Splitting off of this topic, I mentioned that between two writer friends and myself, we each write exploring a different 'focus' (for lack of a better word). One writes books, another manga, and myself games. All of us are currently unpublished, so unfortunately I can't link to any of their works as examples.

(Copy+paste from my post in the other thread:)

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I realized that alot of our differences in creative ideas come down to what our "primary focus" is.

One of them holds story as the primary focus, and the world is merely the setting for the story, and the characters are the vehicle for the story. Don't get me wrong, her worlds and characters are very awesome and aren't shortchanged at all - but the characters and world are tools to tell the story.

The other artist/writer holds her characters as the primary focus. She creates worlds and writes stories to explore those characters. The world and story becomes the tool to explore the characters.

And I am always world-focused. I create stories and characters to flush out and explore my worlds. I try to make interesting stories and interesting characters, but they are the lens through which my world can be explored.

Now just because these three focuses are our primary creative inspirations, it actually, oddly, isn't very noticeable in our works [unless you are really analyzing them]. I read my story-focused friend's work because I enjoy the world she created. Just like I read Tolkien for the world, whereas others read Tolkien for the characters, and still others read Tolkien for the plot. A good work should be enjoyable to readers coming with any of those three perspectives.

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So, my questions are:

1) Have you noticed this concept before in your own works? What focus do you personally find yourself creating from?

2) Have you ever noticed a specific book or game lopsided in favor of one over another?

I might suggest that Elder Scrolls games, for example, are primarily world-focused (but that'd be easy to debate, so I'm not firmly holding that stance).

I never played Mass Effect, but it might be less noticeable whether that is character-focused, universe-focused, or story-focused.

3) What other possible 'focuses' are there? I'm not talking about things like gameplay or graphics. I mean 'focuses' that are equally applicable to books. [really, my primary question]

1) I tend to start with charactes but often that is just a point of cristallization from where everything grows.

2) I think that some games can get away with lopsiding characters for world (as you said, elder scrolls did not have that memorable characters). And imho the world of Far Cry 3 was nice and all but nothing compared to the intensity of Vaas (which was a combination of writing as well as acting). In that game I felt that the characters were a bigger focus and the story was something that just grew out of them interacting.

3) I think those are actually the main points. I think Writing About Dragons had a lecture that talked about those three as the possibilities to "seed" a work.

I spent a lot of my younger days envisioning different scenario's about myself in my imagination. But instead of focusing on myself, I focused on the world and put myself in their to see how I would act or react to different things happening. I could take a guess and say this directly correlates to my focus on the world to date.

Interesting - I do the same thing (and still do - often pacing in circles in the kitchen while doing so). I hadn't really drawn a correlation there.

When daydreaming about being in some book or another, I don't replace the protagonist, but I place myself in the same world the the protagonist is also inhabiting. This is so I can enjoy and explore (conceptually, not just geographically) that world.

I think a character can be fully revealed only by their acting in manner of the very world. This is what talkien has mastered. And vice versa, world being revealed by characters performance in it, and this second handback is what made tes 3 totaly steril. Who would be elendil in todays los angeles?

For example, I would make my game such that an alchemist you were supposed to find rare herb for, tells you ,, go fuck yourself,, if you try to speak to him becouse in town you turned in his weed smugller in harbor town to militia. Leader of militia upon trust sends you to valey of swamps to contact commander garmin, who runs in command a castle sieged by army of angles. You have to sneak to a castle surrounded by angel army camp. Speach when you reach fat dissmoraled garmin.

,, how did you get here! Is it you bronko shaved?
,, I came from town of krild, sent by commander harad to collect report from you to him,,
,, thats nice. HOW did you get in here!,,
,, I sneaked in,,
,, Great, totaly great! We can be saved ! I will write as many reports about the shit we are in as harad wishes. But befoe I give you those reports, you will perform some of my issued orders from now on,,
,, shouldnt you write the report and let me leave with it
,, listen! Harad is the same rank as I am, and since that, you should rather pick piss him than me, since you are under my command, being on my castle, being in shit with me. Forget about leaving with report unless you do all I tell you! Youu pesky excelent sneaker.....

