downloaded quest software

to make my story interactive i will be using quest software, i have chosen quest as it is a will know and reliable text based game creator.

the sources i will use for my essay

why we watch the attraction of violent entertainment

jefrey h goldtein




making sence of violence

rachel louise shaw

the sources above are the sources i will use to back up my research into why humans are obsessed with there own destruction.

narrative decision

i have decided that the first act will be voiced from the view of the narrator, this allows the player to view the game as if it was a story being read to them,  i got this idea from the Stanley parable.
the rest of the story will be viewed in first person as the narrator will force you into the life of jack.

the only other time this will change is when you die, when this happens the narrator will narrate the death and how stupid you are fore dying.

examples of appoclitic games and films

call of duty ghost is a game about the fall of the united states because of their greed, the ghosts are soldiers that have suffered so much that they have become almost undead. the art on this poster shows a man pulling of a skull mask, this image looks like he is pulling the skin of his face to show he is no longer living. 

the story of 

pokemon acts and roles (heros journey)

back when i was a child i use to love playing the original pokemon games red and blue, here are the acts and the roles of the characters within the pokemon universe.

red is the protaginist of the first pokemon games, he is sent on a quest by professor oak to collect all 150 pokemon and become a pokemon master. (hero)

blue is the players rival and will test the players strength through out the game by appearing out of no where and challenging you to a pokemon battle, this forces the player to be strong at all times.

this also makes him a false threat to the player as he is not trying to harm you rather show how strong he is and force development of the players skills. (false villain) 

professor oak is the man who sends red on his mission, he is also reds mentor as he teaches red about pokemon and how to battles, you could also argue that he is also a giver as he gives red his first pokemon which allows him to go out into the world. 

reds mother can be considered a helper as she gives you the running shows, in the remake of the original games she also saves your money which allows you to get items you might of not have been able to afford other wise. 

bill is the creator of the pokemon pc box, he is a small helper as you dont need him to use the box how ever it is a small point in the story and the box that you use to hold your pokemon was created by him. 

the gym leaders are helper by giving the player badges when they are defeated 

team rocket grunts are low leveled villains who try and steal pokemon and objects of value. 

giovanni is a false hero as he is a gym leader, this is someone who shares knowledge and helps pokemon however he is in fact the true villain, under the surface of his gym he runs a evil organisation geared towards stealing pokemon, this origination is called team rocket and are responsible for crimes such as stealing cubone skulls and taking over silph co.

the elite four are the final challenge the player has to face before becoming a pokemon master. 

act one:

the player starts on there journey to become a pokemon master, they do this by defeating some of there lower leveled gyms and catching wild pokemon along the way.

act two:

red faces team rocket and destroys there evil plans to take over the region.

act three: red faces the elite four and his rival to become the pokemon champion

solaris

this film is about a man who goes to a space station orbiting a living star because a close friend asks him to help the personnel aboard, the space station has been suffering from a strange phenomenon which is causing hallucinations, these force the person to see someone they care about,the visions are also physical and makes the whole all deal seem so real. (in the case of the protagonist his dead wife)

what this film questions is does it matter if any thing is real or not because even thought the hallucination have physical form and emotions they are just copies of the original and there for not really the person they are imitating.

at the end of the film the protagonists wife tells him does it matter if we are alive or not, what i think this means is as long as we have a conscience does it matter if we are real as long as we can interact.

in my personal opinion i believe that as long as there is another physical entirety to communicate with you do exist, as Micheal from vsauce points out in his video on conscientiousness what if you took two halves of a brain and put them in to one body each, which would be conscientious, from this idea i believe any  conscientious entirety out side your own form prove you are real.

made a decision for my narrative

i have decided that the player will be able to die at certain points in story when they are making decisions that put them in danger to often, these decisions might include greed that makes the main character hated by more people than would have wanted him dead other wise.

the reason i have chosen to include this feature is the player must learn that just because you can do something to hurt others it doesn't mean there wont be consequences.

