Play Magazine Gets It: The Renaissance in Epic Story Will Be

[quote="gold45revolver"]Play Magazine Gets It: The Renaissance in Epic Story Will Be. . . as long as you're willing to man up and fight for it....

[quote]
"NO COMPELLING VIDEO GAME NARRATIVE WAS EVER MADE BY A WRITER WHO HAD HIS GUTS CLENCHED UP IN FEAR. AS WITH A LOT OF THINGS IN LIFE, [url=http://www.google.com/patents?id=aAuzAAAAEBAJ]HEROIC BRAVERY (http://www.google.com/patents?id=aAuzAAAAEBAJ)[/url] IS WHAT IS NEEDED." --Kyle B. Stiff, --page 111: I WANT THE BLOOD OF HEROES, by Kyle B. Stiff, PLAY MAGAZINE, NOVEMBER, 2009

"But the stuffed suits refused to budge an inch regarding their policy of not working with creative script writers who have the backbone to take risks. Instead, they stand ready to declare yet another "death of storytelling" in video gaming." --page 111: I WANT THE BLOOD OF HEROES, by Kyle B. Stiff, PLAY MAGAZINE, NOVEMBER, 2009
[/quote]

The most recent (November 2009) issue of Play Magazine has several articles devoted to storytelling in games.

By far the best one is to be found on page 111: I WANT THE BLOOD OF HEROES.

The article takes place in the future, after 2015 when the "Anti-Story division effectively won the debate," and thus "grew lax," finally allowing the Gold 45 Revolver / Ideas Have Consequences / Moral Premises to be exalted.

Like my Gold 45 Revolver patent, the article, by Kyle B. Stiff, references a game based on Homer's Odyssey, as well as a game exalting Penelope's moral actions; and the meaningful, epic, profound hero's journey.

PLAY MAGAZINE wrote:

[quote]After video games were relegated to something to do while stuck in traffic, the Anti-story movement became lax A game called THE ODYSSEY was made. It was marketed as an educational tool, something to help high school kids understand the ancient literature; a necessary ruse to have a story-driven game green-lit. It was about Odysseus and his long journey home from the Trojan War. The gods opposed him and he had to fight a horde of misshapen beasts using brute strength and nauseatingly violent finishing moves. There were tactical elements as well, as Odysseus had a crew of goons to back him up. And role-playing dialogue too, in which the player controlled Penelope, Odysseus's wife, as she devised plots to delay a horde of suitors from claiming her husband's estate.... Damn, we loved it! The final scene was vilified in mainstream news because, just as in the original tale, Odysseus and his son round up Penelope's unhelpful servants, take them behind some building, and slaughter them. ... But we didn't love the Odyssey because it was violent, we loved it because it made us feel powerful, heroic, like we were on a meaningful journey towards a goal rather than slogging from one day to the next. --page 111: I WANT THE BLOOD OF HEROES, by Kyle B. Stiff, PLAY MAGAZINE, NOVEMBER, 2009[/quote]

[quote]All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (1788 - 1860)[/quote]

DR. E'S 2007-2008 Gold 45 Revolver Patent wrote:

[quote](EXALTING THE MEANINGFUL HERO'S JOURNEY!("But we didn't love the Odyssey because it was violent, we loved it because it made us feel powerful, heroic, like we were on a meaningful journey towards a goal."--Kyle B. Stiff, 11/2009))[1790]The basic concepts and ideas in this invention will have far-ranging implications for the realm of video games, for the greater culture, novel video games, greater commercial opportunities in the realm of games, greater and enhanced opportunities in merging games with film and literature, greater opportunities for games with deep and profound souls and storytelling, and new opportunities for games with vast educational potential. The ideas and embodiments described herein may be modified, extended, and improvised upon in countless ways. The present invention can bring both the external hero's journey, that Moses and Odysseus traveled, as well as the internal hero's journey, that Jesus and Socrates walked.

Read more: http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090017886#ixzz0Wg8hzBRt

4. System and Method for Female Video Game Characters With Soul and Virtue and Male Characters With Soul and Virtue:

[1622]Imagine video games that presented female characters with the depth of soul and spirit owned by classical characters such as Penelope, Beatrice, Mary Magdelane, the Virgin Mary, and The Mona Lisa.

