I was very sad when hear that Ken leaving Ir and starting something new. After watching this, I understand his goal better. Now I'm looking forward to see what he will present for the next project. It doesn't even matter whether or not it will be successful, he absolutely have some amazing idea in place. I'll support that development even the first project turns out crap.
You can tell Ken was supposed to be a “Creative Director”.. he calmly speaks but easily puts his point across without getting too smart or analytical about it. The man is great at what he does and Bioshock will forever remain a powerhouse of storytelling and world building. Looking forward to whatever Ken has planned next!
I feel like I've seen this video like 4 times since you posted it. Please announce your new game soon. I'm so excited to see it. PS. Just played Burial at Sea for the first time and oh my God it's amazing! You sir are a genius.
I like the idea of taking the traditional approach of "do stuff for faction until you unlock the quest" but then having the quest you unlock change depending on what your relationship with other factions are
8 years later and I'm returning to this video after watching the trailer for Judas. I'd agree with other comments in this thread that we still haven't really surpassed the narrative versatility of a game like Fallout New Vegas in Western RPGs yet. I'm interested in seeing what scale of story Ghost Story wants to tell. The narrative seems to be centered around a damaged starship, will it be smaller in scope than the region-spanning F:NV? Also, how much will the lead character's personality and emotion change based on player choices? How large will the factions we deal with be? I've also assumed the game will be open world based on the examples Levine is referencing like Civilization. But will it be? What would a non open world game with narrative legos behave like?
Is F:NV the only Obsidian game you've ever played? Is it the only Western RPG you've ever played?? Just going off of Obsidians catalogue, PoE and Deadfire have far surpassed F:NV in narrative versatility, and its not even close. So many more factions and factional reputation, side quests weaved into reputation, more NPCs and companions, deeper companion reputation mechanics and sidequests, base management and regional reputation when building your stronghold (like dealing with emissaries, local disputes and sending companions to keep up relations with allied kingdoms), far more RPG mechanical depth in the skill, attribute and conversational skill-check systems, as well as narrative carryover mechanics from PoE into Deadfire. On top of that there are many different endings and ways to tackle the plot, as well as being a much better plot than F:NV. PoE is lightyears ahead.
If he a makes a new Bioshock game which the narrative is endlessly replayable, I think he will make history, it will be the best game ever made. The best videogame story that I have played was bioshock infnite. A good story and endlessly replayable narrative is the game I will definitely buy rather than any other game.
Well, as he said, the Bioshock games' stories are linear- hell, he said that they are a commentary of games being linear and having no choice. But I think he's going to make games similar to Bioshock in terms of the world and stuff, but also have this replayable narrative...and probably a narrative that makes ya think.
I think we still havent even scratched the surface of what games can do with story. Even with games like Witcher...most of the story and choices made are thru dialogue trees. I think in the future we should have games where story is driven by regular gameplay, too. Like imagine if in a fantasy RPG, you kill everyone in a single town. Then news of that town pretty much just disappearing spreads throughout the world. And since you pretty much commited mass murder, your character's personality changes in cutscenes because of that- like if u used stealth to kill everyone, he sounds devious and cunning, but if you just confronted everyone face on when u killed them, he could sound angry and cruel all the time. Or maybe when u do certain really good or bad acts, you become more famous/infamous to the people around you- gangs try to beat you up, and townspeople ask you more for help or try to run away from you
@@SomniaCE yeah I feel like MGS5 scratched the surface for this. You play your missions at night well now the soldiers are gonna be wearing night vision goggles and carrying flashlights with them so they can spot you. You go for mostly headshots and some soldiers start wearing helmets to counter that.
Well, there are a few problems with that: 1) He's a game designer and wants to stay that way 2) This is the GDC with him being a popular designer, so that's why they prob let it slide, but no other lectures would allow him to swear like this
Go to his Twitter. The guy's human just as you and I, his work in the game isn't going full steam like a standard company, it seems to be going more like a personal project of his. Don't even count with it ever coming out, just let it be and maybe one day he releases it.
Wow. The insight and clarity offered in this presentation is starting to make me think... Ken Levine downsizing at Irrational might be one of *the most beneficial things to happen to the industry*.
Ken clearly *has* the vision for the future of gaming. Others have spoken of this, but few have mapped & charted the course to get there. It's clear a game should eventually evolve like the gamer does. Let it breath like another mind so you keep coming back to see new or great challenging experiences that you feel, emote, care about, & learn from. Philosophy is a critical part of this all where games become less "widget" or but evolve creating new experiences that grow. Price point will be higher, but take 50 shitty $60 games, vs. one amazing $1000 game. This could be as soon as 2025
It sounds like someone's finally going to bring the JRPG dating sim systems to the forefront! I hope this relationship systems becomes more mainstream because I love deep interaction with characters. (One of the main reasons I like the Persona series.)
Wonder how Ken's progress is like for this vision at this point. As much as I love and will continue to love action RPGs, in the back of my mind I can't help but think about how they have a fixed number of possible endings created by writers (not to de-value the importance of writers and some of the cool endings we get in some games). Of course part of what a game tries to do is create the illusion of having your choices and the ending you arrive at be your own, but it gets harder to buy into that illusion at times. More than any other new release, this is probably the thing that I've been most looking forward to in some time (alright, aside from a new Silent Hill....)
That was a really interesting talk. I'm interested as to whether this change in direction is purely business focused or due to a creative interest. Either way, as a fan of single player linear narratives, it's a genuine shame to lose Levine's future contributions into the genre.
Creating AAA game is a balance between both. But good game designer are always drive by creation. It's just a question of scope, and how management is confident in the team.
What do you think his Bioshocks meant to be? He wanted to make AAA-level immersive sims, but both time games weren't working as a complex system and they didn't have any more time to experiment so they've made a linear shooters with immersive sim elements.
*Mount & Blade: Warband* works with the same idea of Lego Narrative, but without the degree of complexity presented by Ken. That game also doesn't have a main story or a main quest. It's all about what you do and who you interact with.
Ahh, Morrowind. NPCs can react negatively or positively to personal passions and also faction related global passions. NPCs can refuse giving certain information if they don't like you. You can piss a whole faction while keeping an individual from that faction as a friend or vice versa, unscripted by the disposition system as it is systematized completely, unattended by developers. Some even would call it broken for that open endedness. And Morrowind main quest is such a backdrop, most forget about it and some don't even know it exists. This talk is like a presentation for my Morrowind 2.0 dream. Good call out on Bethesda, Ken Levine! They should have been on Morrowind 4.0 by now.
