Quote: Original post by Estok
Zennith seems to have a better grasp of the advantage of game as a medium. TechnoGoth and SS had only reiterated the list of techniques common to other media. I would have assumed that those are common knowledge, because these techniques are commonly used in cutscenes and level designs.

The edges that are unique to games are interaction, self-expression, and choices. And these can be the carriers of a story.

On the other hand:


How would you make the player feel brave about certain action, through dialogues, cut scenes, atmosphere, and game play?

In general, movies and books cannot create this emotion in the audience directly. The audience might feel, "wow, the main character is brave," or "I can feel the courage presented in the situation," but not, "wow, I am brave." It is because courage requires initiation, risk, and decision, which do not exist in media such as books and movies. Games, on the other hand, provides those channels through gameplay.

Games, movies, and books are all the same in the fact that they can only produce indirect sympathetic responses in the audience. Feeling brave because you see an action hero leap off the roof of an exploding building and into the enemy helicopter with guns blazing in a movie. Can invoke a far great emotional response in the audience then if the they had jus done in a game. A game is just vehicle for delivering media the audience based upon their interactions with that media. Whether this is an advantage or handicap depends on your point of view.

The key aspect of games over other media is user interaction since the user. It’s also because of this that games tend to restrict storytelling to cut scenes and dialog. Since the original question was "how can you deliver the story to the player", perhaps we should rephrase it to "How do you tell a story through user interactions and game response?". It is my personal belief that storytelling in games can only improve if we stop constraining story telling to fragments of other media such as movies and books. Instead a games story should be woven around and infused into the game as deeply as the game play.

Quote:
To demonstrate what I meant by imprecise story carriers, here is a story with no cutscenes, no dialogues, and no written words:


You were a young pilgrim in feudual japan, the game itself is about your life in the setting. You were on your pilgrimage across the land. As part of your training, you were not allowed to speak. At one point in the game, you arrived at the ruin of a village that was overrun by a warlord. In the burning wreckage, you found the bodies of the peaceful villagers that you had seen in during your previous visit. As part of the game options, you decided to inceinerate the bodies and pray for them. While doing so, you found an artifact, that was being protected under the corpse of a woman. There was the gift you have previously delivered to her in behave of her husband. As the bells of the staff whistled in prayer before the incineration, you wondered whether you should return the gift. You wondered whether there was something you could do about the war. You wondered whether the true meaning of your training was to remain silent, or to understand when to break the silence.


This delivery is imprecise, because the player is not explicitly led to think about the issues. For instant, some players would not have helped the delivery in the first place, some might not have thought that they could bury the bodies. It all depends on what the player interpret out of the events and the options. This implementation is appropriate because the message of the story is not about the exact events during the pilgrimage, but the meaning of the pilgrimage itself. The story is open ended in the sense that it allows the player to be content with whatever meaning the player can make out of it.

You talk about lack of precision but a story isn't about precision a writer seeks to create a story with a certain topic or message they want their audience to think about and interpret for themselves. It’s all about what you think, not about what I tell you to think.

You talk about the player finding the meaning of the pilgrimage and not about the actual events so why can’t the game reflect this in any way other then through cuts scenes?

Let say you want to tell a story about futility of vengeance and how constantly seeking revenge eventually leads to self destruction. Then have the game play reflect this. If every action/mission/quest the player accomplishes during their pursuit of vengeance causes more harm then good to those around, if people react the player with a look a fear as they purse their quest, until finally the player kills the focus of their revenge but their quest has left them empty and alone. The game can get across the message your trying to send a lot more effectively in this manner then if you had a long cut scene at the end to this effect.

Don’t show or tell the player the story in a game let them experience it.

On Game as a storyteller:

Quote: Original post by TechnoGoth
Games, movies, and books are all the same in the fact that they can only produce indirect sympathetic responses in the audience.

My argument was that game provides the DIRECT channel in addition to the those that allows indirect sympathetic responses. An example of DIRECT induction of courage through gameplay:

In are the pilgrim in the previous example, where death is irrevertible (In the context of the idea in Game Design where death is not the end of the game and the gameworld persists in the next play). While you are delivering a sealed message to a shire as part of your pilgrimage, you come across a group of bandits overwhelming another traveller just like you. This is a direct induction courage through risk, decision, and initiation, where the player has to decide wether to risk the investments already given to the character and the success of the mission that you have been anticipating to help the traveller. What is more important to you? Again, this situation is appropriate for the game because the message of the story is about the true meaning of the pilgrimage.