[1623]Having female characters behave and act morally, while others don't, would provide a novel form of gameplay. For instance, in the Odyssey, Agamemnon's wife cheats on him, and the man she takes in ends up killing Agamemnon. This is contrasted to Penelope, who remains faithful throughout, thusly ensuring that Odysseus's life and home are preserved. So it is that in this novel form of video games, women will be shown on both sides of the moral premise, and not only that, but their moral choices will be fundamental to the eventual victory or defeat.

[1624]Opportunities abound for deeper, more profound female characters, as fanboys such as Cliffyb and Wyckyg are yet focusing on breasts, as Wired reports: [1625]"Speaking to Wired.com at Microsoft's recent media event, the designer (above left) says that Epic Games is trying to make their upcoming Xbox 360 shooter more appealing to the casual audience. The game's female characters, he said, won't have "ginormous tits." And the lauded kill-alien-swarms-with-a-buddy cooperative mode will let you adjust the game's difficulty on the fly depending on who's playing. How do you make a game girlfriend-friendly? You do jump-in, jump-out co-op. You have configurable difficulty settings for the other player. You have very cool and bad-ass main characters that have a very human side. And you make sure that the female characters in your game don't have ginormous tits and aren't bad stereotypes. What are the female characters in Gears 2 like? I've always made sure, working with the art department, that Anya is strong-willed but also very mother-like to the squad. She has a very modest chest and doesn't look like some sort of heavy metal movie fantasy."--http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/05/cliffy-b-gears.html

[1626]Well, that is vast and resounding progress. Boobs are mentioned three times in the above passage, although nobody mentions the vast importance of the moral woman's character in the realm of classical, epic storytelling. No gaming expert has yet ever suggested that the ultimate woman character in a video game ought behave morally, like Penelope. In our dumbed-down, spectacle-driven society, morality is seen as a bad thing--the exact antithesis to art. And so the best the fanboys can do is make the in-game character's breast-size smaller. There is no mention of making them faithful, nor having them speak intelligently, nor making them weave and unweave a tapestry, as does Penelope, to keep the suitors at bay, while waiting faithfully for Odysseus. So it is that games have yet to achieve higher, classical, epic art. And so it is that this patent, by instilling deep ideas and ideals within the game's context and AI, will allow for superior gameplay.

[1627]Female Characters with Soul and Virtue: Every year Play Magazine publishes its Girls of Gaming collection which states at http://playmagazine.com/thegirlsofgaming/index.html, Girls of Gaming Vol. 5 "is jam packed with hotness from every corner of the gaming universe and when you sign up to go digital you'll get our 20-page Best-Of Girls of Gaming absolutely free, along with bonus mature content too hot for print. The print edition is something special as well, featuring embossed, spot varnished covers and top quality materials." Year after year Play Magazine publishes this work, and year after year the industry creates games; but they are missing soul on both the masculine and feminine levels. A game that showed a character being seduced, but resisting, as did Penelope in The Odyssey, could enhance game play by inspiring and exalting the main character to make it on home. Imagine cut-scenes that showed women reading exalted poetry, or lines from Shakespeare' plays, representing virtues. They could be contrasted to evil women and temptresses throughout literature. [1628]1. Imagine cut scenes that showed women acting with virtue to inspire the player to make it on home. For instance, seeing Penelope behaving virtuously and resisting the suitors could inspire the player to make it on back to the damsel in distress. [1629]2. Imagine cut-scenes that showed men acting with virtue to inspire the female in-game-character to also act virtuous. For instance imagine a character of Penelope witnessing Odysseus's resistance of the Sirens, or his other noble actions and refusals of temptations.

[1630]If a player were playing as Penelope, and they did not act morally and took on a suitor as Husband, the suitor would kill her husband when she got home, as happened with Agamemnon. Thus moral actions would have moral consequences; and immoral actions would have immoral consequences.

[1631]A game such as GTA could be enhanced by allowing the player to shoot the pimp and save the women/prostitutes, telling the women to sin no more.