Really curious how this works out, the question about having deeply thematic narratives in emergent storytelling is exactly what I'm wondering about, I find it difficult to imagine how systems could create such experiences but who knows. When I look at games such as dwarf fortress and rimworld, there are clearly stories that pop out from the interactions of all the systems in the game but these always feel to me like an interesting / fun / surprising sequence of events that are nice to watch or read about but lack any real depth that would make me think about it again long after in comparison to deeply thematic narratives like bioshock, the last of us, etc.
@Ayy GasCan In my opinion without getting into the game mechanics and graphics, the game gives the illusion of having a complex narrative but in reality it's like and empty frame, something that looks ostentatious and has no original or fresh ideas. (Unlike Bioshock 1)
Utterly unfeasible in the setting he's picked in this presentation, but in a spaceship with only 3 stars? That's when I get excited. Big potential here.
This is more about overcoming decades of entrenched game design habits than it is about coming up with a new game design paradigm. Game designers must first give up control because that's what narrative is.
4 года назад+1
Hi kevin, just finished Infinite for the 6th time probably... we really need more of it! Please! :)
Is he planning on building a game that allows player driven narrative stories, based on the Civilization game play and world? I would buy that in a heartbeat, because that is the type of game I've been looking for.
Moreso, it seems he's talking about a game like Skyrim, with a world driven in the same way and carrying the same impact that Civilization would. Like how what you did 1000 years ago means something to the way your game can play out now. You can't get that continent back. It wasn't a black and white choice to lose a war, but it pissed Poland off and it made the Iriqois think you were weak, causing them to attack you know. He wants to translate that into an rpg-esque game.
A lot of it sounds like New Vegas's "faction" system, but on a much more personal level. I'd still want an overarching narrative or "main quest" of some sort in there, but I suppose you run the risk of the system being much more interesting than the main game. The best example I can think of is the Nemesis system in Shadow of Morder. While the narrative started off all right, once you get going with the power struggles and personal vendettas, it becomes so much more interesting and involving than the structured part of the game.
I always wanted way of the samurai 2 / 4 and RuneScape combo game. I want other characters to be in my game too, RuneScape even made their own banking system with this amazing feat. I’m not really in to space so Judas will be fun for me but I guess it’s not the same topic as guns. I would love to see swords and plasmids that would be so cool..
I mean, just imagine the amount of work it'd be to do all the animations, voice overs, etc. for each of these scenarios. And most of the work wouldn't even be seen by the average player unless they played it over and over again. This is something for far down the road when AI is much more advanced and can fill in the gaps - eventually we'll probably have AI crafting narratives on the fly.
One big frustration with modern video game design, is if you try to be nice to EVERYONE, then you default to nuetrality and losing, instead of getting to be a high level hero, because rewards for completing content are insufficient to aid players against endgame content without throwing all the player weight behind a narrative ally that might not exactly be compelling enough to be "cool". Furthermore, I haven't had an OS add-in in over 25 years. I've made suggestions for updating Windows 10 taskbar and print screen/record and clipboard, al very clever hacks, even the keyboard mouse input being replaced with something better than either, but it's very difficult to get any OS-level access to implement it. It's mostly static. Who designs this stuff? Games for Windows is a death sentence... One thing that Diablo 3 does really well is vary the monster/enemy personas with modular elements that can combine in interesting ways. Character model shape, size, skills, elemental properties, all combine in interesting ways to vary the combat. This methodology could easily be used to procedurally generate points of interest (Quests, a la Star Wars Galaxies), and Allies and quest givers. It's mostly a matter of swapping variables (Like the example with Orcs/Dwarves/Elves/Goblins, you could simply swap the nomenclature and visual/audio input that makes the player identify with the content). I suspect a lot of modern engines are Bespoke, and implement data harvesting of players' lives, to introduce drama, stress, and unique narratives, but it can be psychically harmful if the player doesn't get what they want and is faced with too many black and white choices, if the designer is not effectively telling their story and balancing resources with edification through artwork, and if the difficulty curves and statistics are super-competitive. WoW Classic was supposed to offer gameplay elements like this with "Reputation" and "PvP rankings", but it was never made available to players like me because the time investment would be "Grind kills all day every day for years on end". Reputation isn't necessarily the only way to advance player activities, there can also be physical (geographic/architectural) thresholds, like nearness to a monster generator or resource mine, or co-positional item inventory thresholds, like a gun that gets a new type of ammo, or maybe a new style arrowhead for your bow, or even point and click adventure style unlocks where you can't get to the new area until you use an inventory item with an environmental object, or solve an environmental puzzle that isn't too cryptic. I guess what I'm getting at is that there are lots of ways of allowing players to drive the narrative, and be driven. The last question mentioning thematic and overarching patterns and atmospheric qualities are important in making games with more than just a handful of these systems possible, and I think systems like the one I am trying to design for my wordpress page with copresent tags are rife for exploitation in determining who or what constitutes a theme that can be modularized and statistically mapped to generate an enjoyable experience, add-ons be damned, and add-ins be praised.
Wow, fascinating talk. I hope developers take this on board, games could really start to differentiate themselves from movies. In MGS Ground Zeros, I've spent 20 hours replaying the main mission and its spoiled other open-world games for me, they just seem inferior in comparison. It feels so open and free, like you can do anything, now imagine this level of open-gameplay with the open story structure witch Ken is talking about here, THAT would be INSANE!!
I think it's a good idea to limit the number of 'stars' not just because of the player's ability to keep track, but also because the system would likely suffer a lot when the computer itself can't keep track of what's going on and have the 'stars' react appropriately. That should be easier if there's less to keep track of in the first place. But I imagine that it might simply be too tricky to accomplish, as the permutations might grow so quickly that a game that's complex enough to be interesting to play will always end up being too complex to keep track of. 41:20 One motivation for making 'stars' dislike the player could consist of appearing to have the moral high ground when those 'stars' are provoked into hostilities. That perceived moral high ground could determine how other 'stars' react to the conflict that ensues. After all, those other 'stars' should probably be a tiny bit concerned that they might be next in line to be killed unless the player seems to merely defend against attacks.
I don't think it would be a problem for the computer to keep track of everything, what ever the number of star. The real problem is to create all the stuff (animation, dialogue, voice over, etc..) that support the narrative. But the real beauty of this system is that it's made to be scaled up. Even after the game is shipped, you can add new passion in the passion pool, add new star or new faction, and still have a compelling narative. That's it's particuly relevant with free to play game, where you have to maintain your game tfor player to keep playing. If you want to do something interesting on the narrative side, instead of doing Farmvile 26, the big probleme is alway content, and this system is really interesting to solve that problem.
