Towards a Poetics of Virtual Worlds Multi-User Textuality and the Emergence of Story

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Towards a Poetics of Virtual Worlds Multi-User
Textuality and the Emergence of Story
Lisbeth Klastrup
Ph.D. defense

• IT University of Copenhagen, June 20th, 2003

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Agenda

• Why this project?
• A new approach
• Objectives
• What is a Poetics?
• The Research
• Findings
• Further Research

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I. Why this project?
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We all build worlds of fiction
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Understanding Interactive Fictions

• General interest How do we experience and
  read new media fictions such as interactive
  narratives or games?
• My previous research Single-user interactive
  works of fiction

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Cyberspace can be seen as an extension, some
might say an inevitable extension, of our age old
capacity and need to dwell in fiction Benedikt
(1991) Cyberspace First Steps
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Interactive Fictions Online a mindboggling
experience
Interactive fictional universes in a networked
version Which allows you to move around inside
the fictional world And are inhabited by several
users at the same time
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What is a virtual world exactly?
Computer-mediated Networked Multi-user
environment Spatially navigable
Inhabitable Persistent Large enough to
encourage exploration feed imagination
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What does a virtual world look like?
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An example of an early virtual world
MozartMUD, estab. 1990
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Early graphical world
Habitat/WorldsAway, 198?
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An example of a newer virtual world
Cybertown, estab. 1999
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EverQuest
Planes of Power trailer
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EverQuest - from my point of view
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EverQuest - from my point of view II
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II. A New Approach
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Previous research in the field

• Lack of literature which surveys the entire field
• Existing literature consist mostly of articles or
  anthologies
• The monographies known presents mainly one
  theoretical perspective or examine only one or
  very few worlds
• Either from the designers, system developer or
  the researchers perspective

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My research intended to

• Present a (first) overview of the field in
  monographic form
• Present different perspectives on the field in
  order to capture its complexity
• Develop the textual perspective on the
  field (expanding Aarseth, Ryan etc)
• Allow for comparative studies of worlds
• Ground itself in actual empirical studies

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Concrete objectives
1. To outline a precise and exclusive description
of what a virtual world is and following, to
relate the properties of the virtual worlds to
the properties of the internet as a medium of
presentation
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Concrete objectives
2. To trace and describe the history of virtual
worlds and the emergence of various genres of
worlds
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Concrete objectives
3. To identify the specific theoretical
perspectives needed to provide a full
understanding of the phenomenon
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Concrete objectives
4. To outline a basic analytical framework with
which to approach the study of worlds in
existence
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Concrete objectives
5. To refine the analytical framework through
empirical studies of a number of worlds - from
both the players and designers perspective
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The End Goal
Outlining a Poetics Poetics however not as
prescriptive dramaturgical guidelines (such as
those put forward by Aristoteles), but reflected
description and analysis of some of the nature,
forms and laws of virtual worlds in general,
following f.i. Todorov
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Poetics
poetics what it studies is not poetry or
literature but poeticity or literariness. The
individul work is not an ultimate goal for
poetics if it pauses over one work rather than
another, it is because such a work reveals more
distincly the properties of literary discourse.
Poetics will have to study not the already
existing literary forms but, starting from them,
a sum of possible forms what literature can be
rather than what it is. (Tzvetan Todorov The
Poetics of Prose, 1971)
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The End Goal
Introducing a poetics which explains the
relation between the virtual world as a
discoursive system and the experience of
it pinpointing what exactly makes virtual worlds
worldlike, i.e. attempts to define what creates
the experience of worldness.
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III.The Research
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Research methodology

• outlining an interdisciplinary framework
• applied in attempt to describe
• - structural properties of world systems
• - phenomenological experience
• focusing on the elements which create events
  and produce meaning
• as such influenced by literary theory tradition
  of analysing texts, however with shift from
  studying a concrete text to the study of a system
  which produces text.

