Into the Woods: A practical guide to the Hero's Journey

What practical use is "The Hero's Journey" to story tellers and game developers?

Why The Hero’s Journey Is Important What makes the hero’s journey so important? Why should we bother with it? It’s important because myths are important. Myths convey the values of society. Myths are how we teach each other who we are and how we should behave.

Myths make possible our sense of community. We are thinking mythically when we show loyalty to our town our nation or our team. Loyalties to our friends or community are the result of strong myths that reinforce social bonding.

Myths give us a sense of personal identity, answering the question, "Who am I?"

Myths are what lie underneath our moral values.

Carl Jung argued that mythical motifs are structural elements of the psyche and says these patterns are in fact present in our brains, he calls them "The collective unconscious". He says we wait for a particular belief system to become implanted in our brain by the culture we grow up in.

This story telling is then set in our brains like a bird is wired to make a nest or a spider making a web, we have the same for story telling. We need these myths or stories to guide our lives they teach us new things and without them we would be lost. Rollo May says that to remain sane we must bring order and coherence into the stream of sensations and emotions entering his consciousness. Meaning we must have some sort of control over our thoughts and emotions.

Take away a mans myth then in result he will become mentally ill, depressed and he will lose the will to live. We need the belief that we matter, that we have meaning and we find our meaning in the myths we create. The best way to reinforce these myths is through storytelling and literature.

Raphael Patai wrote:

“Literature has the power to move us profoundly precisely because of its mythical quality… because of the mystery in the face of which we feel an awed delight or terror. The real function of literature in human affairs is to continue myth’s endeavour to create a meaningful place for man in a world oblivious of his presence.”

It seems that literature proves there is order in the universe, it says the in life, moral choices lead to outcomes. In fiction, there is meaning to human events because myths help us create meaning in our lives. The myths in our stories reaffirm the values our culture and teach us "the way we should be"

Why is this important to games? Rollo May has postulated that narcotics are myth-substitutes because they allow people to assert control over their environment, even if only for a short period of time. I contend that games are another example of myth-substitutes.

He says the her thinks games are essentially myth-reinforcing activities and that the player chooses the kind of games that reaffirm his/her personal myths.

What is the Hero's Journey?

During Joseph Campbell's research of thousands of myths he found common elements which kept appearing in these myths. Not all of them are found in one but many are found in different ones. After he categorizes these he says that the more of these elements a narrative has the more likely it is to strike a deep mythological chord with the audience. Campbell sumarises these elements which became known as the Hero's Journey, in these words:

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.

• Establishing the hero’s world.
• The call to adventure.
• Entering the mythological woods.
• Trail of trials.
• Encountering the evil on.
• Gaining the hero’s prize.
• Returning that prize to the community.

The Hero and his prize
Step 1: Pick Your Premise
First, pick your premise – your theme, your myth.Myths and stories consciously or subconsciously influence behavior. So you must decide what you think is important and make your game about that. You must decide how you want people to behave or think differently after playing your game than before. This is not a license for preaching. It’s the emotional connection you will create with the gameplayer, built up through time as he experiences the different facets of the issue that you have built into the game


Step 2: Create your hero
Next, create a hero who can embody that premise. Match the hero to your premise.  A hero is a myth in action. Heroes are how the myths are brought to life, the hero usually possesses many of the following qualities:

• The hero has courage (or finds it in the course of the story).
• The hero is clever and resourceful.
• The hero has a “special” talent.
• The hero is an “outlaw,” living by his or her own rules.
• The hero is good at what he or she does for a living.
• The hero is a protagonist (takes the lead in the action at some point in the story).
•  The hero has been “wounded” (maimed, disgraced, grieving for a lost loved one, etc.) or becomes wounded in the course of the story.
• The hero is motivated by idealism (at least at some point in the story).
• The hero is sexually potent.

Step 3: Create a Great Villain 

Great villains are memorable characters, Often much more memorable than the heroes themselves.   The greatest myth-based stories are those of the self-sacrificing hero pitted against the self-centred Evil One. Here are some characteristics of the Evil One that Frey outlines in his book  The greatest myth-based stories are those of the self-sacrificing hero pitted against the self-centred Evil One. Here are some characteristics of the Evil One that Frey outlines in his book

• Traits similar to hero.
• May be full of hubris.
• May be an outlaw.
• Clever and resourceful.
• May be wounded.
•  May have a special talent.
• May have great sex appeal.
• Traits dissimilar to the hero.
• Motivated by greed, avarice, lust for power, vanity, narcissism, and so on.
•  Never acts out of idealism, although he may have an evil cause he believes in.
•  Is often cruel.
• May win by luck, which the hero never does.
• Is not forgiving.
• Might quit – but only at the very end.
•  May whine and grovel, which the hero isn’t allowed to do.
• May not be stoical like the hero. May not be loyal.
• Usually not physically superior – though his or her sidekick may be.
• No special birth or special destiny, though he may falsely claim one.

