Coherent worlds, to an understanding of what makes it coherent, to the characters that inhabit the world. To give its structure, but isn't structure of the world, the same as a characters structure. For example, character is the structure and structure is a character. One will not work without the other; four you must have main coherent story and coherent characters to have a coherent world. (Design, S.)
Characterization and true character the nature of the beast, and that the true character comes from within, this is true for characters within games. The true inner character is only realized when fraught with danger, or put into a situation where there may be no escape.
This is where the true character is found by giving it a sense of being or artificial intelligence almost; by the player taking on the personality of the characters in the story, when he is truly immersed within the game and its Coherent world. The only control is what we project from ourselves into our characters or coherent worlds, we have made. (Eladhari, C. A.)
The understanding of what makes it work. For what our players of games really looking for, to get so immersed in the story, with their true inner character, that they don't want to leave the world you have made. A story world so intense it takes your breath away; it gives you a world with purpose. This would be the next generation of coherent worlds and without a meaningful story will be far beyond our reach, for as players, we would be the characters within them.
When making a coherent world, there is always something missing from today’s games, a deep story line within the world, for in most games this is lost. For example, I have picked two games L.A. Noire, and Heavy Rain, to give what I am writing about meaning. I will start with heavy rain and the characters that inhabit this coherent world. (Costikyan, G.)
Quantic dream's Games Company, breaks new ground with a whole new genre with this action game; the world of heavy rain, with cinematic gaming you get to really dive into the characters you see through the eyes of the four main characters that are on their own unique missions within their coherent worlds, I will look at just three of them. Heavy Rain was set in Philadelphia, 2011. (Joel E. Fischer, I. L.)
Ethan Mars: the protagonist of the game, he has a wife and two children then later he becomes divorced and his younger son Sean is kidnapped by the origami killer the antagonist of the game, Ethan is suffering from deep depression, and a fear of crowds, and blackouts that last for several hours. “So far so good a deep story to draw in the player”. While at a park with Shaun, Ethan has another blackout, and wakes to find Shaun missing.
So when he blacked out and then wakes up, he not in the park, he is somewhere else in the city, it never shows you in the game how he gets to that point. Incoherent point one. Later he checks into motel to avoid the media. He receives a letter that directs him to a locker, and finds a shoebox containing a mobile phone, a handgun, and five origami figures.
The mobile from the shoebox instructs him to complete a set of trials written on each origami figure to display the lengths he is prepared to go to in order to save Shaun, with five trials increasing risk as they proceed, from subjecting himself to physical pain and electrocution, cutting off part of his finger, and killing a man, and drinking poison.
So from here I will explain why this does not work as a coherent world story. For example he is now checked into motel, so at this Point nobody knows where he is, so where did the letter come from under his door. Point two.
Apart from the Killer contacting him by the mobile phone he finds in the shoebox telling him to subject himself to all this pain, nowhere in the story does it state that killer can see him. Point four. So let's take one part of his tasks, cutting off part of his finger.
So he is presented with option A an option B, if he doesn't cut his finger his son dies, if he cuts off his finger his son lives. Now if the killer cannot see him, why not present in with option C, pretend to cut your finger off, this would make more sense and make it more coherent story, as it would be in the real world, because you just wouldn't do what someone tells you to do, it is against human nature to inflict harm on oneself, unless you are deeply disturbed.
So this is where the character in the coherent worlds intelligence and logic breakdown for him to have to make that irrational choice, and how does he know his son is still alive, hence chaos for the player playing the game, point five.
Scott Shelby: the classic Private eye and protagonist number two; he is also the antagonist of the game, he's is the origami killer. But in the game he has been on the hunt for the origami killer from long while, to get himself before he kills his next victim, so here's a classic Psycho character, so the game story world would be incoherent for him, because he is mad... Maybe giving the character
Scott Shelby a few more subtle hints to the characters state of mind would of enhanced his background story.
Furthermore, visiting his old victims’ parents for information, to obtain several items that relate to him the Origami Killer, this was not apparent in the games unfolding story.
The character's whole story plot is; he’s the killer, collecting evidence and destroying it, also killing children to try to get their parents to do what his father couldn't do, to save their children.
The Origami Killer as a child, having lost his twin brother John in the same way he kills his victims, by drowning them in rain water. So he lives in a coherent world in a bad incoherent story. Point six.
Norman Jayden: The steely FBI agent protagonists number three. In the game, he has a pair of special glasses. He sees evidence with, on any surface; and on the ground; the whole story is set in a concrete jungle of Philadelphia, with persistent rain fall. It just would not work for real, as third is no evidence outside to find. The rain would wash it all away. This is where his story got incoherent for this character. Point seven.