It's true that the computer could keep track of large quantities of variables, but in order to 'see the patterns' it would have to be programmed to do so, and that's where large systems tend to fail in my opinion. It's like "80 magic spells!!!" where only a few will be used because the designers never made enough different situations for the majority of those spells to have a meaningful use. Because that takes time, and adds to the time that has to be spent on animation, dialogue, voice over etc. Or it's like any game with enough freedom, where doing something ridiculous like putting a basket over the head of an NPC makes them unable to see. Sure, the computer can track where the basket is, and that the NPC can't see very far, but putting those two pieces together and realise that the NPC should remove the basket? That's another thing entirely, and situations like that would only increase with more 'stars' and a larger system. Except the ridiculous situations would be about interpersonal relations instead of abusing a physics system.
ken, you still amaze me, you have the guts to do something you will be frowned on for, and still you continue to make games. I know that you didn't lay off those people for money, prophet, and just for selfish reasons, NO you did it because AAA gaming was getting to you so you started over. Good luck ken you still amaze me and can't wait for your game :) keep it coming dude
Got twenty minutes in before realising I'd lost track of what he was even talking about. I'll just trust he knows what he's doing and look at the reviews for whatever he releases next.
I don't think the player should have complete power. I love this talk and think this system is amazing, but the player should be a piece of the puzzle - not the one piecing it together.
It's definitely very interesting and I think that depends on the type of game. For a fantasy setting where the goal is to make the world feel alive it would definitely make sense that there's two feuding kingdoms and they bother each other even without me doing their little feud questline. As long as it's made clear to the player that stuff will happen regardless of their actions but that they can influence the situation, then all's fine and dandy. On the other hand I would also like a game where I'm the most powerful, smartest, prettiest, baddest ass person who seems to be the only piece of shit getting things done in the world because I'm the greatest -- aka a power fantasy which a lot of people dig. Both are viable, in my opinion, it just depends on the type of setting or type of narrative you want the player in charge of or a part of.
SPOILER ALERT. Some things about TV Shows Dexter and Game of Thrones in the Q&A section by the audience. What kind of dumbass calls out a spoiler and then only after the fact says 'spoiler alert' my gawd. Ken is not to blame, doesn't put a foot wrong.
4 villages, 5 stars of each village, and each star has 12 passions. The game will choose 3 of those, so every play-through has 20 characters with different passions. If you lie to one person, their passion may be another AI, but that AI has a passion or a elf, or next play-through its a passion for a dwarf, or no passion at all. Depending on the connections you get a unique gossip system essentially, and each time information spreads differently. So that lie you told in private, depending on the connection and passions may or may not be told. Ex. developing a strong connection with the Star first, than telling a lie, they will keep it. But if you develop their passion with another AI, than tell them a lie, their trust may fall on the AI and they will share the info.
In my opinion he is planning on making a combination between world of warcraft, skyrim, Game of thrones + the walking dead or mass effect moral choices
It seems like a more advanced version of The Sims. I think what would be interesting is introducing this concept into a linear game like Bioshock Infinite.
Yes. I'm actually really excited for Shadow of Mordor. It looks fun but it's also experimenting with this idea. Like he said, physics in games wasn't done over night. SoM could very well be one of the first to start doing this. Perhaps a smaller scale, less complicated... but the idea is gaining ground. I hope next gen brings us games that truly let the player thrive.
Lots of comment about how all of this is too complicated for the current engines and AI and yet hes pretty much explaing Fallout New Vegas' reputation system and to a point Fallout 4 reputation system with the follower perks and the random encounter system, in fact F4 did the Zero Sum ending becuase even going with the Minutemen ending you still left factions unhappy (considering that the Yes Man ending on NV can create a full on positive ending for all factions)
I know he said he didn't announce anything but i'd want that fantasy world simulator so bad. Just more focus on characters and narrative and not really combat.
2 Ken Levine, I don't like Bioshock's, but a really want to play your nex game. Also, you should play White Gold: War in Paradise. Those system are implemented there, maybe in a simpler way, but still.
Well then it would be a human level AI, then there's a whole school of ethical debate around the rights and moral treatment of an AI that's at a human level or higher.
David Hollingshead My view is to shut it down or enslave it is similar to doing the same as humans, but to "kill it" in a game wouldn't really be, as it'd be similar to killing someone in an MMO, so long as the AI had a say.
The problem with AI passing the Turing is that either the robot has feelings or humans are robots. The only thing that gives a pass to killing it is that a copy is respawned every time the game is played.
David Hollingshead Humans are pretty much robots though. The only reason the AI could have emotions is if we programmed them in, the same way evolution took the raw processing power of a collection of neurons and turned it into you and me. To really pass a traditional Turing test an AI would need to understand emotions, but not necessarily posses them.
So Ken Levine is trying his hand at the Faction game. A idea that has been talked about for at least 10 years by now, and here is what Ken Levine is going to learn: Exponential development is EXPONENTIAL. This all sounds great when you consider the beginning of the game, but how on earth do yeah add enough man hours to fill the late parts of the game. Every choice creates repercussions that is simply staggering once you actually start to code it out. He had 150 million dollars, 100 employees, and was the highest respected Game Designer in the industry, and he still FAILED at doing this in Bioshock Infinite.
With some points he is saying i have to disagree. He says linear games aren´t repayable. I think thats a cliche. Actually the most replay fun i get from games are high quality (!!!) linear games like The Last Of Us. My first play through was very offensive, i had many gun and fist fights. But as i played it again and again on harder difficulties this changed. I went more stealthy and the game showed itself to me from a whole different side: as a stealth game! I think it´s more about how to do it the right way. If you make a complex gameplay that you fill with a big variety of elements it can have a really high replay value.
The gameplay experience change, but not the narrative. But with shadow of mordor Nemesis System, we see the start of the king of goal Ken whant to acheive.
I know what he's trying to achieve. With my comment i was only criticizing the fact that he said linear games have not much replay value. On the other hand the nemesis system was fun but the narrative quality it brings can never be on the quality level of really great linear games. So i actually would always prefer a game with linear story line with a gameplay that includes a lot of replay value to a game that tries to achieve the replay value from a dynamic narrative. But thats only my opinion..
Something I would ask Ken. If you make the Star's Passions every game the same, as the designer you got control over the game but it makes the replayability poor. But if you make it random from a wider pool like Ken said, couldn't it be possible to result in some unbalanced system? Say, for example, it's far better to be allied with the elves because less people from other villages will be mad at me for that.
I know this was an old comment but I don't see why this potential "imbalance" couldn't just be prevented within the code itself. For example, to prevent a playthrough where only two Stars in the whole game world hate elves, simply have it be a numerical requirement that 30 Stars hate elves, 30 Stars hate Orcs, 30 Stars hate etc... Now, WHICH Stars hate what would still be randomized within their respective Passion pools, but it would sidestep the balancing issue entirely. This would ensure that no playthrough has an "optimal strategy" and maintain the "zero sum game" or "give and take" design principle.