Step 4: Show the Hero's Regular World

The point is that the player must see the hero’s world that he is trying to save. Near the beginning of the game, you should show the player an example of how the hero is flawed, so that at the end of the game, he can see how the hero has been transformed.

Step 5: Disrupt the Hero's World

This is Campbell’s Call to Adventure. When the disruption shows up in the form of a person,Campbell calls the person the Herald. Campbellalso says that the hero may refuse the call, but that doesn't really apply in the game world.

Step 6: Enter the Mythological Woods

These mythological woods can be either a physical or a psychological place. It is the place where the hero must endure his inner and outer struggle. The outer struggle is to achieve some victory. The inner struggle is to discover himself and transform his character. As we progress through levels, we have to see the hero changing. Giving him betters toys at the end of each level is a good idea, but it just isn't enough.

Step 7: Confront the Evil One

What is important is that your hero confronts evil in whatever form you have chosen to present it, and defeats it. Ideally the hero should overcome his inner struggle in order to be victorious in the outer struggle.

Step 8: Acquire the Prize

Remember your premise? That’s the prize. This is the thing that was worth fighting to acquire. This is what makes the journey worthwhile for the hero, and for the player.  Whatever the idea was that kept you up all those late nights through all those months of development, that is the Hero’s prize, and you have to let the hero, and the gameplayer acquire it. That’s the whole point of doing a story in the first place.

Step 9: The Hero's Return

In a way, this is optional, but in a way it’s not. If the hero acquires the prize, you've done your job of delivering it to the community Whether or not your hero survives to deliver it to his community depends on the kind of story you want to tell. By the end of your story, Egri says you will have moved the character “from pole to pole.”

The Three Act Structure

This is Aristotle's Three Act Structure which is used to break down a story into three simple acts.

• In the First Act, you get the hero up a tree
• the Second Act, you throw stones at him (in other words, you make things harder for him)
• The Third Act, you get him down out of the tree.

This is a great use for the plot of the story but is in fact no use to use for character development or growth. Identification is this mysterious ability people have to live inside the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others. It’s what allows people to dream the fictive dream. This identification with the hero somehow unites the gameplayer with the hero, and they somehow become one. the other surprising thing is how endlessly satisfying these stories are to us.

The more familiar the hero is, the more often we have watched him overcome ever-increasing dangers and challenges, the more we know what to expect of him the more we identify with him. The hero gains immeasurably from repetition.” A myth confirms and reconfirms our most deeply held cultural beliefs.

The Hero’s Journey isn’t a box of tools you can use to fix every story problems. But it’s somewhat similar to a circuit tester. You can clamp the leads around a problem spot in your story and check to see if there’s enough mythical current flowing. And if you don’t have enough juice, it can help point out the source of the problem.

Personal Comments

I actually found this article to be really helpful and well written. It was easy to understand and get my head around it. I made a lot more notes on this than I thought I would and the structures which have been shown in this article will come in very handy when it comes to character development and growth as well as developing a plot for my story.

Reading Week 8 - MUD's

Richard A. Bartle: Who suits MUD's players, who suit MUD's

HEARTS, CLUBS, DIAMONDS, SPADES: PLAYERS WHO SUIT MUDS


MUD's are ditcher social of game like and the vast majority of MUD's are known as "games" by their players. MUD's can be of considerable value in non-game or serious applications. Could you put MUD under a pastime, sport, amusement and entertainment? Are MUD's games? MUD's are seen differently by players.


Absract 4
Achievers (diamonds) always trying to find goals and rewards. Players gives themselves related goals and sets out to achieve them They regard points gathering and rising in levels as their main goal.


Explorers (Spades) like to walk around and learn as much about the virtual environment as possible. They set out to explore new things and find bugs.


Socialisers (Hearts) are players that like playing a game because of it's social aspects such as chatting to friends over text or VOIP.


Killers (Clubs) set out in the gam to harm and cause distress to other people around them. They generally enjoyit the more distress they are causing.


If a game has too many of one of these it causes an unbalanced game.


Ways to emphasise


Players over world

• add more communication facilities.
• add more player-on-player commands.
• make communication facilities easy and intuitive.
• decrease the size of the world.
• increase the connectivity between rooms.
• maximise the number of simultaneous players.
• restrict building privileges to a select few.
• cut down on the number of mobiles.