Quote: Feeling brave because you see an action hero leap off the roof of an exploding building and into the enemy helicopter with guns blazing in a movie. Can invoke a far great emotional response in the audience then if the they had jus done in a game.

Not necessarily. Courage is not normally delivered correctly through gameplay, because the notion of risk, choice, and initiation are often absent. Lack of risk: "If I die I can reload and try again." Lack of choice and initiation: "My mission is to destroy the helicopter, and this is the only opportunity given, I guess I am expected leap off the building to the helicopter."

Quote: Since the original question was "how can you deliver the story to the player", perhaps we should rephrase it to "How do you tell a story through user interactions and game response?". It is my personal belief that storytelling in games can only improve if we stop constraining story telling to fragments of other media such as movies and books. Instead a games story should be woven around and infused into the game as deeply as the game play.

Yes, this is what I have been saying. In fact, I have been answering a more vigorous version of the question: "How do you deliver a story in ways that movies and books cannot?"




On Imprecise Story Carriers

Quote: You talk about lack of precision but a story isn't about precision a writer seeks to create a story with a certain topic or message they want their audience to think about and interpret for themselves. It’s all about what you think, not about what I tell you to think.

I think there is a confusion. 'Imprecision' is a label. I have never said that it is a bad thing. It is the same type of description such as 'open-ending'. Alternative carriers are imprecise in the sense that there are messages and events that cannot be conveyed accurately.

For example, suppose the story is about you uncover the truth behind a epic fatal battle between two gods. Without using cutscenes and dialogues and texts, all you can show maybe scars on the land where they fought, but there is not enough to reconstruct what actually happened. This is an example where 'precise' carriers such as a cutscene would be able to fill in the details that could only be hinted by the imprecise carriers.

Quote: You talk about the player finding the meaning of the pilgrimage and not about the actual events so why can’t the game reflect this in any way other then through cuts scenes?

First thing first. The pilgrimage example was a demonstration of how the message can be carried in gameplay instead of cutscenes. I did not say that the same message cannot be carried by other carriers. For example, the game could have feature a cutscene in which you encounter a high priest who tells you directly and plainly that the true meaning of the pilgrimage is not to follow the path that has been laid before you, but to see it with your own eyes, where the true path is hidden in reflections and thoughts.

What would be the strongest way to deliver such a message? Because the subject of the message is about an understanding that comes from within, the most appropriate channel should be able to induce such message instead of imposing it. It is a message that is not meant to be transmitted directly, but discovered by the player through experience, through the choices that the player make, through their own interpretations.

Quote: Let say you want to tell a story about futility of vengeance and how constantly seeking revenge eventually leads to self destruction. Then have the game play reflect this. If every action/mission/quest the player accomplishes during their pursuit of vengeance causes more harm then good to those around, if people react the player with a look a fear as they purse their quest, until finally the player kills the focus of their revenge but their quest has left them empty and alone. The game can get across the message your trying to send a lot more effectively in this manner then if you had a long cut scene at the end to this effect.

Don’t show or tell the player the story in a game let them experience it.

I agree with this. It was my short answer from the beginning, when I said the intuitive way to make a story alive is to "let the player play it." This is what I though this thread is intended to discuss, the use of interactions and gameplays to deliver the story. Not just a summary of what can already be done in movies and books. Options to interact and involve do not exist in movies and books. In those media you can at most engage them or captivate them.

Isn't this an advantage? How does it restrict story telling? why would these options be a handicap?

Quote: A game is just vehicle for delivering media the audience based upon their interactions with that media. Whether this is an advantage or handicap depends on your point of view....

The key aspect of games over other media is user interaction since the user. It’s also because of this that games tend to restrict storytelling to cut scenes and dialog.

[Edited by - Estok on March 10, 2005 4:10:02 AM]

(why do I read this thread and become reminded of that Liquid Ice mint commercial in the hotel, where the bellhop finally screams "you're both right!!!") :)

Slogging through the technical analysis of everyone's comments, I get what Estok is saying. Sort of. And I frighteningly agree with him, to the extent that it's sort of hard to generalize and make a list of the various methods you can employ to impart story, since the general methodologies are already employed (consciously or subconsciously) already in game design.

