Love Story or…

Tell me againwhy I agreed to do this?

Warren Spector

wspector@ionstorm.com

Game Developers Conference

San Jose, CA

March 25, 2004

Welcome

• Thanks a lot, Eric

– (Insert dripping sarcasm here)

• I don’t have a clue how to make a love story game.

• If I DID know, I’d do it…

Thinking about the problem• Pick your platform and/or game style

– For me: Single-player, Story-based, Character-based.

– For the other panelists, maybe something different (MMORPG? God-Game?…)

• Abstract out the real problems– Read all available research materials.

– Think until blood pours from forehead.• If blood, drop the idea immediately.

• If no blood, ask key questions.

• Get help from others– Synthesize.

Platform - MMORPG• Create appropriate visual representations

– Sight is critical, say the researchers

• Offer shared experiences– Shared interests are a given (playing the same

game…)

– Introduce some risk (get the nervous system working)

• Let nature take its course– Real people interacting with other real people

• Offer online wedding ceremonies, cheap.

God-Game• Pick the things you want to simulate

– Stages of love

– Physiological elements of love

• Create player avatars and a multitude of AI-driven characters

• Offer activities designed to affect measurable characteristics (re stages, virtual physiology)

• Track status of each NPC wrt to player

• When stats reach appropriate level, alert player he has won at the Game of Love.

Story Game

• Beats me

Ask appropriate questions• What are we trying to do?

• What’s the potential (why do it)?

• What are we trying to simulate?

• What are the challenges?

• How well-suited to games is the idea?

• Has anyone done this before?

• What are the player goals?

• What does the player do?

Your Answers Here

• (Hey, Eric wanted some audience participation so here it is.)

• (Be glad I didn’t do what I originally planned to do.)

• (I was going to get two of you up here to play out a love scene, to show how hard it is to get people to feel something specific…)

What are we trying to do?

• A game about love

• A story game

• A single player game

• A platform agnostic game

Why do this?

• Something new.

• Grow the audience.

• Better characters/actors.

• Impossible.

What do we want players to experience?

• Stages of love?– Attraction, Romance, Passion, Intimacy, Commitment…

• Physiology of love?– All five senses

– Hormone release (testosterone, estrogen, dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin, oxytocin, vasopressin…)

• Courtship rituals leading to specific outcomes?– Companionship, Sex, Marriage, Family, Divorce…

• Feelings associated with being in love?– Elevated heart rate, dry mouth, sweaty palms, inability to sleep.

What are the challenges?

• Can’t force players to feel.

• Requires character interaction.

• Love is a many splendored thing.

• We know this isn’t real.

The feeling challenge

• Can’t force feelings

• No empathy in games

The character challenge

• Our characters are weak.

• The best of them look bad.

• The best of them move like marionettes, and the puppeteer is drunk.

• Conversations? Not good.

The senses challenge

• All five senses contribute.

• Not in games…

The unreality challenge

• Anyone here think games are real?

• Part of the appeal of games is that they’re not real.

– Fine for killing monsters or solving puzzles

– Trouble for a game built around the player’s emotional response.

How well-suited to games? The bad…• Not very

– No winning or losing

– No points

– Few obvious goals

– Few action verbs

How well-suited, the good

• On the other hand

– Classic fantasy

– Common experience

– Potential for pain in real world

Has anyone done this before?

• Japanese dating sims?

• Ico?

• DXIW? (Oh, those Spiderbots!)

• Grim Fandango?

Dating sims

Ico

Deus Ex and the bots

Grim, very grim…

Player goals

• Not winning or losing

• No “scoring points” in a relationship

• Fall in love with a virtual character?

• Learn something about love?

• Deal with someone who’s in love with you?

What does the player do?

• What are the “verbs of love?”

– Talk? Hug? Kiss? Other (ahem) physical manifestations of love?

– Sweat? Feel giddy? Exude pheromone’s? Ooze oxycitone?

Why is this such a hard problem?

• We don’t do “emotion” well.

• We don’t do “character” well.

• We don’t do kinesthetics well.

• We don’t do interaction well!

• We know it isn’t real.

That’s the real challenge of the game of love

So what CAN we do?

Character studies• Better characters

– More convincing models

– More expressive physicality

– More sophisticated conversational approaches

Pursuit, not feeling

• Focus on pursuit and lessons, not the feeling of love

– Testing behaviors in “risky” situations

– Believable consequences follow from reasonable choices

Guidance counseling

• Externalized situation

– Guide a character

– Don’t be a character

• Track behavior and responses closely

Represent (unrealistically)

• Play with elements we can control

– Rendering

– Audio

Thanks for listening!