In a way yes but those games are very much contained in a smaller simulation. I believe Ken is talking about bringing it into larger type of games. But yes those games do have some interesting systems that are worth to look at.
Why did we get 3 uncharted, gears of war, mass effect, Bioshock, 3 Bethesda studio games and now we're lucky if we get 1 freaking game. We aren't even getting elder scrolls this gen
Maybe some awesome System Shock like game will be made by Ken and his team, with this idea. However, there is no enemy, you can side with SHODAN, but you'll piss off the human resistance against her. You can find several survivors on the space station or space ship and they'll be neutral to you, or some even hostile, since they are surviving, but you can trade with them for, say; you need cyber modules and the other human wants your shotgun, you trade and gain more trust, and so you can side with an idividual human. The person you sided with wants you to destroy the space station, while someone else wants to just kill SHODAN and the other wants to simply escape. As you go with them, the story has many outcomes.
Also I think he's misheard "Zero Sum Gain" for a long time. The phrase should literally mean that the "sum" of the "gain" or the 'total gain' is "zero". It has nothing to do with it being a "game".
It certainly could if you found yourself just kind of "maintaining" like with Dwarf Fortress, as they say "Losing is fun" as opposed to just having a very conservative fortress that goes on forever. I think the solution is in how you design the end-game. Some kind of large scale events happen, one side is going to win or lose, and the player takes part in that.
The entire point of this sort of system is to throw out the main story and let the player experience the world on their own without being forced to adhere to whatever bias there might be from whoever wrote the main story. Leaving interpretation of the world to their own, letting them explore and experiment with the conditions of the given environment. Something, in my personal opinion is very lacking in games. Hell I would build further upon this system and make it so there are no predefined cultures or groups, though to make sure things don't go completely overboard and alienate the player completely, there would be some sort of predominant "macro-culture" of most "the world" basically, you can explore that world all you want, but the farther you go from known lands, the less prevalent this dominant macroculture will be, possibly replaced by an entirely different macro-culture, or even entirely non-existent in some areas. Macrocultures would be limited by landmass, so in theory an archipelago of larger, spaced apart islands would basically be an area with a non-existant macroculture. It would be a nice abstraction of spread of culture by migration. Though I do wonder how hard simulating spread of culture by migration would actually be to simulate accurately.
BannanaOfDoom Everyone certainly has their own biases and political thought, and it can be really frustrating when you are basically forced to take an action through your character that you don't agree with or wouldn't personally take yourself. As far as simulating macro (or micro) cultures goes, I think the limitation would be the development team far before the player would be overwhelmed. I think Levine talked a lot about "not overwhelming the player" but honestly, even in a simple system like he had, the dialog and the interactions could get extremely complicated and intertwined very quickly. I would imagine planning and designing the innards of a system like that would involve a very large white board, with lots of circles and red strings going back and forth. As for how to model a bunch of cultures accurately, probably research from professors of anthropology would be the way to go. I would imagine they at least have some basic models for how humans have already done this type of thing, though I don't know how useful it would be any given game as opposed to just showing what we already have here in the real world. I think at best anthropology would yield some interesting facts about cultures that the average person doesn't know, which could lead to inspiration for the writing.
Can't imagine the massive number of people who played Skyrim just did the relatively mundane main story line of quests. That was one of the last things I cared about.
That is a very simplistic thing. That's like one trigger and one thing. Lots of games have done things LIKE this but not nearly to the scale or complexity he's discussing.
10 years later and he is finally doing a game that uses this very concept
Can't wait!!!!
Who's here a decade later?
and everything started cause he didn't want to talk to waiters
He'll yea bro can't wait for judas!
I was very sad when hear that Ken leaving Ir and starting something new. After watching this, I understand his goal better. Now I'm looking forward to see what he will present for the next project. It doesn't even matter whether or not it will be successful, he absolutely have some amazing idea in place. I'll support that development even the first project turns out crap.
You can tell Ken was supposed to be a “Creative Director”.. he calmly speaks but easily puts his point across without getting too smart or analytical about it.
The man is great at what he does and Bioshock will forever remain a powerhouse of storytelling and world building.
Looking forward to whatever Ken has planned next!
I feel like I've seen this video like 4 times since you posted it. Please announce your new game soon. I'm so excited to see it. PS. Just played Burial at Sea for the first time and oh my God it's amazing! You sir are a genius.
I like the idea of taking the traditional approach of "do stuff for faction until you unlock the quest" but then having the quest you unlock change depending on what your relationship with other factions are
8 years later and I'm returning to this video after watching the trailer for Judas. I'd agree with other comments in this thread that we still haven't really surpassed the narrative versatility of a game like Fallout New Vegas in Western RPGs yet.
I'm interested in seeing what scale of story Ghost Story wants to tell. The narrative seems to be centered around a damaged starship, will it be smaller in scope than the region-spanning F:NV?
Also, how much will the lead character's personality and emotion change based on player choices? How large will the factions we deal with be? I've also assumed the game will be open world based on the examples Levine is referencing like Civilization. But will it be? What would a non open world game with narrative legos behave like?
Is F:NV the only Obsidian game you've ever played? Is it the only Western RPG you've ever played?? Just going off of Obsidians catalogue, PoE and Deadfire have far surpassed F:NV in narrative versatility, and its not even close. So many more factions and factional reputation, side quests weaved into reputation, more NPCs and companions, deeper companion reputation mechanics and sidequests, base management and regional reputation when building your stronghold (like dealing with emissaries, local disputes and sending companions to keep up relations with allied kingdoms), far more RPG mechanical depth in the skill, attribute and conversational skill-check systems, as well as narrative carryover mechanics from PoE into Deadfire. On top of that there are many different endings and ways to tackle the plot, as well as being a much better plot than F:NV. PoE is lightyears ahead.
If he a makes a new Bioshock game which the narrative is endlessly replayable, I think he will make history, it will be the best game ever made. The best videogame story that I have played was bioshock infnite. A good story and endlessly replayable narrative is the game I will definitely buy rather than any other game.
Sadly Ken can no longer make Bioshock games. 2k owns the franchise and he disbanded Irrational games and left 2k
Well, as he said, the Bioshock games' stories are linear- hell, he said that they are a commentary of games being linear and having no choice. But I think he's going to make games similar to Bioshock in terms of the world and stuff, but also have this replayable narrative...and probably a narrative that makes ya think.
8 years later. Judas has been announced.
