[OSList] OST / Gaming

Mary O'Connor mary.hippychick at gmail.com
Sat Oct 19 15:52:48 PDT 2013


My dear Jen, 
I guess I was simply bumble-bee- ing 
x

Sent from my iPhone

> On 19 Oct 2013, at 23:37, Jenifer Toksvig <never at acompletelossforwords.com> wrote:
> 
> Hello chaps,
> 
> I admit, I took a break from the digest arriving in my inbox, but I have been drawn back to the list by the lovely Mary O’Connor, who pointed me at this thread. And very timely it is for me, too, in terms of OST and gaming and such. (Apologies for un-threading this post.)
> 
> Harrison said:
> >> Some people refer to the “Game of Life,” but it is scarcely a game you choose to play (or not). [...]  OS for me is not a process we choose to do or not do – quite simply it is what we are -- Self organizing, and OS is only an invitation to be ourselves fully and purposefully. <<
> 
> For me, both OST and gaming are precisely about choice: about making choices.
> 
> I should say that I’m seeing ‘game’ and ‘gaming’ as different things, here. A game has a pre-determined structure, rules, goals etc. ‘Gaming’ is about people making choices within a given structure, and – crucially – that structure does not have to be a game. Not as we traditionally perceive ‘game’, anyway.
> 
> In my work making theatre, I’ve been exploring new ways to engage an audience. Essentially, we are performing work in Open Space – although we’re not quite, yet. We still haven’t introduced it as that, exactly. But it follows the principles and Law, and – for me – the essence of choice that lies in the self-organisation of OST.
> 
> The audience comes into what we’re calling a Storyworld: a big space, of exactly the kind in which you might open space, set out in a similar way – initially one collective space, then divided into smaller spaces – and here they’re introduced to the way in which the story will be told.
> 
> The characters effectively call the sessions, playing scenes in those smaller spaces (which we set out with furniture appropriate to whatever rooms fit the story), and the audience then behaves exactly as they do in open space.
> 
> It’s very fluid: the audience can also call sessions, because they can talk to the characters from the start, and we introduce them to the main story arc from the start. More than talk to them, we try to build an environment in which members of the audience (I like to call them audients) can form relationships with the characters if they want to.
> 
> We encourage emotional engagement with the process by following a very simple narrative which has plenty of room to be inflated and explored in open space. Our core narrative is effectively the governing theme of the process, with a strong narrative question established that will guide us through. The business of the audience is to engage with us in telling that story, and the issue for them is how these characters get to that final, inevitable conclusion which we know they must reach by the end of the story.
> 
> So here’s the crossover I’m talking about, between how people engage with the process in OST, and gaming, and this kind of theatre. A guy called Andrew Glassner wrote a great book called “Interactive Storytelling” which is essentially about how storytelling is evolving within the world of games. (Actual games.)
> 
> In the book, he observes what he refers to as the ‘game loop’. (Although not the programming kind of game loop, Harold!) This is a basic description of what people do in the process of gaming.
> 
> 1. Observe the situation 
> 2. Set goals 
> 3. Prepare 
> 4. Commit and execute 
> 5. Compare result to the plan 
> 6. Evaluate the result for self 
> 7. Evaluate the result for others 
> 8. Return to step 1 
> 
> In football, for example: you have the ball at your feet and it's your move. You look at where your teammates are, and how close to the goal you are. Then you decide to kick the ball to Bob. You prepare by tensing and putting your weight on the correct foot. Then you make the move and kick the ball. Immediately, you look to see if the ball is going in the intended direction, and then you evaluate whether or not Bob got it and is doing something useful with it. Then you check that everyone else around you is responding to your move in the way you thought they might, both your team and the other team. Then you observe where Bob is going, and decide on your next move. 
> 
> It also works with chess: look at the game, make a plan, pick up the piece, make the move, evaluate the move, look at the fear on your opponent’s face, and so on. It works with any game, pretty much.
> 
> It also works in Storyworld theatre. An audient looks around the room. They decide to follow a character who amuses them, so they turn and head that way. When they get to that scene, they might hover to see if this session is actually one they want to join. Other people seem to be here too, and are also finding this moment funny, so they stay for a while. Then they hear a song being sung across the room, and they look, set a goal to go over there, and use the Law of Two Feet to execute a move across the room.
> 
> For me, the great joy of Storyworld theatre is that I have freedom of choice to engage as I please: I can speak in a session, I can just listen, I can bumblebee and butterfly. It’s the same when I am gaming: I observe, set a goal, prepare, commit and execute, compare result to plan… and all in my own good time.
> 
> I’m not talking about playing Monopoly. I’m talking about making my move in Monopoly. The former has big rules and limitations. The latter just offers me a structure within which I am free to choose. Whilst making my move, I can butterfly as I watch other people discuss the game. I can announce a tea break, and bumblebee between a conversation at the sink and another back at the table. I can even move my little Top Hat illegally onto the pile of Community Cards and state that this move is a new one I’ve just invented, which allows me to give every player a card simultaneously instead of moving to a new square. (Because – well, why not? The game can’t stop me. The other players can be prepared for surprise, or use their two feet…)
> 
> That is me, gaming.
> 
> And also me being in Open Space.
> 
> And also me living.
> 
> So Harrison, don’t feel bad about not liking games! Games are often about winning or losing, and when it feels like it’s either one or the other – well, for me, that’s not a great game. Gaming, on the other hand, if you’re talking about it as above, is just about process. As is OST. In the moment of actually *playing* a game, when you are making your move, what you have is complete freedom and agency to pursue your own choice of goals. You can even break the rules, if you want.
> 
> The massive online games to which Jane McGonigal refers are, I think, Storyworlds. It is in such venues that I began the journey which brought me naturally into Open Space and now sees me exploring Storyworld theatre. (For the Trekkies on the list, we privately refer to it as Holodeck Theatre.)
> 
> I find Open Space addictive. At least, I see it and feel it and am in it always, and everywhere, and each time a little OST bell rings in my life (and there are a lot of them, like tiny wind chimes) I get a tiny kick which feels strangely like achievement. Those gaming moves ring similar bells for me.
> 
> Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplay Games, or MMOs, require a specific kind of writing: you need to shape a whole world clearly enough that people can imagine themselves being a part of it, playing a person within it, and making journeys there, but also leave enough freedom for people to be anyone they want, and make any number of different journeys, with as much potential for bell ringing as possible.
> 
> In fact, as much potential as real life offers. That’s the power of story, and it’s not like real life is story-free. OST is a running narrative in my Life-Storyworld.
> 
> And there are some glorious days when I feel like I’ve levelled up in it :-)
> 
> Jen x
> 
> Jenifer Toksvig
> www.acompletelossforwords.com
> 
> The Copenhagen Interpretation
> www.thecopenhageninterpretation.co.uk
> 
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