What I might suggest, perhaps, is taking a random scenario from a story (I'm at work typing this so can't spend as much thought on it as I'd like), and then having everyone discuss ways you create a scene in a game around it that involves action by the player, and without relying on cut-scenes/cinematics to tell the story you want. That might achieve more what, I believe, is being sought for here.

Quote: Original post by EricTrickster
What I might suggest, perhaps, is taking a random scenario from a story (I'm at work typing this so can't spend as much thought on it as I'd like), and then having everyone discuss ways you create a scene in a game around it that involves action by the player, and without relying on cut-scenes/cinematics to tell the story you want. That might achieve more what, I believe, is being sought for here.

This is very true. I actually had to refrain from this suggestion because TechnoGoth could state explicitly that he wants to recap on the other techniques also, instead of solely discussing the techniques unique to games.

There are several topics that are immediately relevant to storyingtelling through gameplay (not just game environment).

A story can be viewed in different aspects, such as the emotions, the events, character dynamics, the goals, philosophy, etc. Each aspects are central to the story, but can be delivered by a combinations of media.

The intuitive topics to discuss include: What aspects can be readily presented using gameplay? What aspects of a story can never be presented using gameplay? For which aspects does a delivery through gameplay holds an advantage over other media? For which aspects does such delivery fall short?

In order to answer these questions, it is indeed beneficial to attempt presenting a well-rounded (in terms of aspects) and commonly known story through gameplay. In order words, deliver as many aspects as possible through gameplay (or alternative methods), and see the strengths and limitations of the such method.

The first well-rounded story that came to mind was Beauty and the Beast, where there is a balanced aspects of emotion, events, objectives, character dynamics, actions, and history.

What do you consider gameplay? To me gameplay is how the game is played, it doesn't include what, when, who, and why. So if you had the scenario of bob going through a phantom school killing incarnations of all the negative thoughts and emotions he had in school. Then in that case I would consider the gameplay to consist solely of how you move bob through the school and how you combat ghosts. Which does limit storytelling a fair bit but I'd be glad to hear your thoughts on how you tell story through the hows.

Quote:
Isn't this an advantage? How does it restrict story telling? why would these options be a handicap?

It depends on whether or not you can interact with a the story in a game. If a game story is told soley through a fixed set of cut scenes and dialog then the interactiveness of a game weakens the overall story since they are disjointed and unconnected. The story becomes effectivly nothing more then an excuse to go from level A to level B. Take an RPG you can defeat whole armies of enemies and then you favorite character is killed in cutscene by an attack that would normanly not merit a healing potion if inflicted in battle. In that case the story and gameplay are clearly disconnected and thus the story suffers. Or take the case of you have to save the princess by midnight or she will be killed as part of the story, and yet the game gives unlimted time to accomplish this task.

I think the really the option to progress is through a case study as stated by others, the danger in trying to translate a story from another media to a game one is that you are trying to replicate a fixed story and thus loose some of the interactive nature of game. But none the less why don't we discuss Trigun (which has the unique difficulty of convincing the player from the start to never to kill, as well as it blends humor, adventure, exploration, and character development,and action.)

Quote: Original post by TechnoGoth
What do you consider gameplay? To me gameplay is how the game is played, it doesn't include what, when, who, and why. So if you had the scenario of bob going through a phantom school killing incarnations of all the negative thoughts and emotions he had in school. Then in that case I would consider the gameplay to consist solely of how you move bob through the school and how you combat ghosts. Which does limit storytelling a fair bit but I'd be glad to hear your thoughts on how you tell story through the hows.

I addressed this in my first post and in the pilgrimage example. In my first post, I stated that it is intuitive that gameplay can handle all the HOWs of a story. It is a trivial task for using gameplay to deliver the HOWs. The non-trivial questions are how gameplay can deliver WHAT and WHY for the story. In the pilgrimage example, I showed how gameplay can be used for the player to recontruct the WHAT and the WHY of the story.

WHAT and WHYS are not the limitations. Gameplay is able to deliver them, to some extent.

Quote:

Quote: Isn't this an advantage? How does it restrict story telling? why would these options be a handicap?

It depends on whether or not you can interact with a the story in a game. If a game story is told soley through a fixed set of cut scenes and dialog then the interactiveness of a game weakens the overall story since they are disjointed and unconnected.

This is why I said that alternative methods can be IMPRECISE, because they introduce disturbances. Disturbances include misinterpretation, or having the desired event not to occur due to choices. As I said in the previous post, each delivery method has strengths and weaknesses in different situations. However, it is up to the designer to choose when to use gameplay as the carrier, therefore, simply having such option in the design cannot be a handicap.