A design for a SPECIFIC game, a product PITCH, a SPECIFIC development plan, an INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. I am here ken! Play your ace in the hole!
I think we still havent even scratched the surface of what games can do with story. Even with games like Witcher...most of the story and choices made are thru dialogue trees. I think in the future we should have games where story is driven by regular gameplay, too.
Like imagine if in a fantasy RPG, you kill everyone in a single town. Then news of that town pretty much just disappearing spreads throughout the world. And since you pretty much commited mass murder, your character's personality changes in cutscenes because of that- like if u used stealth to kill everyone, he sounds devious and cunning, but if you just confronted everyone face on when u killed them, he could sound angry and cruel all the time.
Or maybe when u do certain really good or bad acts, you become more famous/infamous to the people around you- gangs try to beat you up, and townspeople ask you more for help or try to run away from you
Great thought
yes infamous was dope for that concept
This kind of stuff has existed in games for decades now, you just don't see it as often.
@@SomniaCE yeah I feel like MGS5 scratched the surface for this. You play your missions at night well now the soldiers are gonna be wearing night vision goggles and carrying flashlights with them so they can spot you. You go for mostly headshots and some soldiers start wearing helmets to counter that.
Ken Levine, become a lecturer damn son
Id rather see him make games as this one
Well, there are a few problems with that:
1) He's a game designer and wants to stay that way
2) This is the GDC with him being a popular designer, so that's why they prob let it slide, but no other lectures would allow him to swear like this
He always was, he just wrote it into his stories. Lol
Levine its been 4 years my friend... im growing impatient.
6 now....
@@UlfMTG 7 soon
Any time now...
"when its ready"
Go to his Twitter. The guy's human just as you and I, his work in the game isn't going full steam like a standard company, it seems to be going more like a personal project of his. Don't even count with it ever coming out, just let it be and maybe one day he releases it.
One of my life goals is Ken Levine's autograph on a body part
same
Jean D
Wat o.0
how does it feel now re reading this
Update?
Did it happen?
Wow. The insight and clarity offered in this presentation is starting to make me think... Ken Levine downsizing at Irrational might be one of *the most beneficial things to happen to the industry*.
Insane thing to say.
The passion system sounds like the faction system from Fallout: New Vegas, but with every star being it's own faction
Ken clearly *has* the vision for the future of gaming. Others have spoken of this, but few have mapped & charted the course to get there. It's clear a game should eventually evolve like the gamer does. Let it breath like another mind so you keep coming back to see new or great challenging experiences that you feel, emote, care about, & learn from. Philosophy is a critical part of this all where games become less "widget" or but evolve creating new experiences that grow. Price point will be higher, but take 50 shitty $60 games, vs. one amazing $1000 game. This could be as soon as 2025
Oh my god... Ken is making real life Westworld.
Westworld is totally on my mind listening to this.
He sounds like Heath Ledgers Joker haha.
*mixed with Steve Carrel.
It sounds like someone's finally going to bring the JRPG dating sim systems to the forefront! I hope this relationship systems becomes more mainstream because I love deep interaction with characters. (One of the main reasons I like the Persona series.)
I would love to hear what he thinks about Baldurs Gate 3
Thanks gamespot for posting these!
Wonder how Ken's progress is like for this vision at this point. As much as I love and will continue to love action RPGs, in the back of my mind I can't help but think about how they have a fixed number of possible endings created by writers (not to de-value the importance of writers and some of the cool endings we get in some games). Of course part of what a game tries to do is create the illusion of having your choices and the ending you arrive at be your own, but it gets harder to buy into that illusion at times. More than any other new release, this is probably the thing that I've been most looking forward to in some time (alright, aside from a new Silent Hill....)
That was a really interesting talk. I'm interested as to whether this change in direction is purely business focused or due to a creative interest. Either way, as a fan of single player linear narratives, it's a genuine shame to lose Levine's future contributions into the genre.
Creating AAA game is a balance between both. But good game designer are always drive by creation. It's just a question of scope, and how management is confident in the team.
Well, I think this is even better! Imagine having a Bioshock-level narrative, but where each play through is a different actual story!
What do you think his Bioshocks meant to be? He wanted to make AAA-level immersive sims, but both time games weren't working as a complex system and they didn't have any more time to experiment so they've made a linear shooters with immersive sim elements.
The world grows closer to the world of Bioshock and yet we haven't heard a thing about your new game in 6 years Ken Levine. We are waiting.
Was just thinking "why don't games like this ever have co-op" right when he mentioned co-op.
*Mount & Blade: Warband* works with the same idea of Lego Narrative, but without the degree of complexity presented by Ken. That game also doesn't have a main story or a main quest. It's all about what you do and who you interact with.
And Crusader Kings II, Total War, EU IV, etc.
Ahh, Morrowind.
NPCs can react negatively or positively to personal passions and also faction related global passions.
NPCs can refuse giving certain information if they don't like you.
You can piss a whole faction while keeping an individual from that faction as a friend or vice versa, unscripted by the disposition system as it is systematized completely, unattended by developers. Some even would call it broken for that open endedness.
And Morrowind main quest is such a backdrop, most forget about it and some don't even know it exists.
This talk is like a presentation for my Morrowind 2.0 dream. Good call out on Bethesda, Ken Levine! They should have been on Morrowind 4.0 by now.
Really curious how this works out, the question about having deeply thematic narratives in emergent storytelling is exactly what I'm wondering about, I find it difficult to imagine how systems could create such experiences but who knows. When I look at games such as dwarf fortress and rimworld, there are clearly stories that pop out from the interactions of all the systems in the game but these always feel to me like an interesting / fun / surprising sequence of events that are nice to watch or read about but lack any real depth that would make me think about it again long after in comparison to deeply thematic narratives like bioshock, the last of us, etc.
I am preordering the next game he puts out, the literal second it's anounced.
And a decade later he can finally make this concept work!
Ken assures me that even if I get old, I can still be relevant.Thanks.
Bioshock infinite is one of the best games ever created
@Ayy GasCan In my opinion without getting into the game mechanics and graphics, the game gives the illusion of having a complex narrative but in reality it's like and empty frame, something that looks ostentatious and has no original or fresh ideas. (Unlike Bioshock 1)
@@julittok style but no substance.
Utterly unfeasible in the setting he's picked in this presentation, but in a spaceship with only 3 stars? That's when I get excited. Big potential here.
This is more about overcoming decades of entrenched game design habits than it is about coming up with a new game design paradigm. Game designers must first give up control because that's what narrative is.
Hi kevin, just finished Infinite for the 6th time probably... we really need more of it! Please! :)
Is he planning on building a game that allows player driven narrative stories, based on the Civilization game play and world? I would buy that in a heartbeat, because that is the type of game I've been looking for.
