Drafted by DrMel v 25Feb11

 
[I'd be very grateful for any encouragement, questions and comments from you fellow monsters!]

Game Concept in brief:

A highly engaging Action-RPG
set in Fantasy or SciFi environment which provides for Skill-building and for
the use of Quick Thinking, Cooperation & Nonviolent Strategies, working
together with others who’ve had the shared experience (and MMORPG could follow,
or access could be unlocked after Chapter 4).

Narrative:

(as of 9:15am 25Feb11)

Yesterday I had the whole
day to myself (convenient given the slush on the roads) and was able to really
spell out the concepts I was having re: a game that’d be both action and RP
(developing fast-paced thinking), with an emphasis on nonviolence and the
training required to face conflicts without fight or flight responses.  I
was inspired by the idea that our shared stories give us a shortcut in our
communications – for example, if I describe Microsoft as having been like
Anakin, now more like Darth, then describe Google as more like Luke, you
probably don’t need me to explain what I mean.  

If we leverage the
immersive experience where players are active participants in computer games
(and even in paper/pencil games), and are able to get larger and larger numbers
of people through a common experience (eg Urgent Evoke), then they have a
shared language between them that could make communications that much more
efficient.  If the shared experience also included skill building
(especially re: fast analytical thinking), then they could be that much better
at working together to solve problems.

I’ve got 4 big chapters
conceived of, along with scenarios per chapter, with character back-stories and
initial experiences following a pattern done well in Dragon Age: Origins (a
recent single-player RPG on the PC that gave players 8 different possible
characters to play, with interactive fiction backstories for ~30 minutes, each
culminating in being asked to join an elite Jedi-like group that was out to
fight evil and save the peaceful races…  Then it alternated between
action (fighting the bad guys as a team) and RP dynamics (interactive fiction
where conversations with NPC’s give the character choices on how to respond,
and those choices have some (slight) effect on how the game plays out later).
 

The stumbling block I was
see was how to make nonviolence an attractive option – how to get players to
sit there and take it when the enemy attacked – while still having the choice
to fight or flee.  This is where the documentary A Force More Powerful (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VQEn7vO3M4) gave me a lot to work
with.  The section on the lunch counter protests of the civil rights
movement gave a great step-by-step “how to” guide on what they did that worked.
 The key was in the training beforehand – with simulations in a safe
environment of the heckling and violence they should expect and be ready to sit
still for.  Success was measured by getting arrested, getting news
coverage, and converting the belief systems of those in power.  One key
strategy from the beginning (following the example of Gandhi) was in picking
one specific tangible injustice to protest against.  They had white
supporters with them pairing up as buddies, and they even talked about how,
tactically, they should not mix races and genders in their pairs because that
was not a battle they wanted to fight (yet).

So in trying to address
the need for momentum and giving players the option to fail and try again, I’m thinking
the bulk of the time in game scenarios would be used to prep/train/strategize
for battle, with action-oriented simulations and opportunities to experiment,
fail and try again. 

For all the successes
shown in the Force More Powerful documentary, there have been so many more
failures.  Failures would be measured in
casualties and in whether or not a strategy chosen was successful in advancing the
cause, building more supporters, getting more press coverage.  Was the dramatic conflict worth it?

I’m not seeing this as a
predictable as a reenactment of history, where anyone with a history book can
simply win by stepping through what Gandhi and others who followed did. Different
storylines would be much more compressed and interwoven, with a character
experiencing scenarios based on pre-internet and then social media related
incidents. This would be a fictional world with either fantasy and/or science
fiction graphics (as Orson Scott Card said, fantasy + rivets = science fiction).

The character setup and
chapters:

Chapter 0: Character’s family of origin. 
During avatar creation, family of origin would be chosen – with each
choice coming from a different perspective. Most with some history of injustice
or (at least) strong biases in their values.