Quote: The story becomes effectivly nothing more then an excuse to go from level A to level B. Take an RPG you can defeat whole armies of enemies and then you favorite character is killed in cutscene by an attack that would normanly not merit a healing potion if inflicted in battle. In that case the story and gameplay are clearly disconnected and thus the story suffers. Or take the case of you have to save the princess by midnight or she will be killed as part of the story, and yet the game gives unlimted time to accomplish this task.

I am not sure what you are trying to say in this example. These are just examples of stupid designs. In these situations, it is the designers that are mentally handicapped, not gameplay as an option.

Quote: I think the really the option to progress is through a case study as stated by others, the danger in trying to translate a story from another media to a game one is that you are trying to replicate a fixed story and thus loose some of the interactive nature of game.

This is untrue. For example, if you play the Beast in Beauty and the Beast, do you think that it would benefit the delivery of the story if the you are allowed to play the parts where you dance with Belle? How is that going to limit interaction? It is going to introduce interaction. This method fits with the idea of the discussion, which is to deliver a story in alternative (and better) methods. We introduce gameplay to make the story come to live. Isn't this what you wanted?

Quote: But none the less why don't we discuss Trigun (which has the unique difficulty of convincing the player from the start to never to kill, as well as it blends humor, adventure, exploration, and character development,and action.)

I don't know what Trigun is. Is it a game? However, in general it is not a good idea to choose a game for the discussion. Because it is going to get inbred. What is the point of discussing how to delivery a story using gameplay when the story was created with gameplay in mind to begin with? To explore the true strength of gameplay as a delivery method you should pick works from other media. Choose a work from another medium provides the most unbiased perspective and evaluation for gameplay as a delivery method.

I am not sure if there is a game related to it, but Trigun originally was a Japanese Anime, later turned into a manga. It has an incredible potential about story-telling. Just like the Cowboy BeBop series, or even the crazy Samurai Champloo series, both by Shinichiro Watanabe. The three make an incredible use of music in order to enhance sensations. Cowboy BeBop series stars a great OST by Yoko Kano, and Samurai Champloo one which is a curious mixtape of Nujabes, Tsutchie, and Force of Nature, and which happily blends Soul music, Lounge Music and Rap with Samurai action. Believe it or not, it works wonderfully.

If not for anything else, try and download them, just to see how they work. Both the Anime and the OSTs. You'll get surprises, and possibly will get hooked, but by the time, you'll probably thank me anyway...

Yours faithfully,
Nicolas FOURNIALS

Quote: Original post by Estok
I addressed this in my first post and in the pilgrimage example. In my first post, I stated that it is intuitive that gameplay can handle all the HOWs of a story. It is a trivial task for using gameplay to deliver the HOWs. The non-trivial questions are how gameplay can deliver WHAT and WHY for the story. In the pilgrimage example, I showed how gameplay can be used for the player to recontruct the WHAT and the WHY of the story.

WHAT and WHYS are not the limitations. Gameplay is able to deliver them, to some extent.

That’s not what I asked though. The how’s of a story are what you can translate into a game play, Agreed? My question how do you tell the other aspects of the story through the how’s? Take your mention of the beauty and the beast, how do you portray the love growing between belle and the beast or any other aspect of the story through the game play during the dance sequence?

Quote:

Quote: I think the really the option to progress is through a case study as stated by others, the danger in trying to translate a story from another media to a game one is that you are trying to replicate a fixed story and thus loose some of the interactive nature of game.

This is untrue. For example, if you play the Beast in Beauty and the Beast, do you think that it would benefit the delivery of the story if the you are allowed to play the parts where you dance with Belle? How is that going to limit interaction? It is going to introduce interaction. This method fits with the idea of the discussion, which is to deliver a story in alternative (and better) methods. We introduce gameplay to make the story come to live. Isn't this what you wanted?

It would depend on how the dance sequence was used but if done well it could be used to enhance the telling of story. The problem is though that it’s extremely difficult to translate a movie story to a game with without relying heavily on cut scenes.



As you’ve never seen trigun there isn’t much point in discussing it. So why don’t we go with the idea of a tale about how revenge eventually leads to self destruction. The following are some basic scene outlines which should be enough continue this discussion.