Read more: http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090017886#ixzz0Wg1XASLw

[1774]FIG. 5 illustrates how the present invention may be used to bring the great books and classics alive in a dialogue and action tree, wherein ideas have consequences. The present invention may father future inventions which treat this fundamental, basic concept in far more detail. The player (500) would reach a plot point in Homer's Odyssey (501). The player would then have to make a choice of what to say/do. By choosing Odysseus's words and/or his actions (504), such as telling his men to tie him to the mast, the player is rewarded with the exalted plot of the Odyssey as they are taken closer to winning their home and Penelope, and they get to encounter the next plot point (504). But, if the player (500) chooses actions and words other than Odysseus's (503), and tells his men not to tie him to the mast, and the player (500) instead seeks out the sirens, or lotus eaters, then he shall fail and be taken off course. By mapping the dialogue and action trees of a video game straight onto a classic, the present "ideas have consequences" invention could be realized, as ultimately, all Great Books and Classics are driven by Characters who harbor ideals, and their ultimate victory or defeat is a consequence of ideals. This is why the prior art such as GTA and GOW and Fallout3 is boring.

[1785]FIG. 16 illustrates how the present invention could exalt the hero's journey in a superior manner, and bring it to life in video games. The various stages of the classical hero's journey which Joseph Campbell made famous are listed in (1601). At each and every stage, the player must make a choice--a choice which consists of what ideas or ideals they choose to serve. For instance, if they see a hooker and hire her and shoot her, that counters classical ideals. If they talk to her and befriend her, that is sympathetic to classical ideals. The Hero's Journey has ever been walked and advanced by those who have served classical, epic ideals; and by serving exalted ideas, the gameworld is rewarded with exalted consequences (1605). This diagram suggests a superior method of exalting epic story in the realm of video games. Note how the action keeps coming back to the central premise and question--does the player serve an exalted idea (1602)? If so, the player advances to a later step in the hero's journey (1606). If not, the player retreats to an earlier point in the hero's journey (1607). So it is that love, temptation, war, peace, the death, forming the fellowship, calling the bluff and speaking truth to power--much of which was depicted in earlier figures and descriptions in this invention--can be unified in simple algorithms based upon ideas and ideals. Such simple ideals, which are yet so subtle and so often elusive, have powered and propelled mythology through the ages, exalting the Bible and Homer for thousands of years--for the soul of those books are based upon classical ideals--elements that have been opposed in this life. So it is that just as ideas have consequences in real life, they can have vast and resounding consequences in video games, exalting games to new heights. From novel games exalting the plot points in Homer's Odyssey, to the American Revolution, to all the classic battles and showdowns for Western Civilization, video games can be exalted, and reunited with infinite love deriving not from hiring and killing hookers, but for living and fighting for Penelope and Beatrice, as did William Wallace and King Leonidas, as 300 and Braveheart were ultimelt not war stories, but love stories--the love for higher ideals. The novel video games afforded by this invention will allow the player to love and honor classical ideals, and render ideals real in a virtual world, just as heroes do in real life. So it is that video games will become more spiritually and artistically realistic, with deeper and more exalted spirits, built upon classical idealism's solid rock.

Read more: http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090017886#ixzz0Wg0vSbPR


Read more: http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090017886#ixzz0Wg0lyFOy