Although the game heavy rain has done its best, giving you a coherent world, there are seven points of the game that are incoherent. With the characters, they have multiple choices and possible endings, but they still lacked intelligence to make their characters since of a rational choice, as it would be in real life.
So this would always be the character's flaws. Illogical and irrational decisions making, this would not up to a point, help them on their quest within a really coherent world. Point eight.
Coherent worlds are structured in a way that they have to follow certain paths to function, and these parts are set by the creator to function in this way, same as the characters that inhabit them. Moreover, they can never be more than games.
For example, a game world or a character is given life with lines of well formulated code. This code is then translated via the computers' operating system to be the desired world. The same would go for characters, or any inhabitants of that world. So with this code in place the structure would be coherent in the very world that is formed around them; harmonious. (Design, S)
Now we come to game two, L.A. Noire both very similar games but worlds apart in story and coherent structure, which gives an outstanding all-round game and story performance.
L.A. Noire is set in Los Angeles in 1947 and challenges. Cole Phelps, controlling a Los Angeles Police Department, to solve a range of cases across five crime districts. Cole Phelps must investigate crime scenes for clues, follow up leads, and interrogate suspects, and the players' success at these activities will impact how much of the cases' stories are revealed.
As the title suggests, the game draws heavily from both plot and aesthetic elements stylistic films from the 1940s and the 1950s that shared visual often shot in black and white with low-key lighting giving it a touch of realism for this game period.
The game uses a distinctive style of coloring to give it that movie visual style of film, including an option to play it in black-and-white. The post-war setting is the backdrop for plot elements that reference the detective films of the 40s pushing elements of corruption and drugs, with a good jazz soundtrack.
As well as Depth of a newly developed technology for the film and video game industries called Motion Scan, where actors are recorded by surrounding cameras up to 32 at once, to capture the facial expressions, of every character from every possible angle. This technology is central to the game's intelligent, interrogation mechanic. Cole Phelps must question the suspects to get reactions to each questioning, put to them judge their reaction to whether they are lying or not.
The game takes place in Los Angeles in 1947, a city of glamour, where crime and corruption are in full swing. The player takes the role of Police Officer Cole Phelps, and as you progress through the game, he moved up to detective of homicide.
The game starts and following his career as he advances through the department and on to Traffic Homicide, on advancement through the department, this gets a new partner to help Cole Phelps on his investigations.
After each case, Cole Phelps will receive a rating of 1-5 stars depending on their investigation performance, for interrogations, and looking for clues. When looking at an area for clues to the crime, sometime Cole Phelps can also find newspapers, the newspaper gives access to a short cinematic clip that covers a part of the game this may be a flashback to Cole Phelps war memories.
The game is a blend of investigative elements of crime solving, and mysteries with fast-action sequences, including chasing suspects on foot to fast action car chases, with some good one-on-one fistfights but good old 1940s brawl, first-rate shootouts with suspects and villains with an addictive storyline.
Mole Phelps can work on optional side missions Street Crimes and robberies. Cole Phelps can travel on foot, as well as in various vehicles. Cole Phelps also has a good supply of detective clothing available to him. In addition, you will get four more down-loadable ones. The clothing he wears is equipped with special abilities, such as increased damage protection, and increased aim ability when firing a gun.
L.A. Noire takes place after the end of World War II, following Phelps as a detective who is haunted by his actions in the war. Phelps came upon a large cave that he suspected that it is holding Japanese soldiers, and he uses a flamethrower he borrows from another squad in order to clear it when the flamethrower showed up, he advanced upon the cave and burned it out.
Soon after the event, Phelps and his squad realized the cave was a makeshift hospital for innocent Japanese civilians. Moving on to become a private investigator for an insurance company called California Fire and Life, hoping to put the demons of the war to rest.
L.A. Noire has a lot more stories to offer, set in some good 1940s to 1950s backdrops at times fast paced a few weird twists that work very well. Everything about the game is coherent to the game characters that are in sync with the time period, and a vast improvement on heavy rain.
Both games set in their worlds of law enforcement, and at the same time both very different. L.A. Noire takes the lead for its vast rooming environments, to its good stories and plots. Coherent, which means they gel, to be in sync with one another? Nevertheless, as I said from the start, they will never be more than games, who knows future games may vastly improve stories for both coherent characters and worlds, and Coherence is a powerful storytelling tool. (Project, T. G.)
