect of the game - which is supposed to take place at our time > and age, and asking the player to hack websites, an activity a lot of > casual players are secretly dreaming off, I am sure, cf the attraction > of games such as Grand Theft Auto - is the fact that the "word" "A.I." > is used. Why not just change it? Talk about "Internet derelics" or > "internet offspring"? Two things here: just because we take this theme doesn't mean that we can't hack anymore. Actually, it's the contrary - even if the activity of hacking isn't central anymore, it gains something important in the process: a purpose. Hacking to have the most websites and the most powerful AIs is one thing, but having to hack into BP's corporate network to get informations that will expose their disdain of the environment is something else. : ) And the second point is linked to the first. Yes, we could simply change the name. But we still need a strong theme, something that relates to people and makes them react when we talk about it. Maybe "Internet offspring" would scare less than "AIs", but that's not enough - we need to make sure players are interested, not just avoid to scare them. : ) > On top of that, maybe if we lean on the idea > that these are unwanted/rejected offsprings of regular programs, we > can play on some sort of identification with people who have > resentment towards parents, adults, and so on. That's an interesting point - we could certainly have different types and characters for AIs/offsprings/spirits/whatever that match different types of personalities. And the missions, too, could be related to the type of creature that the player choses - it's a nice way to reach out gracefully to different types of players and motivations. > Otherwise, the point of view with the Gaia idea of having some link > with an environmental conscience of the game, I think it is great but > wouldn't be more powerful from the other side? If the entity (or > entities) is "virtual, or if its relation with Nature is very > stretched, then we can have EFKAAI (entities formerly known as > A.I. ;) ) not caring so much about environment and the player being in > a position where either he/she can teach the efkaai to develop an > ecological consciousness. And he/she can have moral dilemnas whether > he/she will act in the interest of the efkaai or in he/she believes to > be right. It is the gamer's place to think about nature, the > environment, and so forth. That's interesting too! Compared to the story I was mentioning earlier, this adds choice and blurring for the player - who can chose to go blindly for the cause, or maybe care more about himself. Or even care about the cause, but in a different way - for example trying to influence Earth to actually destroy humanity, because he believes it is faulted. Xavier. _______________________________________________ Hackit Bar mailing list - [email protected] Wiki: http://community.hackit.cx/ List: http://community.hackit.cx/ml/ Forum: http://community.hackit.cx/forum/ Ideas: http://community.hackit.cx/ideas/ IRC: irc://irc.freenode.net/#politis