Intro
Game opens with main character(MC) as you boy awakening in the middle of the night to the smell of smoke. Downstairs the MC finds their father battling with 5 bandits in their burning home. The MC Father is dies and their home is destroyed.

Preparation
Flash forward to the MC as young man in a run down and dilapidated training ground in the middle of the forest. As the player examines various objects in the training ground flashback sequences are triggered involving the MC, the female protagonist Celeste, and the object. How the flashback sequences play out determines the MC starting state, the affection level with Celeste, and whether she is waiting for you at the exit to the area or whether you head off on your journey alone.

The drunk – sacrifice of pride
The player tracks the first target of their revenge to a large city. After further investigation the player discovers that the first target has become a pathetic drunken bum who can barely lift a bottle let alone a weapon.

The Judge – sacrifice of principles
The player continues to track down their targets and discover the next is a corrupt high court judge in the same city. The judge’s equally evil and ambitious aid is the only one who able and willing to aid the MC in getting close enough to the bloated judge to kill him. Killing the judge means an even worse villain will replace him.

The Last Hero – sacrifice of strangers
The player tracks their third target to a remote frontier village in the brink of annihilation and only their only hope lies with the village’s last hero who is also the MC target. If the player kills their target the village and everyone living there is doomed.

The pirate captain - sacrifice of love
The MC ends up on a pirate ship in the middle of a vicious storm. If Celeste is still with the MC then the player will be forced to choose between trying to save her life or defeating their target while the ship sinks.

The Demon – sacrifice of self
In the final scene the player is the burning home of the bandit leader and the embodiment of the MC revenge. While the building burns the player is faced with final set of options that will either lead them to abandoning their quest and possibly coming to terms with things or becoming the very embodiment of everything they hate and the loss of their own life to defeat their final opponent.

The overall of theme of the futility of vengeance and how revenge eventually leads to self destruction should be present throughout the game and reflected by the game play. The more strongly the player pursues and exacts revenge the more their options to get off that path should decrease until they are left with only two choices life or death. Cut scenes ideally would only be scene at the end of the game and there would be no long winded speeches telling the player what the designer thinks. Ultimately the player should be able too decide for themselves if the path they took was the right one or not.

I think this should work well enough for the discussion of how to portray story in game beyond cut scenes and dialog, as the overall theme and message could not be portrayed effectively with just using them in a game.

The above post was by me, I guess I wasn't logged in at the time.

Using gameplay beyond presenting the HOWs

Quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster
That’s not what I asked though. The how’s of a story are what you can translate into a game play, Agreed? My question how do you tell the other aspects of the story through the how’s? Take your mention of the beauty and the beast, how do you portray the love growing between belle and the beast or any other aspect of the story through the game play during the dance sequence?

Yes, HOWs can be presented by gameplay. Your second assumption is wrong. 'Deliverying by gameplay' is not equivalent to 'deliverying through the how'. Gameplay includes decisions and intentions, those are the components that will support the WHAT and WHY of the story. In the B&B example, the growing love can be presented through the options available to the player. If you play the Beast, maybe the game option to try to kiss Belle is always available (or to adjust the distance between the two, or to decide where to put your hand, changing stance, etc...). But if you decide to do that too early, Belle will freak out. However if you do things right you will be able to kiss her with a positive effect. This is how the growing love can be presented in gameplay. Do you agree that through this interaction, the player is indeed participating in the presentation of a growing love? Isn't this a beneficial discussion? Now you know that gameplay can deliver a concept that you thought was impossible.

Quote: The problem is though that it’s extremely difficult to translate a movie story to a game with without relying heavily on cut scenes.

Think more, you haven't exploited the possibilities. The whole point is to pick a work that is not immediately transferable. Challenge yourself and expand. At the same time, I am not suggesting that a work from another medium can be translated totally into gameplay. It is beneficial to see what can be done and also what can't be done.

Quote: As you’ve never seen trigun there isn’t much point in discussing it. So why don’t we go with the idea of a tale about how revenge eventually leads to self destruction. The following are some basic scene outlines which should be enough continue this discussion.

That was why I suggested Beauty and the Beast, because it fits the criteria that practically everyone knows the story. The revenge example you had is just a concept of a story, it is not as strong a challenge as trying to present story that already exist completely, one that a poster will be able to compare between our implementation and the implementation that already exists.

Quote: Intro
Game opens with main character(MC) as you boy awakening in the middle of the night to the smell of smoke. Downstairs the MC finds their father battling with 5 bandits in their burning home. The MC Father is dies and their home is destroyed.

