GDC Update 7: Collaborative Writing and Vast Narratives: Principles, Processes and Genteel Truculence

Collaborative Writing and Vast Narratives: Principles, Processes and Genteel Truculence

**are our e-learning training conferences this "clique-y" and I just can't see it?

Ken Rolston.....great designers
Mark Nelson....

Ken believes in: setting (exploration, pilgrims and tourists), theme (faction, loose narrative threads),

Mark belives in: story (plot, pacing, revelation), Character (dialog, voice)

from a design standpoint:
Setting and theme are incredibly important: coherence, immersion, imaginative entry, ownership, developing IP,

...except for the horrible problems - high overhead, static, hard to retain, documents suck...but a visually informative map can unite a team's understanding

**what about studying the decision-making process on game design teams? work under NDA, look at independent games, franchises, big teams, little teams,

setting and theme are the building blocks of vast narratives

Story and character are incredibly important: dynamic elements, player attachment, low overhead, IP retention,....except for the horrible problems.....difficult to maintain consistent voice, story demands exposition, games rarely do story well,

**room is standing room only...why do We care nothing for these things in instructional design?

Very Important Rule: story and character, a hero is not a hero unti he has an epic tale, "Daddy, tell me a setting..."

..work it out, darwin-style

Real-world x 1.5 = believable game scale

could we create a meta-game, a vast narrative with keystone characters for the whole of acquisition training? could immersion in this story drive retention and drive more students to completing level 3 certification because they care about the story?
Write character bios (back story, common archetypes, reference images, sample dialog)
Draft your plot: act structure, key moments, narrative reversals, models and variants, flow charts and stick figures

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Comments

[Mike Lambert]

Mark, you're definitely onto something there in your last paragraph -- a meta-game (or is it meta-verse?) that is a model of a real-life PMO, populated with all the usual players (PM, logistician, contract specialists, etc.) that REMAIN part of the courses through all the levels of training. Ben B. can show you an ACQ 2XX distance learning prototype that is starting to move in this direction -- it's VERY cool.