Your not on your own. i'm with ya.
Moreso, it seems he's talking about a game like Skyrim, with a world driven in the same way and carrying the same impact that Civilization would. Like how what you did 1000 years ago means something to the way your game can play out now. You can't get that continent back. It wasn't a black and white choice to lose a war, but it pissed Poland off and it made the Iriqois think you were weak, causing them to attack you know. He wants to translate that into an rpg-esque game.
A lot of it sounds like New Vegas's "faction" system, but on a much more personal level. I'd still want an overarching narrative or "main quest" of some sort in there, but I suppose you run the risk of the system being much more interesting than the main game.
The best example I can think of is the Nemesis system in Shadow of Morder. While the narrative started off all right, once you get going with the power struggles and personal vendettas, it becomes so much more interesting and involving than the structured part of the game.
I'm very much looking forward to it. It sounds like a very unique and player-driven experience. I hope to see this game in 3-5 years! :D
Tdog redman it is not a game announcement, it is a presentation about what makes a game "story driven"
***** cant believe jacket from Hotline Miami (my favorite game) replied to my comment...
I always wanted way of the samurai 2 / 4 and RuneScape combo game. I want other characters to be in my game too, RuneScape even made their own banking system with this amazing feat. I’m not really in to space so Judas will be fun for me but I guess it’s not the same topic as guns. I would love to see swords and plasmids that would be so cool..
I mean, just imagine the amount of work it'd be to do all the animations, voice overs, etc. for each of these scenarios. And most of the work wouldn't even be seen by the average player unless they played it over and over again. This is something for far down the road when AI is much more advanced and can fill in the gaps - eventually we'll probably have AI crafting narratives on the fly.
One big frustration with modern video game design, is if you try to be nice to EVERYONE, then you default to nuetrality and losing, instead of getting to be a high level hero, because rewards for completing content are insufficient to aid players against endgame content without throwing all the player weight behind a narrative ally that might not exactly be compelling enough to be "cool".
Furthermore, I haven't had an OS add-in in over 25 years. I've made suggestions for updating Windows 10 taskbar and print screen/record and clipboard, al very clever hacks, even the keyboard mouse input being replaced with something better than either, but it's very difficult to get any OS-level access to implement it. It's mostly static. Who designs this stuff? Games for Windows is a death sentence...
One thing that Diablo 3 does really well is vary the monster/enemy personas with modular elements that can combine in interesting ways. Character model shape, size, skills, elemental properties, all combine in interesting ways to vary the combat. This methodology could easily be used to procedurally generate points of interest (Quests, a la Star Wars Galaxies), and Allies and quest givers. It's mostly a matter of swapping variables (Like the example with Orcs/Dwarves/Elves/Goblins, you could simply swap the nomenclature and visual/audio input that makes the player identify with the content). I suspect a lot of modern engines are Bespoke, and implement data harvesting of players' lives, to introduce drama, stress, and unique narratives, but it can be psychically harmful if the player doesn't get what they want and is faced with too many black and white choices, if the designer is not effectively telling their story and balancing resources with edification through artwork, and if the difficulty curves and statistics are super-competitive.
WoW Classic was supposed to offer gameplay elements like this with "Reputation" and "PvP rankings", but it was never made available to players like me because the time investment would be "Grind kills all day every day for years on end". Reputation isn't necessarily the only way to advance player activities, there can also be physical (geographic/architectural) thresholds, like nearness to a monster generator or resource mine, or co-positional item inventory thresholds, like a gun that gets a new type of ammo, or maybe a new style arrowhead for your bow, or even point and click adventure style unlocks where you can't get to the new area until you use an inventory item with an environmental object, or solve an environmental puzzle that isn't too cryptic. I guess what I'm getting at is that there are lots of ways of allowing players to drive the narrative, and be driven. The last question mentioning thematic and overarching patterns and atmospheric qualities are important in making games with more than just a handful of these systems possible, and I think systems like the one I am trying to design for my wordpress page with copresent tags are rife for exploitation in determining who or what constitutes a theme that can be modularized and statistically mapped to generate an enjoyable experience, add-ons be damned, and add-ins be praised.
Wow, fascinating talk. I hope developers take this on board, games could really start to differentiate themselves from movies. In MGS Ground Zeros, I've spent 20 hours replaying the main mission and its spoiled other open-world games for me, they just seem inferior in comparison. It feels so open and free, like you can do anything, now imagine this level of open-gameplay with the open story structure witch Ken is talking about here, THAT would be INSANE!!
I think it's a good idea to limit the number of 'stars' not just because of the player's ability to keep track, but also because the system would likely suffer a lot when the computer itself can't keep track of what's going on and have the 'stars' react appropriately. That should be easier if there's less to keep track of in the first place. But I imagine that it might simply be too tricky to accomplish, as the permutations might grow so quickly that a game that's complex enough to be interesting to play will always end up being too complex to keep track of.
41:20 One motivation for making 'stars' dislike the player could consist of appearing to have the moral high ground when those 'stars' are provoked into hostilities. That perceived moral high ground could determine how other 'stars' react to the conflict that ensues. After all, those other 'stars' should probably be a tiny bit concerned that they might be next in line to be killed unless the player seems to merely defend against attacks.
I don't think it would be a problem for the computer to keep track of everything, what ever the number of star. The real problem is to create all the stuff (animation, dialogue, voice over, etc..) that support the narrative.
But the real beauty of this system is that it's made to be scaled up. Even after the game is shipped, you can add new passion in the passion pool, add new star or new faction, and still have a compelling narative.
That's it's particuly relevant with free to play game, where you have to maintain your game tfor player to keep playing. If you want to do something interesting on the narrative side, instead of doing Farmvile 26, the big probleme is alway content, and this system is really interesting to solve that problem.
It's true that the computer could keep track of large quantities of variables, but in order to 'see the patterns' it would have to be programmed to do so, and that's where large systems tend to fail in my opinion.
It's like "80 magic spells!!!" where only a few will be used because the designers never made enough different situations for the majority of those spells to have a meaningful use. Because that takes time, and adds to the time that has to be spent on animation, dialogue, voice over etc.
Or it's like any game with enough freedom, where doing something ridiculous like putting a basket over the head of an NPC makes them unable to see. Sure, the computer can track where the basket is, and that the NPC can't see very far, but putting those two pieces together and realise that the NPC should remove the basket? That's another thing entirely, and situations like that would only increase with more 'stars' and a larger system. Except the ridiculous situations would be about interpersonal relations instead of abusing a physics system.