the game that gave me the idea for this was Spelunky, this game allows you to kill shop keepers to get the best items but it makes the game allot harder. 

the subject i will be researching

the idea i will be researching and writing my essay on will be (why humanity is obsessed with its own destruction)
the reason i have chosen this as my subject of interest is because the amount of post apocalyptic games and films on the market is high at the moment, this includes all the zombie tv series like the walking dead and sharknado.
this subject also intrigues me personally as i have always wondered why people are obsessed with death and killing in both games and watching it at the movies, surely we should be trying to avoid it at all costs due to our evolution.

narrative presentation

narrative acts

the first act will have the main character waking up and having his life narrated by a narrator that doesn't stop telling the audience how bad his life is, this opening act will not have any main decisions until the end of the act where jack will be given the choice to ether become an enforcer or try and live a normal life.
there is one Easter egg in this act which involves the player not washing his/her hands when they enter the bathroom in jack's apparent.

at the end of act one jack is given the choice to ether become an enforcer or live a normal life, this gives birth to two completely different story arcs one in the role of a man forced to do harm and the other forced to watch as the world falls apart around him.

half way through both story arcs the player will be given a choice ether to stay on the path they already chose or change over to the other side.

enforcer act:
in the enforcer act the player will be forced to undertake in horrific acts or murder and destruction of peoples property and well beings, however this is all to re-balance the worlds and in the end make it a better place for all of humanity.
half way though this act the player will see a happy young couple and will feel sad because his life forces him to hurt people like that, this will give the player a chance to switch into the other arc.

normal life arc:
in this arc the player has to live out a normal life as the world falls apart around them, this game play style will be more along the lines of a dating sim where the player has to get a job, find a partner and over come obstacles that block their path.
half way through this arc the player will see a man being murdered and will have the chance to switch arcs.

enforcer act 2:
in the second arc the player must face the fact that he has become power obsessed and is in danger of being corrupted in the same way that though before him were, to stop this the player must ether make the decision to change to the other arc or over come his obsession, if the player doesn't he will die.

normal life 2:
in this act the player must face the fact this he/she ignored the world falling apart so that they could be happy (selfish action) in the act you will be given the chance to mend your ways and help fight the evil at the cost of your own happiness.

final act 3:
in this final act the player will have to chose ether to sacrofice them self to the evil and balance the world by becoming head of the enforcers or take immunity which allows you to be unharmed by the enforcers

narrative idea 2

My story has two arcs one where the character becomes cruel to save people but in turn becomes hated, this is based on the idea of doing something to help someone even if the feel like you are hurting them  (eg taking alcohol away from an alcoholic)

The second opposing arc has the character ignoring the evil so that they can live out a normal life however they are plagued by guilt though out this arc and reminders that they are being selfish and they will lose things they love because they were a coward.

Finally there is the easy way out options that take you to a completely different ending.

Key items I have thought of so far:

·         A gun called the easy way

·         Family picture

·         A amulet

·         Laptop 

narrative timetable

11th November 2013 To 30th November 2013	Come up with the basic idea of the story and decide which parts will go into which acts.
1st December 2013 To 20th December 2013	Plan out the structure of the narrative and how in my narrative the two story arcs interact with each other.
21st December 2013 To 5th January 2014	Do basic draft of the story ideas in corporation with the structure I have created for the narrative, this will give me a basic idea of how the final project will look when it’s completed.   At this point I wont to have a basic lay out of the story but not in detail (example: the story arc but not key or side events fully polished)
6th December 2014 To 25th December 2014	Gather inspiration for detail and plot twists in the story; I will gather this inspiration from works of writing and pieces of art.   ·         Environment inspiration ·         Character design ·         Key object design
26th  December 2014 To 3rd February 2014	Write the full version of the narrative and place the correct parts of the narrative into the lay out structure.
4th February 2014                                             To 9th February 2014	·         Spelling check ·         Making sure narrative makes sense ·         Make sure I’ve put the right parts of the narrative in the correct places.       play test
10th February 2014	Hand in day 4:30