And vice versa, world being revealed by characters performance in it, and this second handback is what made tes 3 totaly steril.

I think that's a good observation, that The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind suffered world-wise because of a lack of characters interacting with the world. It had characters, but they didn't really affect the world, and barely even moved around the world, and the characters weren't really explored deeply as individuals. Yes, it definitely failed to use characters as a tool to help explore the world. In the same manner, despite it having alot of background world lore, this lore was mostly just... filler... and the actual plot was rather bland and was seemingly just layered onto the world instead of existing inside the world. The story didn't help explore the game world, it merely was a (poor) vehicle to give you something to do. The world wasn't truly affected by your actions or the actions of other characters.

I'm currently playing Tales of Abyss (the 3DS port), and while the game has alot of game design faux-pas's, the character development is very good. The world is nice too, but the world is dulled significantly by all the lore techno-babble, making it significantly less interesting.

So, my questions are:
1) Have you noticed this concept before in your own works? What focus do you personally find yourself creating from?

2) Have you ever noticed a specific book or game lopsided in favor of one over another?
I might suggest that Elder Scrolls games, for example, are primarily world-focused (but that'd be easy to debate, so I'm not firmly holding that stance).
I never played Mass Effect, but it might be less noticeable whether that is character-focused, universe-focused, or story-focused.

3) What other possible 'focuses' are there? I'm not talking about things like gameplay or graphics. I mean 'focuses' that are equally applicable to books. [really, my primary question]

Edited by Servant of the Lord, 2

1 - My medium is always a mix between the three. It is not meant to be that way, but the truth is that I never finish something in one stretch of time, so I end up revisiting, taking a different perspective, and shifting the focus based on how I feel at that given moment.

So, for example, if initially I was interested in making a story about one of the characters (starting point), I might later find myself focusing almost exclusively on the story instead. Then, after opening to the story, I end up requiring to expand on the universe because I've created a new species and feel the need to create their mythology and belief system extensively.

Ultimately, I find that I should add a new character, and I'm totally obsessed with where I can take it, etc. I think this results in a mood-based like-it-or-hate-it type of narrative, but I would have it no other way (especially since I can't write any other way).

Writing for me is a process that takes a lot of time (years) and is all about how I condense my previous notes for my next 'visit'. Often enough, getting back to a specific story requires me to read an unfinished book of say, 200 pages, a general guide that lists all major events by chapters (2-3 pages), a bunch of what I like to call 'plot parts' which are significant elements of the story, a roster document that contains general information on all of the characters (2-3 pages for each), and a bunch of lore documents which depict the world (creatures, lore, geography, important locations).

More often than not, the guide that lists major events mentions the characters and the geography and vice-versa.

On smaller games, I tend to drop the character first. Because I shouldn't over-burden the player with too much narrative, I give up on the avatar he plays by assuming the player can relate to a player that lacks personality and enforce him own (think Link in the Zelda series, or Chrono, in Chrono Trigger, two protagonists that never talk).

This leads me to work on two different types of smaller-scoped games. Those that revolve around the story are narrative-driven, and usually linear, or come in the form of an RPG more of the time. All the others are universe-based and generally don't provide much beyond that (a space-fighting / exploration game for example).

2 - The Series Game of Thrones (and its associated books, of course) is all about the world. I believe that's how they get to be so merciless with their characters.

[spoiler]Going as far as to eradicate season 1 cast almost entirely midway through the story...[/spoiler]

3 - I think these are really just the three main categories (often expressed with different expressions).

One note that I believe is important to underline however. I think it's best to think of which is dominant not in terms of which has driven the effort, but rather, what makes the result compelling. If you've focused mostly on creating a world, and end up with a story where the main protagonist is the compelling element that makes people come, then you've still got yourself a character-driven product, despite your process.

I was reading a blog where someone was using The Count of Monte Cristo as an example, arguing that the main character was rather moot and the whole point of the book was clearly the story. Though I agree that this is the end result, I'm far from convinced that a book written in this era had anything as a focus but the main character. It just worked out differently.

Also, what about games that don't really have a story? I'm thinking Archon: The Light and The Dark.