Preparation
Flash forward to the MC as young man in a run down and dilapidated training ground in the middle of the forest. As the player examines various objects in the training ground flashback sequences are triggered involving the MC, the female protagonist Celeste, and the object. How the flashback sequences play out determines the MC starting state, the affection level with Celeste, and whether she is waiting for you at the exit to the area or whether you head off on your journey alone.

The drunk – sacrifice of pride
The player tracks the first target of their revenge to a large city. After further investigation the player discovers that the first target has become a pathetic drunken bum who can barely lift a bottle let alone a weapon.

The Judge – sacrifice of principles
The player continues to track down their targets and discover the next is a corrupt high court judge in the same city. The judge’s equally evil and ambitious aid is the only one who able and willing to aid the MC in getting close enough to the bloated judge to kill him. Killing the judge means an even worse villain will replace him.

The Last Hero – sacrifice of strangers
The player tracks their third target to a remote frontier village in the brink of annihilation and only their only hope lies with the village’s last hero who is also the MC target. If the player kills their target the village and everyone living there is doomed.

The pirate captain - sacrifice of love
The MC ends up on a pirate ship in the middle of a vicious storm. If Celeste is still with the MC then the player will be forced to choose between trying to save her life or defeating their target while the ship sinks.

The Demon – sacrifice of self
In the final scene the player is the burning home of the bandit leader and the embodiment of the MC revenge. While the building burns the player is faced with final set of options that will either lead them to abandoning their quest and possibly coming to terms with things or becoming the very embodiment of everything they hate and the loss of their own life to defeat their final opponent.

The overall of theme of the futility of vengeance and how revenge eventually leads to self destruction should be present throughout the game and reflected by the game play. The more strongly the player pursues and exacts revenge the more their options to get off that path should decrease until they are left with only two choices life or death. Cut scenes ideally would only be scene at the end of the game and there would be no long winded speeches telling the player what the designer thinks. Ultimately the player should be able too decide for themselves if the path they took was the right one or not.

I think this should work well enough for the discussion of how to portray story in game beyond cut scenes and dialog, as the overall theme and message could not be portrayed effectively with just using them in a game.

I think you are not totally clear on the meaning of delivering a story through interactions. Not all of the items you described in the above qualify as a delivery through gameplay. In some examples you gave, the player is only part of the situation, there is no notion of how interaction and decisions are used to present the story:

Preparation
Under this section you have not presented the gist of delivery through gameplay. Flashbacks are triggered in different order to give different interpretations, but how is the interaction mechanism for these triggers meaningful to the delivery of the story? What are the correlations between the triggers and the flashbacks? How is the story delivered through these correlations? These are the questions that you should be answering with considering how the intentions and objectives of the MC can be delivered through gameplay.

The drunk – sacrifice of pride
In this section it is vague on how gameplay is used to delivery the story. There is a difference between playing through the events of a story and delivering a story through gameplay. Deliverying through gameplay is not just about allowing the player to act out the events and interactions, but to embed the messages of the story in the interactions. In this section you have not described what kinds of choices the player had, and how those choices are used to deliver the message.

The Judge – sacrifice of principles
In this section you mentioned that the Judge's aid is the only hope for helping the player. This corresponds to a delivery through gameplay. Assuming that the player could actively decide to choose some other helpers, but the less evil partner you choose, the less effect of revenge you can achieve.

The Last Hero – sacrifice of strangers
In this section, you simply presented the situation, but not the interactions and decisions offered to the player.

The pirate captain - sacrifice of love
This section presents a delivery through gameplay by provide a choice where the player could choose to save Celeste instead. But if that choice is taken, does the story simply end? Is the choice to save Celeste a deadend choice? If so, it presents an example where gameplay is badly used for the delivery. If you want to keep this choice, you might want to present the dual of the message. The message of the story was that revenge leads a path of self-destruction, what is the dual message symbolized by Celeste?

The Demon – sacrifice of self
This section is the same as the pirate section. Gameplay is presented through a choice, since this choice is at the end of the story, this choice does not suffer the deadend effect as strongly as in the previous section. The question is, if the player chose to abandon the revenge, what would the ending convey to the player? Possibly the story would try to wrap up the story by saying that already too late to return. No matter you whether you picked to save your own life or to revenge, either way you have lost too much in the revenge.

[Edited by - Estok on March 11, 2005 10:57:27 PM]