narrative structure analyses

i have been looking at narratives in text based games, the game i chose to map out and review was zork as i heard that it was a well known text adventure game. (a text adventure is a game that the  main game play is reading though lines of text that describe your environment and any obstetrical in the scene) 

first impressions of zork:
when i first started playing zork i got a clear idea of the location i was in and the directions i could go, as i began moving around the first environment it soon became clear to me that the area i was in was not small in size and was littered with secrets.
the first obstetrical the player runs into was the forest, the reason this was a obstetrical is because the similar surrounding makes you lose your path, when i lost my sense of direction i had no choice but to head back the way i had came to regain my bearings,
after this i proceeded to go north until i reached a white building, on examining the building i found that the front was barred shut so i tried going around the back, when i got to the back of the house i found that there was a slightly open window, i entered the window to enter the building and found my self in a kitchen.

in the kitchen i found a bag of food which i ate, after eating the lunch i moved into the adjoining living room where i found the following items a lantern and a sword.
once i had collected both these items i looked around the room until i noticed that the rug on the floor was out of place because it had a budge from a trapdoor underneath.
the fact that the room supplies you with the items required to further your quest makes the room the donor and the helper even though it is not a character as with out this room your character can go no further.

i opened the trap door and after trying to find the right command which was down i proceeded down into the cellar, this is where i came across my second obstetrical the dark (like the forest the dark stops the player by taking away their sense of direction also an enemy is described in the dark) to get rid of the dark i lit the lantern to illuminate my surrounding.

this is where i believe act one ends because we have gone from a safe environment to a environment rumored to have enemies and we also have a weapon to defend our selves.
(this sadly is when the internet crashed)

when i was able to get back on the game again i took another path, his time i when to the tallest tree in the forest and climbed to the top to collect an item first instead of going straight to the house, every path i took after this took me back to the house.

from text adventure i have found that yes a text adventure can have multiple paths and it is rather open world however this is always soothing that is slowly pushing the sorry forward or you will just keep going in loop, this is common in small scale RPG including two of my favorites the original Pokemon red and the final fantasy series up to 12.

is this real life or is this a fantasy? lesson notes

• dreams are a link to the subconscious 
• when we are born we are made aware of the world 
• it is thought that the reason we don't remember our birth is because are brain has to handle with all of these new senses (violent memory) 
• the first thing we see is our hands (takes baby few weeks to work out they have a body) 
• we realise we have a body and work out that others have a body 
• child becomes aware of relationship with there mother 
• the ego is born when baby works out it is them in the mirror
• projecting/ reflecting and self image 

• desire is lead my society
• once we reach are goal we are disappointed 
•  no one has control of there destiny 

• fantasy is a safe place 

the desert of the real

authenticity can change the meaning of the worth of something depending how authenticated its is.  giving meaning to the work gives it authenticity with out meaning the piece is just an object created by the creator.

the printing press made works less genuine over times as they were mass produced so the original becomes more and more obscure.

what we lose in authenticity we gain in domocusentaion as now the object belongs to the people and not just the select few.

difference the real and the simulation
the simulation becomes the reality (some one who simulates illness feels sick because they believe that they are)  it doesn't matter if it is real or not as long as it feels real the authenticity is there.

if the simulation is exactly the same as the original which is the real one.

the question what is reality is reality what we can see in front of us or is reality what we believe exists. in my person opinion for something to exist you have to be able to interact with it in one shape or form, this includes sight, smell, touch and hearing.

science states that reality is "the state of things as they actually exist" to find out if something actual exists you need evidence to prove that the object or entity actually has presence and isnt just an illusion. (http://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/what-is-reality.html)
however there is something called Consensus reality, this is when a group of people or society believe something is true with very little to no prof that it exists, a good example of this is organised religion where people believe in a all powerful creator or being that created the world or influences events around them.
(example) in Christianity it is believed there is an all powerful creature that created the world and every thing on it in 7 periods of time, this idea has been believed by millions of people for thousands of  years to be true, it is only in the last few hundred years that the religion has started to soften down in some respects however there are allot of people that solidly believe it is face and there for reality.
another example of this is the world is flat, this was believed the be reality for a long time until it was proven to be false by Christopher Columbus.

