Development Info Josh Sawyer on the importance of real-world knowledge for game design

[tuluse]

I think the reasoning works like this. The player should have an interesting world to interact with, interesting things to, and interesting characters to meet. The best way to accomplish this is making all of that feel believable. However, it's still a "game" and as a game it should have fun and fair rules.

 

[Surf Solar]

If you think sawyer sounds dreamy then watch this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9IFM714QC6U#at=38

 

[Zeriel]

I think the reasoning works like this. The player should have an interesting world to interact with, interesting things to, and interesting characters to meet. The best way to accomplish this is making all of that feel believable. However, it's still a "game" and as a game it should have fun and fair rules.

It's about as retarded as when authors who write anything but crime/courtroom novels say the same thing. "Boy, my real world experience in orcs really helped me write believable orcs."

The best way to write believable things is read and write a lot, not go surfing or hiking in the Andes or raping little kids in a basement in Memphis.

 

[tuluse]

@Zeriel, you might have a point, but I don't see how it relates to my post.

 

[Zeriel]

I'm taking a big, steaming dump on Sawyer's reasoning, which the entire thread has been about.

That's how it relates to your post.

Hope that helps!

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

I see there is some new porn for Roguey.

 

[tuluse]

I'm taking a big, steaming dump on Sawyer's reasoning, which the entire thread has been about.

That's how it relates to your post.

Hope that helps!

Well it's not about making Orcs realistically Orcish, but about modeling them from various human elements to make them feel like a believable culture.

 

[Infinitron]

I'm taking a big, steaming dump on Sawyer's reasoning, which the entire thread has been about.

Uh, no you aren't. He said that you should learn about the things you're writing about, and reading about them is one way of learning.

 

[tuluse]

Does this mean Josh is thoroughly read up on rape?

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Does this mean Josh is thoroughly read up on rape?

Did eh experience/partake in it like his hiking in the desert and trip to Las Vegas?

 

[Zeriel]

Caesar's Legion actually happened, man. It was just a one-man legion. A Joshegion.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

The arab muslim slave trade of Africans is what I always though Caesar's legion represented.

 

[Excidium]

Reality is the best source of inspiration you can find. But to me it doesn't really matter how much your fiction is grounded in reality if the bulk of the game systems work in an unrealistic fashion.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I think the reasoning works like this. The player should have an interesting world to interact with, interesting things to, and interesting characters to meet. The best way to accomplish this is making all of that feel believable. However, it's still a "game" and as a game it should have fun and fair rules.

It's about as retarded as when authors who write anything but crime/courtroom novels say the same thing. "Boy, my real world experience in orcs really helped me write believable orcs."

The best way to write believable things is read and write a lot, not go surfing or hiking in the Andes or raping little kids in a basement in Memphis.

His reasoning is that taking trips to deserts will help you make a more believable desert gameworld than someone who has read a lot about deserts.

 

[PorkaMorka]

The best way to write believable things is read and write a lot, not go surfing or hiking in the Andes or raping little kids in a basement in Memphis.

I'm not so sure about that. We're not talking about writing the curriculum for a survey course.

Let's say that you wanted to write about the "horrors of war". Trite topic, I know, but just go with it.

A guy who has experienced the horrors of war in real life and feels like he has something to say about it is probably better suited to write about it than someone who has no experience of the topic but has read a lot about it.

Perhaps you can't always get the full experience from text alone. Maybe sometimes you have to see the elephant to understand it.

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

I think it depends.
If you want to have a setting which somehow is kind of rooted in the real world (like most Sci-Fi and most "classical Fantasy"), then Sawyer is right.
But I don't mind diving into places of complete crazyness; as long as they don't pretend to be "believeable". Some modern art (paintings, plays, movies etc.) works this way, and knowledge of the real world would help nothing to improve it.

The best way to write believable things is read and write a lot, not go surfing or hiking in the Andes or raping little kids in a basement in Memphis.

Well, raping little kids in a basement in Memphis might always help.

 

[Ignatius Reilly]

Does this mean Josh is thoroughly read up on rape?

It would make sense that he'd included rape in so many of his stories since throughout history it was pretty common. Genghis Khan raped several women in every village/city he pillaged, which was a lot. Studies have actually shown a large part of people in Asia have a bit of his DNA. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/02/0214_030214_genghis.html

Yes, that's a serious answer to a non-serious question, lol Or maybe someone should just ask Josh on formspring why he always includes rape, but I suspect it has to do with his history background. In which every course at some point says, "And then there was rape."

 

[Johannes]

I think the reasoning works like this. The player should have an interesting world to interact with, interesting things to, and interesting characters to meet. The best way to accomplish this is making all of that feel believable. However, it's still a "game" and as a game it should have fun and fair rules.

It's about as retarded as when authors who write anything but crime/courtroom novels say the same thing. "Boy, my real world experience in orcs really helped me write believable orcs."

The best way to write believable things is read and write a lot, not go surfing or hiking in the Andes or raping little kids in a basement in Memphis.

My real world experience with niggers really helped me write believable orcs.

 

[Mrowak]

I think the reasoning works like this. The player should have an interesting world to interact with, interesting things to, and interesting characters to meet. The best way to accomplish this is making all of that feel believable. However, it's still a "game" and as a game it should have fun and fair rules.

It's about as retarded as when authors who write anything but crime/courtroom novels say the same thing. "Boy, my real world experience in orcs really helped me write believable orcs."

The best way to write believable things is read and write a lot, not go surfing or hiking in the Andes or raping little kids in a basement in Memphis.

My real world experience with niggers really helped me write believable orcs.

Ironically, yes that the case (minus the niggers part). Real life experience with living people, including thugs and murderers will help you write your stereotypical orcs better than 30 years in basement "researching" the topic.

 

[Metro]

Next News & Content thread: Josh Sawyer takes a leak.

 

[Roguey]

The best way to write believable things is read and write a lot, not go surfing or hiking in the Andes or raping little kids in a basement in Memphis.

One should not read fiction to write believable things because most fiction is trash.

 

[Zeriel]

The best way to write believable things is read and write a lot, not go surfing or hiking in the Andes or raping little kids in a basement in Memphis.

One should not read fiction to write believable things because most fiction is trash.

Yet trash fiction is what sells.

Paradox!

 

[Johannes]

To write believable things, knowing your trash fiction well is often quite enough. So many common tropes exist in modern fiction that have little basis in reality, that they don't really hurt your immersion even if you know how the thing works in real life. Like an scene in an action movie doesn't have to be ultra realistic to be cool, even when there's no magic powers or the like at work.

 

[Zeriel]

If anything, ultra realistic tends to be the opposite of cool, and even things that bill themselves as "realistic" often (always?) aren't.

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

And again: it depends!
The Wire for example had an ultra realistic setting, and tried (at least the first two seasons) to be as realistic as possible. And I think that was the big strength of them.
So I don't think this generalisation ("ultra realistic tends to be the opposite of cool") is always correct.