This is great, I hope you create some more great things to come Ken. Also good luck to those from irrational
Thank you. I have been looking around for this talk. What a genius!
ken, you still amaze me, you have the guts to do something you will be frowned on for, and still you continue to make games. I know that you didn't lay off those people for money, prophet, and just for selfish reasons, NO you did it because AAA gaming was getting to you so you started over. Good luck ken you still amaze me and can't wait for your game :) keep it coming dude
***** yeah, but he still is a good developer and can't wait to see what he does next with his game :) oh and thanks for the correction
A system like this can't replace direct relationships between characters, which still have to be handcrafted, and are expensive.
Besides the very interesting talk Ken Levine is a great presentor nice to listen to.
6:24 i guess this is what currently happening at Ken's project now?
On point, unfortunately...
Got twenty minutes in before realising I'd lost track of what he was even talking about. I'll just trust he knows what he's doing and look at the reviews for whatever he releases next.
genius. one of my idols.
I don't think the player should have complete power. I love this talk and think this system is amazing, but the player should be a piece of the puzzle - not the one piecing it together.
It's definitely very interesting and I think that depends on the type of game. For a fantasy setting where the goal is to make the world feel alive it would definitely make sense that there's two feuding kingdoms and they bother each other even without me doing their little feud questline.
As long as it's made clear to the player that stuff will happen regardless of their actions but that they can influence the situation, then all's fine and dandy.
On the other hand I would also like a game where I'm the most powerful, smartest, prettiest, baddest ass person who seems to be the only piece of shit getting things done in the world because I'm the greatest -- aka a power fantasy which a lot of people dig.
Both are viable, in my opinion, it just depends on the type of setting or type of narrative you want the player in charge of or a part of.
Games like Minecraft beg to differ
Waiting...
Great talk
Well, thankfully we finally have a _proper_ sequel to Bioshock : Arkane Studios' *Prey*
Took a flippin' decade, mind.
SPOILER ALERT. Some things about TV Shows Dexter and Game of Thrones in the Q&A section by the audience. What kind of dumbass calls out a spoiler and then only after the fact says 'spoiler alert' my gawd. Ken is not to blame, doesn't put a foot wrong.
Feel like he's been living inside my head. Had me with Civilization.
4 villages, 5 stars of each village, and each star has 12 passions. The game will choose 3 of those, so every play-through has 20 characters with different passions. If you lie to one person, their passion may be another AI, but that AI has a passion or a elf, or next play-through its a passion for a dwarf, or no passion at all. Depending on the connections you get a unique gossip system essentially, and each time information spreads differently. So that lie you told in private, depending on the connection and passions may or may not be told. Ex. developing a strong connection with the Star first, than telling a lie, they will keep it. But if you develop their passion with another AI, than tell them a lie, their trust may fall on the AI and they will share the info.
In my opinion he is planning on making a combination between world of warcraft, skyrim, Game of thrones + the walking dead or mass effect moral choices
I guess it's kind of already started with Shadow of Mordor and the nemesis system and a little bit with Far Cry 4 and the randomized animal attacks.
Fallout New Vegas
Plus sometimes it is really nice to feel as just some other character and not some transcendent star
oh ken it's near 2017... give us more information.
knowing ken we wont know about the game will 2020 ;)
now is 9/16/18
@@LiveCustoms so far your comment still checks out :(
still waiting
Well, it’s 2020. Let’s see if he says anything this year...
Honestly Ken Levine or no, I just want Bioshock 4.
Lego is an uncountable noun. Narrative Lego.
I know it's a very basic narrative based linear game BUT Wing Commander 3 and 4 were AWESOME at story paths.
Levine is a fucking genius. Fuck the haters.
this didn't age well.
Too bad his games never come out on time.
@@jessemaleh8145 this definitely aged well
ALL games DO NOT have to be NONLINEAR.
He never said that. He said that he wants systems like this in games, but it isn't like he said he doesn't ever want linear games or whatever.
Elf Wooing Simulator 2014.
I love this genius
so ken levine is making elder scrolls 6 confirmed
Now we know why after 8 year it still didn't exist
Wow, he really does sound like the Joker.
What the hell is Ken doing... it's been 4 years and we haven't seen anything from him? How's he still in a job right now...? Confused
New game just revealed.
6 years...
It seems like a more advanced version of The Sims. I think what would be interesting is introducing this concept into a linear game like Bioshock Infinite.
The new game shadow of mordor has touched on this game mechanic but I can see Ken Levine is talking about a much larger scale.
Yes. I'm actually really excited for Shadow of Mordor. It looks fun but it's also experimenting with this idea. Like he said, physics in games wasn't done over night. SoM could very well be one of the first to start doing this. Perhaps a smaller scale, less complicated... but the idea is gaining ground. I hope next gen brings us games that truly let the player thrive.
Yeah that game has some interesting systems at play. Im very curious how that plays out.
Okay so, this is exactly what Alanah Pearce was talking about. He has been working on it for more than 5 years
This is what Warren Specter has been talking about for at least twenty years.
Lots of comment about how all of this is too complicated for the current engines and AI and yet hes pretty much explaing Fallout New Vegas' reputation system and to a point Fallout 4 reputation system with the follower perks and the random encounter system, in fact F4 did the Zero Sum ending becuase even going with the Minutemen ending you still left factions unhappy (considering that the Yes Man ending on NV can create a full on positive ending for all factions)
Thank you for this
You know, I'd probably play a game based on his 'orc passion' and town example..
I know he said he didn't announce anything but i'd want that fantasy world simulator so bad. Just more focus on characters and narrative and not really combat.
It's 2018 now ken when is your next big game coming
2020 now! Excuse me, Levine, we're waiting!
2 Ken Levine, I don't like Bioshock's, but a really want to play your nex game.
Also, you should play White Gold: War in Paradise. Those system are implemented there, maybe in a simpler way, but still.
If a game character ever passes the Turing test, would it be inhumane to kill it?
Well then it would be a human level AI, then there's a whole school of ethical debate around the rights and moral treatment of an AI that's at a human level or higher.
Right, that's why I asked the question.
David Hollingshead My view is to shut it down or enslave it is similar to doing the same as humans, but to "kill it" in a game wouldn't really be, as it'd be similar to killing someone in an MMO, so long as the AI had a say.
The problem with AI passing the Turing is that either the robot has feelings or humans are robots. The only thing that gives a pass to killing it is that a copy is respawned every time the game is played.
David Hollingshead Humans are pretty much robots though. The only reason the AI could have emotions is if we programmed them in, the same way evolution took the raw processing power of a collection of neurons and turned it into you and me. To really pass a traditional Turing test an AI would need to understand emotions, but not necessarily posses them.