in my opinion i believe reality is constantly changing depending on what we see or believe the definition of reality is.

idea for how the narrative would be planned out

i will also be adding a 3rd ending which is nether good than bad, it will be called easy way out where the character comes to a realisation about what everything is all about. (story twist)  this ending can be selected at any point but will stop you progressing any further in the story.

my story idea

The only evil is when good men turn a blind eye

the story involves a character who has to chose to go down one of two main story paths, the choice is between becoming heartless and ruthless in order to over power a greater evil that has implanted its self into society or turning a blind eye and living a care free normal life.
though out the story the character will be tempted by invitations from the counter story line in a yin yang style(for example the player maybe becoming cold and heartless however they see something that reminds them of a normal life and in the process tempting them onto the other path.


basic story plot:

• character finds out about the implanted evil
• character makes his or her choice 
• player develops into life (relationships with other characters
• evil grows/ characters evil grows 
• player is tempted by other side at random points during this time
• player has to make decision applicable to side 
• evil grows/ player evil grows which may include lose 
• point of no return 
• final choice 
• final choice for applicable side 

depending on the decisions made will determine the the final outcome. 

text adventure break down

task one:

the first game i have chosen to play and analyse is the hobbit text adventure game.
the story starts you off with only one way to go, this makes the story linere at the start, however after the second screen telling you which way to go the story becomes more free roaming as you chose any of the direction listed, by examining your surrounding the player gets a greater sense of what is unfolding around them.

the story becomes more complex when you have to wait till until sunrise for the trolls that are in your way to turn to stone, this is the players first obstetrical, after this you get a key and then again have to find your own path making the player work for the next part of the narrative.

the game quicken the pace of the narrative by forcing the player to make snap distinction on direction by adding the threat of enemies, this adds tension to the narrative as the threat of danger makes you feel rushed into the area.

after this i got lost and ended up being killed by something from above, this adds mystery to the game and encourages the player to try again to see if he or she can find out what killed them.

mystery box of awesome:

this story catches the players attention right from the start by adding a sense of immanent adventure with the mention of a mystery box, the box leads to another world which the character can exsplore, this game also uses quotes from well known tv shows like dr who which encourages the player to continue to see how many they can find.

sadly i did not get very far in this game however i have played text based adventures when i was a child,  im not the greatest fan of the text adventure because im a more visual kind of person however i can see the benefits of them.

benefits:

• cheap and easy to make long and in depth interactive stories, this can help new narrative writers display their work.
• the file size is small so you can have allot of content on one disk or memory stick, good for people who don't have access to games on a regular basis.  
• can be updated at anytime to include pictures that go along with the writing as the code isn't as complicated as full cg games. 

narrative type tragedy

The definition of tragedy narrative is a narrative that has the main character brought to ruin and forced to suffer ether against an inner weakness or unfortunate circumstances.

one of the most famous tragedy writers was William Shakespeare who wrote narratives such has macbeth, romeo and juliet and hamlet,  these are very old styled stories that were popular in the 16th century, the main plot of which involves the main character wanting something they cant have and having to fight there way though obstacles to get to it however half way though the story all the characters hard work is destroyed by unfortunate circumstances.

  in terms of gaming one of the latest tragedy narrative related games i have seen is the last of us, (spoilers) the story is about a middle aged man who lost his daughter at the start of an infected outbreak, years later he loses his best friend however at the same time he meets a young girl that gives him hope but then again she is threatened to be taken away from him.

the goal of a tragedy narrative is to make the audience become emotionally attracted to the main character, the way the writer does this by putting the main character through problems that could happen to you such as love, greed and death.

leading figures

valadermer propps character-led narrative:

propps starts with the characters rather than the narrative, letting the characters develop the plot, the narrative is created through the story's characters.