Following in the style of
Dragon Age: Origins (and/or others like it). Back story options could resemble
being the male or female child of:

·       a holocaust death camp survivor

·       a Palestinian who was
there for the creation of Israel

·       a Zionist who fought for
the creation of Israel

·       a wealthy Arab in the
middle east

·       a Nazi war criminal who
thought he was doing the right thing

·       a Northern Irish freedom
fighter

·       a 9/11 victim

·       an American diplomat

·       an orphan in the slums of
India (like Slumdog Millionaire)

·       a government leader

·       a school teacher

·       a peace activist

·       etc… 

Back story content could
be crowd-sourced from people who really understand what these different
perspectives meant (ref Mass Effect 1).  User
Testing could help narrow down the list to more specific archetypes.

Level 1: Early adulthood.  Again
following on the model in Dragon Age: Origins, the character faces an evocative
struggle and has limited options beyond impulsive reactions (largely based on
their biases chosen in Level 0). Failure is an option, and not too easy to
avoid, but dead-ends are quick to reveal themselves so players can return to
last save point. At the end of this level, after they have succeeded, they are
invited to join an elite (but locally-based) “Grey Warden” or “Jedi-like” team
(the junior version), committed to fighting injustice within their domain.

Level 2: from Recent Human History (pre-internet)

with a cut scene montage
sequence of their most rudimentary basic training while the next section loads,
Level 2 starts with them as an leader of a small team (each with their own
personality type/AI – eg, easy to manage or rebellious). Preparation for facing
a conflict would be a mixture of relevant time-limit based action play (like bomb
diffusion / fire fighting / coast guard rescues…), adventure games (like
Ender’s desk game) with some focus on conflict management, and mini-games to
build reaction times and quick thinking analysis skills. They should be somewhat
evocative – but not too intense (saving that for later).

The scenarios you and your
team face together are modeled off protest & uprising scenarios from the 19th
& 20th centuries (pre-internet & social media) – mashing up the
elements that made them successes or failures (eg, trying for something too
big, losing the involvement of the people, switching sides because it seemed to
make sense and losing the respect/trust of the people (ref Politically Correct
Bedtimes Stories re: Hansel & Gretel). Could draw from Gandhi’s work
(including the challenges with Pakistan/India relations), Civil Rights
Movement, American & French Revolution (?), Civil Wars…

Again, success shouldn’t
be too easy – and should be based on developing levels of competence in the
various skills.  Strategies should be
chosen before the conflict and choices during the conflict limited based on
those strategies.

For example: the team has
been recruiting participants for a protest march and are likely to see armed
resistance. A group of new recruits show up only a few days before the march
and insist that they’ll be there, but have not gone through the training. Do
you tell them what they will do, do you ignore them, do you give them a crash
course simulation on why/how to quell their anger & fight responses?

Completion could include a
level of exhaustion / burnout at the final stages (and this might be a variable
in game – with faces looking more weary as the casualties stack up.

Level 3: from Modern Era with Social Media Tools

This cut scene could show
a montage of a recovery period and some level of stability, with the team
disbanding to live more “normal” lives (or take up other struggles).  As this chapter opens, the player, now in
late 20s, is now presented with the choice of continuing on with one of several
new struggles that need his/her skills. Depending on which scenario he/she
chooses, different team members emerge (new and old) with different specialties.  Trying to manage too many directly causes
problems, so does delegating management to some that do not actually have the
skills to lead.

Scenarios to prep for and
face now include the option to use Social Media, and adventures or mini-games
for developing skills with that. Modern era problems/uprisings (dealt with successfully
and ineffective) are mashed up (including Egypt, Haiti (a potential hotspot),

Level 4: Futuristic:

Much bigger problems to
solve but with even better equipment/skills for doing so.  Perhaps some equivalent to a BFG that renders
the target awash with empathy (for some period of time) but has a long reload
period?  I’m a little more vague here –
perhaps we’re now talking about conflict with other species like those in
Doctor Who, who see Earth as a resource, and humans as a mere nuisance to be
dispensed with.

How would our player rally
the humans into actions that would prevent the destruction of at least the race
(BSG style) and, ideally our home planet? Could cliff hanger here?

My overall objective:

All the engagement of the
best of action RPGs with deliberate transferrable skill building, priming/preparing
players to be able to creatively solve problems with quick thinking, strategy
and cooperation – toward a “minimum losses” solution (most often through nonviolence
approaches).

Lots more in my
handwritten notes / mindmap.  I’d love to get encouragement, questions and
comments from you fellow monsters!

Namaste!
    - Mel