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Research methodology

• !
• NOT text as world but world as text

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Methodology/ Interdisciplinary framework

• Cybersociology (studies of social spaces
  online, virtual communities)
• Computer Game Research (game systems,
  exploration of space, fun)
• Cybertext theory digital literature theory
  (cybertextuality interactive narratives)

these disciplines all address interaction and
world from different perspectives
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Methodological pros/cons
Cons Interdisciplinarity leads to superficial
application of important concepts, disregarding
their disciplinary history Collage approach
disables in-depth studies and/or collapses
clear-cut argument
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Methodological pros/cons II

• Pros
• Avoids appropriating virtual worlds as just one
  thing (Games, Narratives etc)
• Focus on world experience emphasises the users
  perspective (reading, gaming), avoiding too
  focused abstract theory not applicable to
  concrete experience and analysis
• Providing several entryways to the field

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Some main points

• When studying virtual worlds, we need to look at
  two main forms of interaction
• interaction between users (social interaction)
• interaction between user(s) and world (game or
  text world interaction)

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More main points

• Operationalising the concept of interaction
• Who can interact? (Agents)
• How can they interact? (Interaction forms)
• What is the scope of interaction (Surface/Fabric)
• How does the he implementation of
  interaction-in-time (cause and effect of
  choices) work?

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Event agent interaction form
Players (the human users - dynamic objects) NPCs
or "informative" objects (the non-human players,
moving targets or information holders - these
might be both static or dynamic objects depending
on whether the world is one in which the player
gets to program objects or not) Objects (objects
which can be manipulated and moved, these might
also be static or dynamic like the other form of
objects above) World Rules (the "voice" of the
programme which determines the limit of action of
the human player, i.e. the game rules which
deter-mines the consequences of a player's
actions and potentially initiates events as
reaction to these.)
Manipulation, which is the form of interaction,
which consists of moving and combining objects.
Social interaction, which is the form of
interaction, which consists of communication and
play with non-verbal and verbal cues and
languages, i.e. both linguistic and
paralinguistic interaction Information
retrieval, which is the form of interaction which
consists of providing information, obtaining or
storing it Navigation, which is the form of
interaction that consists of moving through the
world by moving your avatar (your "physical"
representation in the world) from place to place
in the world.
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Collective Perspectives
Concrete events generated through combination of
inter-action forms agents World as
phenomenological experience

• INSIDE THE WORLD
• Interpretative framework (genre etc)
• Playground (performers)
• Game System (players)
• Social world (humans, chars)
• -------------------------------------
• OUTSIDE THE WORLD
• SoftwareLegends (of this and other vws)
• Manuals guides

Emergence of lived stories,the sum of
interaction-in-time
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Empirical studies

• Return to Krondor (single-player rpg)
• Modus Operandi (multi-player detective game)
• Scherazades Daughters (interactive theatre
  piece)
• StoryMOO House of Mystery (own design)
• EverQuest (massive multiplayer world)

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Online Murder Mystery Game
Cast Susan Nigel Ernest Julie John
(Maggie) (Policeman)
PlayersNigelSusanJohnMaggieErnest/MichaelBu
rnseyDetective II
The StoryMOO House of Mystery
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Goals of staging the mystery

• How can you motivate people to interact with each
  other in directed way?
• How can you use the space of the world in this
  kind of plot/setting?
• Will each play turn out differently? And will
  people be able to identify the murderer?