propp finds patterns within narratives saying that these things are common however he is not saying that the patterns are always there.

 one of propp's rules says that you cant break the rules until you know what the rules are.

propp gives us the first character (the hero) we find though many stories that there is almost always this character to lead the narrative (example sleeping beauty hero and luke skywalker) the hero will be sent on a quest to save something or find something out and it is this journey will become the plot.

opersite the hero you have the villain ( in fairy tales the villians are usally female)

the hero begins there quest where they will suddenly meet there first donor (eg:obi wan kenobi) the donor gives the hero something ether being physical or knowllage.

another person or thing the hero will meet are the helpers who help the hero but not by giving the hero anything physical however they move the story along.

the princess: the princess role is to be passive and to be rescued, holding back the plot until the hero arrives however this isnt always the case.

the dispatcher: is someone who sends the hero on the quest to save or find somthing.

the false hero: is the person that you think is going to save the day.

the false villain: this is someone you think is going to be evil but ends up being a bit of a hero (darth vader as he kills the emperor)

the hero's journey

for cambell the hero is usally male as the man needs to go on the journey because females already have the knowledge, the hero goes above and beyond normal achievement and be of lonely birth.(no parent figure) 

the hero will show them self to be of hirer birth. 

 the hero is judged by other members of the story and by us on the choices they have made though out the journey as they are not morally perfect. 

departure :

this is the beginning of the story (starts in a ordinary of an environment) 

call to adventure:

this is the call that the hero receives to go on the adventure.

refusal of the call:

when the hero refuses the first call to adventure (always has a good reason) 

acceptance of the call:

there is a turning point that makes the hero change there mind and goes on the quest.

supernatural aid or talisman:

they will be given something that they will need to use later on in the story.

the crossing of the first threshold:

crossing over from the ordinary world into the world of adventure.

threshold guardians:

an obstical to halt the crossing of the threshold 

belly of the whale:

the hero reaching the furthest point from normality. 

initiation:

meeting the goddess:

a form of enlightenment or wisdom 

the road of trials:

the obstetrical that stop the hero from continuing his or her quest. 

temptation from the path:

the temptation that draws the hero away from his goal.

atonement with the father:

apotheosis:

forfilment of destiny 

the return:
is the return of the hero back to the place where he started his or her quest, this might also be the hero returning to a sense of normality.
the hero however might not be able to return because of the changes that have under gone on the quest ether physically or mentally ( a good example of a mental barrier would be they now have a lust for adventure)  

group narrative idea

First Act:

*Two blacksmiths, a father and son don't see eye to eye with one another as the father wants the son to inherit the business whereas the son wants to be a hero like the one he is told of in his stories. *The king wishes for a sword from an abounded castle, the father can not leave as he is creating weapons for the army, therefore the king commands the son to go in his place to fetch it as the son has courage. And whereas the father has more strength he doesn't have the courage to say no. The son although told to go is also curious about the outside world he hasn't seen, thus it is his curiosity that also sends him out. *On his way the son crosses through the remains of a great battle and discovers a talking skeleton who joins him on his travel. Thus the skeleton represents what the son could become and tries to drive him away from temptation / the things the dead solider did in his lifetime and regrets. The skeleton also has a crystal in his hand that bestows wisdom and insight on future events.

Second Act:

*past battles. During which the son takes part in a battle that shows him the horrors of war and that he isn't ready for such things. Likewise, the skeleton remembers why he enjoyed fighting. *Having lost the battle the blacksmiths son is showed how to fight by the skeleton who tells him he was the kings brother. He also explains that although he lost the battle he also survived and and can come back from this.

