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every major medium has a great deal of
theory behind it music theory film
Theory literary Theory not game so much
though okay technically game theory is a
thing but that's a branch of mathematics
not quite what I'm talking about but we
are just beginning to explore how to
think about our Medium as we create
within it we are as an industry and a
community starting to define or at least
espouse some of the theoretical
grounding for creating our art so today
we'll be talking some Theory normally
this is the sort of topic James would
write about for gamma Sutra or some
other industry facing publication meant
to be read by fellow game developers but
he decided that really we should be
having these conversations as a
community more often rather than just
keeping them as esoteric as shared only
amongst those who build games for a
living especially given today's topic
today we'll be talking about the role of
the player our medium is unique it is as
we've said before an inherently
interactive medium a medium where the
audience isn't merely audient but
participatory this does something
peculiar to our medium it means that we
as Developers ship products that are by
necessity incomplete a painting on a
wall is a finished work a movie on a
reel is whole and complete a novel on
the Shelf is what it will always be but
a game without a player is nothing in
any other artistic medium people may
interpret a given work differently but
they won't fundamentally experience it
differently okay you could argue that
color blind people perceive paintings
and stuff differently whatever you get
what I mean so what does this mean for
us well in any medium the creative
process ends when the artist sets down
their work for the last time ready
perhaps to be reproduced but not to be
changed that definition gets tricky when
we try to apply it to games we could try
to alter this definition to fit our
medium a little better but if we do that
we end up with definitions so broad as
to be useless or we find ourselves lost
in epicycles and logical back bending in
order to make our revised definition
still fit with other media so instead
let's just assume that this definition
is also true for games and if that's the
case then it means the player is a part
of the artistic processes their actions
are generative without their help games
are left incomplete they must
indubitably be considered an artist now
of course the degree to which the player
participates in creation varies in some
cases we as developers merely set out
the canvas and the paints for the player
to work with and others the player
simply puts the finishing touches on our
work but any actor will tell you that's
true of their discipline as well some
roles are in every scene some roles pass
through with an area line but they're
all artists helping to create their art
heck even developers will tell you this
is also true for people on the
development team sometimes a game will
require a great deal from one discipline
but not from another this is the nature
of collaborative art but if the player
is an artist in our art what does that
mean what does it imply that the player
is doing when they play well they're
creating they're writing their own story
and exploring their own ideas within the
constraints of their art this is as true
for Mario as it is for Fallout or The
Sims so all right good we now have the
conceptualization of player as
Storyteller instead of player as
audience but why do we care is there any
practical side to this or is it all just
simply hot air well now we hit the roof
of it a theory with no application is
meaningless and here the application is
in the way we approach playing and
crafting games for centuries we've
studied the effect of Art and narrative
on an audience we've looked into
literary symbolism and the effect of
color we studied how story structure and
composition affect the viewer we've even
created a whole Litany of referential
narratives that we can use as a symbolic
shorthand to convey things to our
audience in fact much of the foundations
of psychology come from the study of the
effect of a story on The Listener as far
back as Aristotle we were looking at why
we would ever want to see a tragedy or
listen to a song that made us sad much
of Freud is based on the edus myth and
young was famous for his examinations of
our folklore and Mythic Traditions we've
delved deep into how we use art to
affect other human beings but what we've
not looked into quite as much is the
role of the Storyteller themselves we
know why the initiate sits at the
campfire listening to the ancient Tales
but what of the shaman what of the
artist who must create why do they
create what acts of creation have what
effects on our psyche what creation is
most enjoyable or most healing or even
most evocative of specific emotions is
creation merely a personal act
referencing only the secret inner life
of the individual or are there Universal
aspects to Creation that might allow us
to make a more satisfying creative
experience this is where we must look to
create better games we must explore the
role of the Storyteller as well as the
listener and think of our players as
both The Bard telling their own tale and
as the audience or reader or viewer
experiencing it we have to accept that
simply because players are telling their
own story to themselves through games
does not make the storytelling invalid
in fact we've often cited the value of
Make Believe for young children or the
revelatory power of Dreams art and
creation is a way to get in touch with
our own psyches games are in fact not
merely Escapist but rather a form of
expression they're a way for us to tell
ourselves about ourselves even if we
don't recognize we're doing it this is
true for all games from pong to Mass
Effect from a multiplayer session of
Call of Duty to 72 hours alone with
plcape tourament there are all ways of
expressing ourselves if we can
conceptualize the player not only as we
would the audience and any other medium
but as an artist in their own right
working with the limited tools the game
designer given them we'll be able to
create better games by simply not
ignoring the central part of the way the
player experiences any game if we can
study the role of the story teller and
the role of the artist we can learn to
make more effective experiences for the
player if we can accept that we as
developers are not the sole Proprietors
of our art we may be able to build more
immersive worlds more compelling
mechanics and even more engaging
narratives for players to tell their own
story if you've ever told your buddies
about a Halo match or thought about the
career Arc of Your World of Warcraft
character or felt to yourself that quiet
Triumph of striding through the halls of
Dracula's castle or the tension of being
alone in a Metroid filled Corridor you
know this is true as Oscar wild said it
every portrait that is painted with
feeling is a portrait of the artist not
of the sitter thanks for watching see
you next
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week
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