[0008]The present invention will foster a new era of exalted gaming in multiple formats and forms, including RPGs, FPS, an MMORPGs, and too, it would provide enhanced means for bringing successful films and dramatic art to life in the realm of video games and gaming. Producers have failed time and again to translate movies into games and games into movies, and that is because they do not comprehend nor grasp the secret--the classical ideals which have consequences and the simple moral premise must be woven into the fabric of games at very level. For the classical ideals are the most efficient and natural and simple way to unite the plot and the subplot, the dramatic action and physical action, the love interest and the battle. Most fanboy producers, who came of age in a declining fiatocracy, are used to arrogance, hypes, and doublespeak as methods and means for producing movies, which ultimately suck. So it is that this present invention would exalt and foster novel video games that would in turn exalt and foster a cultural renaissance; wherein one would be able to battle the snarky fiatocracy producers head-on, both in the context game and beyond it, finally avenging all the innocent civilians, prostitutes, children, cops, and unborn who have been killed by the fiatocracy's fanboys, while the artist's natural rights have been dismantled and debauched, and the home and family destroyed along with the currency. So often it is that the poet and hero know not what they do, and this game humbles itself before the epic poets, prophets, and heroes of all ages; even as Socrates' ultimately, and reluctantly humbled himself before Homer, who was exalted by Aristotle. This patent humbles itself before the secret of epic storytelling. This patent does not drive down Sunset in a Ferrari, as fanboys and failed producers do, screaming and hyping their lackluster creations--lackluster movies based on video games, or lackluster video games based on movies--as exalted art; but rather this invention simply states that all epic story derives for living for, speaking for, and sometimes dying for higher ideals. Such is the way it has ever been, and will always be; and this invention will exalt a higher realm of games and gaming by returning this central tenet to modern art, leading with Character and Plot based on Virtue as did Aristotle, and introducing all these soulful, sacred, moral agents in the realm of video games.

Read more: http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090017886#ixzz0Wg0Fw0Ql

[0009]This present invention is penned in the context that this is going to sound crazy to all the fanboy experts, and counter their expert fanboy opinions, but in contemplating story in the realm of video games, why not turn to the greatest stories ever written--Homer, Shakespeare, and the Bible? I understand that we live in a declining fiatocracy, but get over it. This fiatocracy won't be around forever, and someday people will be free to act upon their desire to play games founded upon classical ideals and idealism, wherein ideas have consequences, and where they can engage in meaningful gameplay, such as protecting and defending the Constitution, and protecting the unborn and borders of an empire, instead of fighting random fiat monsters on foreign shores. I know that many fanboys insist that games should have no intellectual content, and that they should merely exist to satiate the fanboy fantasies of hiring and killing hookers, jacking cars, killing cops and civilians, and doing drugs, and that is fine and good for their era and realm of gaming. But the times, they are a changin'. Surely, as we live in an open-ended world with freedom, the fiat fanboys ought stop opposing exalted games with classical soul and spirit. They can keep their close-minded, conservative ways--that is fine by us--but the world will know a renaissance in classical liberalism in the realm of video games, wherein one gets to battle for the US Constitution--the one that the Founding Fathers wrote, and not the one interpreted by the fiatocracy's feminized/dumbed-down fanboys.

Read more: http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090017886#ixzz0Wg0MC8QW

A New Realm of Exalted Gaming

The Autumn Rangers Video Game Engine

[0010]Imagine the Autumn Rangers video game--a game where being in love was as important as fighting in battle, just as it was in Homer's Odyssey, Braveheart, and 300. Imagine a game which let you speak out for liberty's ideals before fighting for the US Constitution, as did the Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and the countless brave men and women in uniform. Imagine a game which let you defend the spirit of The Declaration of Independence in word and deed, and which united the internal dramatic action and external conflict en route to Aristotle's third act--the thundering, epic showdown.

Read more: http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090017886#ixzz0Wg0QbYAa

[0977]Again, Wright is missing the emptiness of the current system of video games, as in classical epic stories, neither Zeus nor God commands any of the heroic characters to kill civilians simply to advance a story. Rather, Zeus and the Biblical God are Gods of Justice for beggars and strangers--for the common man. It is the naive fanboy God who rejoices in killing Civilians and hiring and killing prostitutes, and thus, to date, games lack the sensibility of the higher art that is found in Homer's Odyssey, Dante's Inferno, and other classical, epic works, such as Sergio Leone's Fistful of Dollars. [0978]He raised the importance on the part of the designer of compelling the player to explore the depths of broad experiences like The Sims or GTA4, saying such games need "clear alternate goal structures that motivate the player to achieve in a variety of ways. Make players aware of the possibility space." [0979]Gaming's perceived emotional weaknesses relative to film are "misguided", he said. Games do not have an inferior emotional palate, but "rather a different one"--feelings such as pride, guilt, and accomplishment, which are commonly felt when playing games, are not felt in the viewers of films whose characters might experience those feelings. [0980]"The best experiences are generative experiences," argued Wright, concluding his well-received lecture at Krazy! "The best stories are player stories."--http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=1- 8935