Third Act:

*The crystal smashes and therefore they lose their insight and have to fight the ? on they own. *After defeating the ? the son returns home with the materials needed and a new sense of understanding. Taken in the lessons he has learn't throughout his journey.

utopia and dystopia in war

we should all agree that war is a dystopia even though i agree that there are some people fit better into a war economy than they do in civilian life, the reason war is a dystopia is because of the constant death and unstable living conditions.

i will be using the game call of duty world at war as an example to get my points of a dystopia and utopia across, first i will convince you that war is a dystopia.

differentiation of dystopia:
"An imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as from deprivation, oppression, or terror." 
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dystopia

in call of duty world at war there is an achievement called snakes in the grass, to get this trophy  you have to burn all the Japanese soldiers hiding in the grass to death with a flame thrower.
a flame thrower is a weapon that shoot a stream of flammable liquid forward a few metres in front of the weapon while its ignited, these weapons that cause a overly painful death were banned by the Geneva convention in 1978, my point is that weapons like this were being used in the setting of this game (world war two) and as these weapons cause terror among those that they are used against i would say this is a dystopia.

on the other hand there are areas of utopia within war, these are just for brief moments when the fighting stops.
a good example of this would be during the first world war when on Christmas both the British and German sides stopped fighting to play football out in no mans land ( A report in the Guardian on Boxing Day 1914 described how in one region "every acre of meadow under any sort of cover in the rear of the lines was taken possession of for football". In their letters home, British soldiers told of shaking hands with their German counterparts and swapping cigarettes. )

a example of this in the game call of duty world at war would be at the end of the game where the main Russian character plants the USSR flag on the final German position, in this moment the fighting stops and there is a scene of relief.

modern lara croft is she just for show

when compared to lara crofts original design the modern design has been toned down sexually, one clear indication of this is the fact she is now wearing allot more clothing changing though short shorts for a pair of long trousers.

even though her design has been toned down especially in the chest area she is still appealing mainly to a male hex-asexual audience, my argument and evidence to support this comes from one point of her design that never changes, this is the fact that she has no physical flaws.
you could argue that she would have to be in peak physical condition to do the job she does however there are no large scares or evidence of any injures that deform her perfectly sculpted face.

now that i have put my views on lara crofts physical form i will now compare her against mulvey's claim that the female is only there to be looked at and re-enforce the males role.

"What counts is what the heroine provokes, or rather what she represents. She is the one, or rather the love or fear she inspires in the hero, or else the concern he feels for her, who makes him act the way he does. In herself the woman has not the

slightest importance."

i would not go as far as saying lara is not important to the sorry however in the most resent game (reborn) lara is portrayed as being weakened instead of her main objective being to find treasure her main goal is just to survive and yes it is possible that this story could have been told with another character as it doesn't tie in with the tomb raider staples.

however even though she has been weakened and there for put in a more stereotyped female for this game rather than the one girl army that she is portrayed in other games, this doesn't mean that she is just to be viewed though as there is a character arc which makes lara a much stronger character than she is at the start of the game.

i would say that in removing the strong characteristics that make lara a large overpowering character the designers have not made her less attractive to the hexusexual male they have just made her a different kind of attractive the kind that a male could see him self being able to help.

ideology of war and video games

war is self escalating, even though most people might think that there was a just reason to go to war after awhile this reason is faded out and forgotten replaced by hate and the unwillingness to except that so may lives have been lost for nothing other than land gained or lost.
the idea that war is exciting and allot of fun is not the reality at all however people joined the army on mass at the start of the first world war expecting honor and glory but all they found was death and the constant fear of mutilation both from gas and shelling.

modern video games put across the idea that war is fun a place where you can run though a hail of bullets and survive, and even enemies with years of combat experience are out done by you a raw recruit fresh out of selection.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcckHAYCxGk&list=PL35FE5C4B157509C9&index=28

the link about is a research and a conclusion of the rules of war in video games by Matthew Patrick, in this video he describes how the game call of duty contains many cases of war crimes that the player was not being punished for these crimes, this added on from an investigation that the red cross did on modern war games. 

even though the player is en-fact being punished accurately because of victors justice that doesn't mean that the video games should reward these actions with positive feedback.  

on other other hand if these games didn't give positive feed back for committing certain actions they wouldn't feel as rewarding, a good example of this idea being turned on its head is Spec Ops the line  which shows the horrors of war while mixing sections of fast fun action.

power point dystopia