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1. performance
1. performance
The scene in the MOO, the participants are
looking at
Julie says, "But Susan!"
Julie looks terrified at the corpse!
Ernest removes Scrap of paper from Corpse.
Julie says, "he is rather corpulent, your father"
Julie says, "or he was."
Susan says, "My father is dead - it is horrible!!"
John says, "examine corpse"
Julie says, "what does the scrap say, ernest?"
Ernest says, "he's got a draft for a will on him!"
Julie says, "a will!"
John says, "what does the will say"
Julie to Ernest can you read it to us?
Julie thanks ernest
Ernest says, ""but only half - the real text is
missing""
Ernest says, ""Julie, what do you mean?""
Susan says, "The man is just dead, show some
respect"
Susan says, "He is still warm and you are already
dividing his belongings"
Julie reads from the scrap of paper "Scrap of
paperA piece of paper, with a phonenumber on it.
It's apparently torn from a draft of a kind on
the other side of it you can just discern the
words Will of ....
Julie drops Scrap of paper.
Ernest says, ""calm down everybody". Are we sure
he didn't die a natural death?""
Julie says, "But I can't see the phonenumber
properly"
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2. performance
s
Nigel to John so what does the will say?
Susan leaves for Kitchen
John says, "Something that looks like a name and
phonenumber"
Nigel to Ernest how should I know?
Ernest leaves for the kitchen to find something
for Susan
Ernest leaves for Kitchen
Nigel to John the name of whom?
John says, "On the other side it says 14
november. 2000 Will of ..""
John says, "I cant read the name"
Nigel to John and...?
John says, "And neither the phonenumber"
Nigel to John can't or WON'T?
John says, "CAN - by the way I have no advantages
from a will of his"
Nigel to John and you think, I had? I was
deleted from the will, you remember?
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What a performance should not look like on screen
(at least not all the time)
Ernest leaves for Hallway Wizard Armilla snaps
her fingers and disappears. John arrives from
Dad's Office Susan arrives from Dad's
Office Susan leaves for Bathroom John leaves for
Dad's Office John arrives from Dad's Office John
leaves for Hallway Nigel arrives from
Kitchen Nigel leaves for OOC-room Nigel arrives
from OOC-room Nigel leaves for Hallway Susan
arrives from Bathroom Susan leaves for Hallway
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The EverQuest study

• what does life in this kind of world feel like
  for a player?
• how are different forms of interaction used in
  the world?
• how is the experience of story produced?

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Milagros Quest for Trousers
Before
After
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IV. Findings
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What does world imply?

• A virtual world is at one and the same time
• a text-producing system
• a physical environment a social space a
  game system
• And as a player you engage with all these
  functions

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Levels of experience
Life in a virtual (game) world unfolds in several
stages

1. Getting to know the world
2. Interacting with the world
3. Experiencing the world being revirtualised
4. Living the world producing stories

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The experience of Worldness

• is related to the feelings of immersion (belief
  in its reality), presence (being there) and
  engagement (social commitment, addiction) in
  the world. These feelings are produced through
  the process of interacting in time and influenced
  by all the forces at work in the world.
• and they are the result of your experiences as
  both a character/characters and player in the
  world

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The Emergence of Stories

• Players Do Like Stories!
• However you cannot expect to be able to
  implement or find narratives in a virtual
  world. Instead you have emerging stories.
• As a designer you should strive to make an
  architecture of interaction which can generate
  interesting events
• Which retrospectively to their enactment can be
  told (have tellable value) and made into stories
  communicated from one player to other players
• Tellable events are rare or unexpected
  happenings and/or you have to work hard to be
  allowed to be a part of them

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Designing for virtual worlds

• 1.
• Find a balance between encouraging people to
  explore the world and making them socialise in
  the right places (!) or for instance by traveling
  together

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Designing for virtual worlds

• 2.
• Try to find ways to make players keep in tune
  with the world they are in (respecting the
  fictional framework, the current scene etc).
• But dont be too discouraged if it does not
  happen because being able to break the frame
  and stepping outside the fiction (together) is
  part of the fun of playing.

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Designing for virtual worlds

• 3.
• Think in terms of object-orientedstory
  production, use the objects surrounding the
  players.
• And dont be afraid to use the possibilities of
  the system or the properties of the computer to
  your advantage. Even if some unrealisticintervent
  ion is needed (by system or gamemaster), it is
  nevertheless accepted if it increases the fun!

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Next steps

• More empirical studies
• Examining one function or significant
  recurring event across worlds (such as death)
• Following the success or failure of new
  genres of worlds (first person shooter worlds,
  entertainment worlds etc)
• Becoming member of a guild in EverQuest!
• Refining concepts

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• The End
• Abstract available at
• http//www.itu.dk/people/klastrup
• The entire thesis will be available on request in
  printable form ultimo july
• slides available on request too

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Some main points II

• Interactivity general property
• Measure of a mediums ability to let the user
  exert an influence on the content or form of the
  mediated environment in real tim
• Interaction functions, the use of which leads
  to action and events