[0981]But games could be far greater, were the sense of accomplishment to derive from a victory based on profound, epic ideas that had consequences such as freedom and liberty, as opposed to a victory based upon killing civilians, jacking cars, and hiring and killing prostitutes. The free marketplace would reflect this, if games were given half a chance, but the snarky, entrenched, pretentious industry is about as open minded to games celebrating the same ideas as do the Great Books and Classics as is Dave Eggers

Read more: http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090017886#ixzz0Wg0eN0P7

[0677]Many fanboys will scream at the words "history" and "morality," and they will cry that The Odyssey video game will not allow the superior joys of killing prostitutes to get one's money back, jacking cars, killing police men, slavery, child killing, drugs, and running over civilians that GTA IV et al. provides. But they shall not be disappointed, as at the very end, the player will be allowed to round up his son Telemachus and a couple friends, and kill all the fanboy suitors who laid Odysseus's wealth to waste, while trying to seduce his noble wife, love, and queen; while Odysseus was off fighting for his country, like so many Marines, while the fanboys sit at home jacking cars and hiring and killing prostitutes for mere entertainment. And then, so as not to exclude female fanboys and grrrrl gamers; all the fanboys' whores will be called in to clean up the mess in Odysseus's hall, just as they are in The Odyssey, and after they have cleaned up the mess--all the fanboy blood and guts--the option will be presented to have all the fanboy's whores taken out and hung, just as they are in The Odyssey, as Odysseus delivers justice to all those who tried to steal and claim his private property. The difference between GTA/GOW/Fallout et al and the present invention is that the present invention allows violence backed by moral meaning--which is exactly what the fiatocracy's bankers who funded GTA and feminism don't want; as they prefer a world in which one can jack pensions, subprime loans, artistic creations, and investments via subterfuge, saying one thing while holding in one's heart another, and subtle crime, while confiscating savings via the inflation tax, in Greenspan's words. So it is that the present invention will be opposed on many levels, but woe to those who would oppose the immortal soul of the rising generation and the Hero's Journey Fellowship. For as Mark Twain stated, "one cannot pray a lie."

Read more: http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090017886#ixzz0Wg2DBEM6

[/quote]

Finally, Kyle B. Stiff writes: "But we didn't love the Odyssey because it was violent, we loved it because it made us feel powerful, heroic, like we were on a meaningful journey towards a goal rather than slogging from one day to the next. --page 111: I WANT THE BLOOD OF HEROES, by Kyle B. Stiff, PLAY MAGAZINE, NOVEMBER, 2009"

Yes!

That is the point of my patent!

[quote][0733]In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus comes across the peaceful, poetry-loving Phaecians while making his way on home on that original hero's journey. Homer brilliantly exalts the nobility of making word deed--of the difference between knowing the path and walking it--in a play within a play, as Shakespeare does two thousand years later in his greatest work--Hamlet. And today, too, too many people are content to play meaningless video games, which is exactly the way the fiatocracy wants it. The present invention would foster meaningful games, which allow the player to defend classical ideals, such as that found in the Constitution, in word and deed.

Read more: http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090017886#ixzz0Wg3jqkQh

[0990]Imagine a videogame which let you play as Odysseus, which rewarded you for heroic moral choices; and imagine a film based on the game's technology. Imagine a game which brought the classical poetry to life when you chose the correct dialogue tree; and in which you played for higher stakes--your wife, queen, and love--faithful Penelope. Imagine a game which let you fight for the spirit of the Constitution and artist's rights. Imagine riding into town for that third act, choosing to disguise yourself as a beggar--a man with no name like Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars--as you observed the imposter kings and managerial capitalists living off other's estates--plundering savings and investments while dividing and destroying families--and you came up with a plan to defeat them. Imagine reuniting the family, rendering Justice, and walking away from the gold at the end--as did Eastwood in Sergio Leone's masterpiece. That would be one rockin' game--it would blow Grand Theft Auto out of the water. Imagine a game which let you play as Dante as you trekked through hell to be with Beatrice . . . and so we begin to see that all action-adventure epics are ultimately love stories. From Braveheart, to 300, to Gladiatior, to The Matrix, to A Fistful of Dollars, to the American Revolution, to the trial and death of Socrates, to the crucifixion of Jesus, the stakes of the showdown are always the same: freedom, morality, the individual, romantic love, the classic family, and Epic Soul facing down the king, tyrant, bureaucratic mob, decline, PR hype, deceit, and the inevitable soul-killing decadence of the corporate/state Matrix. Imagine films, games, and novels which raised the stakes and saluted the battle for the Epic Soul--the very center and circumference of civilization.