I bet he hired people to be there, then fired them when it ended
So Ken Levine is trying his hand at the Faction game. A idea that has been talked about for at least 10 years by now, and here is what Ken Levine is going to learn: Exponential development is EXPONENTIAL. This all sounds great when you consider the beginning of the game, but how on earth do yeah add enough man hours to fill the late parts of the game. Every choice creates repercussions that is simply staggering once you actually start to code it out.
He had 150 million dollars, 100 employees, and was the highest respected Game Designer in the industry, and he still FAILED at doing this in Bioshock Infinite.
With some points he is saying i have to disagree. He says linear games aren´t repayable. I think thats a cliche. Actually the most replay fun i get from games are high quality (!!!) linear games like The Last Of Us. My first play through was very offensive, i had many gun and fist fights. But as i played it again and again on harder difficulties this changed. I went more stealthy and the game showed itself to me from a whole different side: as a stealth game! I think it´s more about how to do it the right way. If you make a complex gameplay that you fill with a big variety of elements it can have a really high replay value.
The gameplay experience change, but not the narrative. But with shadow of mordor Nemesis System, we see the start of the king of goal Ken whant to acheive.
I know what he's trying to achieve. With my comment i was only criticizing the fact that he said linear games have not much replay value. On the other hand the nemesis system was fun but the narrative quality it brings can never be on the quality level of really great linear games. So i actually would always prefer a game with linear story line with a gameplay that includes a lot of replay value to a game that tries to achieve the replay value from a dynamic narrative. But thats only my opinion..
Well your opinion is shit.
Dwarf Fortress has featured a completely nonlinear, systemic narrative structure built into the game long before even this talk 10 yrs ago
Something I would ask Ken. If you make the Star's Passions every game the same, as the designer you got control over the game but it makes the replayability poor. But if you make it random from a wider pool like Ken said, couldn't it be possible to result in some unbalanced system? Say, for example, it's far better to be allied with the elves because less people from other villages will be mad at me for that.
I know this was an old comment but I don't see why this potential "imbalance" couldn't just be prevented within the code itself. For example, to prevent a playthrough where only two Stars in the whole game world hate elves, simply have it be a numerical requirement that 30 Stars hate elves, 30 Stars hate Orcs, 30 Stars hate etc... Now, WHICH Stars hate what would still be randomized within their respective Passion pools, but it would sidestep the balancing issue entirely. This would ensure that no playthrough has an "optimal strategy" and maintain the "zero sum game" or "give and take" design principle.
This is almost exactly the character dynamic system already used in like two million Japanese galgame/dating sims....
In a way yes but those games are very much contained in a smaller simulation. I believe Ken is talking about bringing it into larger type of games. But yes those games do have some interesting systems that are worth to look at.
Those are shit anyway.
havent consider this but hell you are right, gotta play more of that i guess
ken if ur reading this get the game out already i fking luv u
Why did we get 3 uncharted, gears of war, mass effect, Bioshock, 3 Bethesda studio games and now we're lucky if we get 1 freaking game. We aren't even getting elder scrolls this gen
LEGO is plural. No S is required.
Maybe some awesome System Shock like game will be made by Ken and his team, with this idea. However, there is no enemy, you can side with SHODAN, but you'll piss off the human resistance against her. You can find several survivors on the space station or space ship and they'll be neutral to you, or some even hostile, since they are surviving, but you can trade with them for, say; you need cyber modules and the other human wants your shotgun, you trade and gain more trust, and so you can side with an idividual human. The person you sided with wants you to destroy the space station, while someone else wants to just kill SHODAN and the other wants to simply escape. As you go with them, the story has many outcomes.
9:02 "single-player mmo design" wait what?
Oh, he probably meant open-world mission-based design, huh?
Also I think he's misheard "Zero Sum Gain" for a long time.
The phrase should literally mean that the "sum" of the "gain" or the 'total gain' is "zero". It has nothing to do with it being a "game".
I want a monument island lego set.
i fucking love dark cloud 2
No main quest... eh. I can't help but think it will make the experienec feel aimless or pointless.
i'm interested to see if he can make it work!
It certainly could if you found yourself just kind of "maintaining" like with Dwarf Fortress, as they say "Losing is fun" as opposed to just having a very conservative fortress that goes on forever.
I think the solution is in how you design the end-game. Some kind of large scale events happen, one side is going to win or lose, and the player takes part in that.
The entire point of this sort of system is to throw out the main story and let the player experience the world on their own without being forced to adhere to whatever bias there might be from whoever wrote the main story. Leaving interpretation of the world to their own, letting them explore and experiment with the conditions of the given environment. Something, in my personal opinion is very lacking in games. Hell I would build further upon this system and make it so there are no predefined cultures or groups, though to make sure things don't go completely overboard and alienate the player completely, there would be some sort of predominant "macro-culture" of most "the world" basically, you can explore that world all you want, but the farther you go from known lands, the less prevalent this dominant macroculture will be, possibly replaced by an entirely different macro-culture, or even entirely non-existent in some areas. Macrocultures would be limited by landmass, so in theory an archipelago of larger, spaced apart islands would basically be an area with a non-existant macroculture. It would be a nice abstraction of spread of culture by migration. Though I do wonder how hard simulating spread of culture by migration would actually be to simulate accurately.
BannanaOfDoom Everyone certainly has their own biases and political thought, and it can be really frustrating when you are basically forced to take an action through your character that you don't agree with or wouldn't personally take yourself.
As far as simulating macro (or micro) cultures goes, I think the limitation would be the development team far before the player would be overwhelmed. I think Levine talked a lot about "not overwhelming the player" but honestly, even in a simple system like he had, the dialog and the interactions could get extremely complicated and intertwined very quickly. I would imagine planning and designing the innards of a system like that would involve a very large white board, with lots of circles and red strings going back and forth.
As for how to model a bunch of cultures accurately, probably research from professors of anthropology would be the way to go. I would imagine they at least have some basic models for how humans have already done this type of thing, though I don't know how useful it would be any given game as opposed to just showing what we already have here in the real world. I think at best anthropology would yield some interesting facts about cultures that the average person doesn't know, which could lead to inspiration for the writing.
Can't imagine the massive number of people who played Skyrim just did the relatively mundane main story line of quests. That was one of the last things I cared about.
fallout 3 did that when you pissed off one faction they send people out to kill you. I think this is a good goals for fallout games
That is a very simplistic thing. That's like one trigger and one thing. Lots of games have done things LIKE this but not nearly to the scale or complexity he's discussing.
Wish this guy would help make a bioshock 4 but I think that unfortunately that series was finished-
Cloud Chamber is making a new one. Ken Levine is busy making an unannounced project.