Bibliography
Andrew's. (2011, November Wednesday). The Sword and Laser discussion. Retrieved November Monday, 2011, from good reads: http://www.goodreads.com/group/comments/4170.The_Sword_and_Laser?user_id=5610673-andrew
Costikyan, G. (2000/2001, January Friday). Where Stories End and Games Begin, 1.0. (G. Costikyan, Editor) Retrieved November Thursday, 2011, from gamnstry: http://www.costik.com/gamnstry.html
Dark, F. (2011, may Thursday). wayrun. Retrieved November Thursday, 2011, from is it possible for a fighting game to have a coherent story: http://8wayrun.com/threads/is-it-possible-for-a-fighting-game-to-have-a-coherent-story.7151/
Design, S. (2011, July Thursday). Using Details to Craft a Coherent Game World. Retrieved November Monday, 2011, from RGPWatch: http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14351
Eladhari, C. A. (2000). “Causal Normalisation: A Methodology for Coherent Story Logic Design in Computer Role-Playing Games”. Retrieved November Tuesday, 2011, from PDF: http://www.tii.se/zerogame/pdfs/CausalNormalisation.pdf
Joel E. Fischer, I. L. (2006). Evaluation of Cross media Gaming Experiences in Epidemic Menace. Retrieved November Monday, 2011, from PDF: http://www.mrl.nott.ac.uk/~jef/Fischer,Lindt,Stenros07_EM_Evaluation_final_draft.pdf
Project, T. G. (2010, January). Game Research for Training and Entertainment. Retrieved November Monday, 2011, from PDF: http://gate.gameresearch.nl/UserFiles/File/control/Control_Magazine010110.pdf
Coherent World follow up
With a rise in popularity of games such as RPGs, the roll-playing, 3rd and 1st person shooters across multiple and very distinct genres, there are many significant challenges in the creation of the believable world and for their inheritance of player characters to interact in ancient and modern time periods. Religions or to other world's types that may be different. However, creating a believable world, that is very important for players to get immersed into games. Especially in this modern age, people have come to expect a true and gritty realism of the post events of past years of this world. (Nutt, C) (dayrinni)
1 start deciding, whether your world will share make-believe, history or with really historical events. If it does share fax of history, decide where it will diverge, to extend from a common point or in different directions; and why, they are doing this.
2 your world will have Geography, which doesn't seem important at first, but it tends to be shaped over long periods of history. It will define the boundaries of your world. And what shapes the understand of its continuous challengers and changes in cultural and behavior of its people. To which city's folk may be seafaring or are they landlocked? Which people were the first to receive foreigners to their shores? And why are they there? (Weir, D)
4 Create your world Bible, with all the important events, historical facts and characters. Who are the biggest players, of your world when it was created? Alternatively, was it an alien race that just simply died out threw lack of intelligence. Creating style or naming your world. Will everyone have names like Gandalf or Strider? Alternatively, will they be named Smith, Jones and Tucker? What sort of life forms are they?
5 Then Decide who your characters are, that enter the world as players who will they be. Are they natives to this land or travellers from a distant one? Decide what sort of characters they meet, and who those characters are. Dos their actions help shape their history or culture? (iKiller)
6 decide on what their focus is, or what they believe in, within your world. Decide why each culture exists, and who the members are within the groups. Who are their leaders? What are their ambitions for their people, what rules will they follow? Creating big events in your world. Decide what big events will interact with your world and at what time. What these events will do and how they will shape your Earth?
A lot of people these days do not believe that better story will make for better games. In fact, that it will do the complete opposite. They are looking for better integrated stories that help the games along fast, so the action does not stop. (Andrew) (Costikyan, G)
Bibliography
Andrew. (2011, september sunday). The Sword and Laser The Sword and Laser discussion. Retrieved november munday, 2011, from goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/655231-games-as-storytelling
Costikyan, G. (2000/2001/2009, August 05 Wednesday). Where Stories End and Games Begin. Retrieved November 15 Tuesday, 2011, from http://www.costik.com/gamnstry.html
dayrinni. (2011, October Monday). What Makes A Good Game – Immersion. Retrieved November tuesday, 2011, from space secter: http://www.spacesector.com/blog/2011/10/what-makes-a-good-game-immersion/
iKiller. (2009, april 24). Top 5 Most Believable Game Worlds. Retrieved November Tuesday, 2011, from lurpin: http://www.lurpin.com/2009/04/24/top-5-most-believable-game-worlds/
Nutt, C. (2008, August 18th Monday). Building Believable Worlds: Yannis Mallat On Production At Ubisoft. Retrieved November Tuesday, 2011, from GAMASUTRA: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3763/building_believable_worlds_yannis_.php
Weir, D. (2011, November 11 Friday). CastleVille is Zynga's "Believable Fantasy World in a Social Space". Retrieved November Tuesday, 2011, from 7x7SF: http://www.7x7.com/tech-gadgets/castleville-zyngas-believable-fantasy-world-social-space