[0991]Well come ride with us--with Autumn and Ranger--with Adams and Cicero--with Socrates and Jesus. Ride with us on out towards the Renaissance; and I shall teach you how to surf the classics and open source software on toward the infinite wealth found in following your passions and dreams. And too, I shall teach you of the power of the Gold 45 Revolver--the only gun that can prevail in that showdown that's been a long time coming. It's time--it's time for us to head on home and reclaim Penelope and our homes--our faith and family--our love, our queens, and our wives--from the fiatocracy's false suitors.

Read more: http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090017886#ixzz0Wg4Le6Qj

[/quote]

And yes! Educational opportunities will abound!!

[quote][0561]The present invention will also foster superior educational games. Education, from Homer on down, has ever been about morality and enlightenment. It is only in recent times, as the fiatocracy rose to power, that moral education was exiled and suppressed by those who wish to deconstruct the exalted Constitution, Bill of Rights and soul and replace them with dumbed-down banality; thusly enslaving all of entirety to the bottom line, where no longer do women strive to serve their faith, their children, their family, and the higher ideals; but only the gutted, dumbed-down bottom line trumpeted by their MBA boss/pimp, like the ones in GTA.

[0562]Video game creators are under no obligation to forever reside in Plato's cave. They are free to move beyond it and walk in the bright sun of the Great Books and Classics, learn from the masters who set eternity in words; and instill video games with that same classical soul. Of course they will be laughed at, stoned, and persecuted by the fiatocracy's fanboy media, but over time, they will prevail, and it is exactly this kind of story and osul that games need. When they have manned up and walked the walk--the Hero's Journey--in real life, perhaps then they shall be able to walk the Hero's Journey in creating games with deeper soul and story; and more exalted gameplay features.

[0563]Opportunities exist to create novel educational video games embodying classical ideals. The service of classic ideals will endow video games with far more realistic and meaningful worlds, greater emotional and spiritual immersion, epic storytelling, and more engaging gameplay; just as the service of classic ideals exalted The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Declaration of Independence, the American Founding, and the Constitution, as well as Shakespeare and the Bible. Embracing classical precepts will allow us to create a more exalted realm of games with classical soul. Expert opinion will violently oppose these new video games, as most fanboy game creators consider themselves superior directors to Sergio Leone and John Ford, superior artists to da Vinic and Michelangelo and William Blake, and superior writers to Shakespeare, Melville, Homer, and Jefferson. The fanboys hath made their ignorance their arrogance, their mediocrity their salvation, and their hatred for women and classical soul their video games; and they are celebrated by the fiat-funded media, government, and university system. Such are the fleeting joys and short-winded elations of fiat empires, where the truth must come to and end and where the worst rise to the top, along the road to Serfdom, which is yet sold as a free market, even though the currency--that which buys and controls the entire market--is controlled by a private cartel that has enlisted hundreds of thousands of the most pernicious soldiers--in the form of fanboys, fiat philosophers, and feminists--who will kill the unborn as fast as they kill prostitutes in GTA; but will never lift a single finger to fight for the exalted US Constitution. The present invention would afford games that allowed one to fight for the Constitution.

Read more: http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090017886#ixzz0Wg7YDISg
[/quote][/quote]


Why is everyone ignoring this article from [i]Play Magazine[/i] regarding more heroic narrative design?

Any relfections/ideas regarding what the author is saying or the precepts he is exalting?

http://herosjourneyentrepreneurship.org