Gabbing With Garriott
Richard Garriott, AKA Lord British, AKA the guy with the wicked awesome house, has a great interview in The Escapist. Garriott talks less about Tabula Rasa and more about his theory of storytelling, a topic of which I rarely tire and am always pleased to see come up in gaming discussions.
What's more, Lord British talks up every fantasy fan's intellectual hero, Joseph Campbell, in connection with game design theory:
I am a big believer in what I'll call the Joseph Campbell version of "The Hero's Journey." My simplification and retelling of it goes something like this: Your main character is usually someone who finds himself facing the ultimate challenge that they're ill-equipped to even begin to face because of their lack of personal preparedness. Even though ostensibly the story is about accomplishing the great goal of solving the world's problems, the real and important story is about the main character, where that main character actually has to grow and rise above their own personal demons, personal challenges or personal failings to become the person that is worthy and capable of solving the Great Problem. And so the Great Problem is really secondary in a way. That is what I think most games missed out on.
This is not a total surprise coming from the man who gave us the eight virtues of the Ultima universe, but it's nevertheless reassuring to hear - especially in these days of Fallout 3 and Mass Effect, both of which promise to deliver serious personal development as a core aspect of gameplay.
The more of that, the better, I say - not in a "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" kind of way, because merely marking out culturally approved growth points does not a story of personal development make. But seeing games grow from being vehicles for the knight to slay the dragon into a storytelling form that supports and expands upon why he's killing that damn dragon in the first place - that's always a good goal.
Read more and stoke your flame for the king of geek kings, Richard Garriott!
Richard Garriott: The Escapist Interview [EscapistMagazine]
tiny dancer
Posted to Miscellany on 22 June 2007
Other stuff like this: escapist, richard garriott, tabula rasa, ultima