World over players

• have only basic communication facilities. 
• have few ways that players can do things to other players. 
• make building facilities easy and intuitive. 
• maximise the size of the world (ie. add breadth).
•  use only “rational” room connections in most cases. grant building privileges to many. 
• have lots of mobiles.

Interacting over acting

• make help facilities produce vague information. 
• produce cryptic hints when players appear stuck. 
• maximise the effects of commands (ie. add depth). 
• lower the rewards for achievement. have only a shallow level/class system. 
• produce amusing responses for amusing commands. edit all room descriptions for consistent atmosphere. 
• limit the number of commands available in any one area. 
• have lots of small puzzles that can be solved easily. allow builders to add completely new commands.

Acting over interacting

• provide a game manual. 
• include auto-map facilities. 
• include auto-log facilities.
• raise the rewards for achievement. 
• have an extensive level/class system. 
• make commands be applicable wherever they might reasonably have meaning.
• have large puzzles, that take over an hour to complete. have many commands relating to fights.
• only allow building by top-quality builders.

The next part is a direct quote from the text.

Player interactions

Achievers V.

• ACHIEVERS: Achievers regard other achievers as competition to be beaten (although this is typically friendly in nature, rather than cut-throat). Respect is given to those other achievers who obviously are extraordinarily good, but typically achievers will cite bad luck or lack of time as reasons for not being as far advanced in the game as their contemporaries. Achievers do not need the presence of any other type of player in order to be encouraged to join a MUD: they would be quite happy if the game were empty but for them, assuming it remained a challenge Because of this, a MUD can’t have too many achievers, physical limitations excepted.
• EXPLORERS: Achievers tend to regard explorers as losers: people who have had to resort to tinkering with the game mechanics because they can’t cut it as a player. The overall number of explorers has only a marginal effect on the population of achievers. In essence, more explorers will mean that fewer of the really powerful objects will be around around for the achievers to use, the explorers having used their arcane skills to obtain them first so This can cause achievers to become frustrated, and leave. More importantly, perhaps, the number of explorers affects the rate of advancement of achievers, because it determines whether or not they have to work out all those tiresome puzzles themselves. 
• SOCIALISERS: Achievers merely tolerate socialisers. Although they are good sources of general hearsay on the comings and goings of competitors, they’re nevertheless pretty much a waste of space as far as achievers are concerned. Typically, achievers will regard socialisers with a mixture of contempt, disdain, irritation and pity, and will speak to them in either a sharp or patronising manner. 
• KILLERS: Achievers don’t particularly like killers. They realise that killers as a concept are necessary in order to make achievement meaningful and worthwhile (there being no way to “lose” the game if any fool can “win” just by plodding slowly unchallenged), however they don’t pesonally like being attacked unless it’s obvious from the outset that they’ll win. 

Explorers V.

• ACHIEVERS: Explorers look on achievers as nascent explorers, who haven’t yet figuredout that there’s more to life than pursuing meaningless goals. They are therefore willing to furnish them with information, although, like all experts, they will rarely tell the full story when they can legitimately give cryptic clues instead. 
• EXPLORERS: Explorers hold good explorers in great respect, but are merciless to bad ones. One of the worst things a fellow explorer can do is to give out incorrect information, believing it to be true. Explorers enjoy the company of other explorers, and they will play more often if they have people around them to whom they can relate. Unfortunately, not many people have the type of personality which finds single-minded exploring a riveting subject, so numbers are notoriously difficult to increase. If you have explorers in a game, hold on to them!
• SOCIALISERS: Explorers consider socialisers to be people whom they can impress, but who are otherwise pretty well unimportant. 
• KILLERS: Explorers often have a grudging respect for killers, but they do find their behaviour wearisome. It’s just so annoying to be close to finishing setting up something when a killer comes along and attacks you. On the other hand, many killers do know their trade well, and are quite prepared to discuss the finer details of it with explorers. Sometimes, an explorer may try attacking other players as an exercise, and they can be extremely effective at it. 

Socialisers V.

• ACHIEVERS: Socialisers like achievers, because they provide the running soap opera about which the socialisers can converse. Without such a framework, there is no uniting cause to bring socialisers together. Note that socialisers don’t particularly enjoy talking to achievers they do, however, enjoy talking about them. Increasing the achiever/socialiser ratio has only a subtle effect: socialisers may come to feel that the MUD is “all about” scoring points and killing mobiles, and some of them may therefore leave before matters ”get worse”. 
• EXPLORERS: Socialisers generally consider explorers to be sad characters who are desperately in need of a life. Both groups like to talk, but rarely about the same things, and if they do get together it’s usually because the explorer wants to sound erudite and the socialiser has nothing better to do at the time.
• SOCIALISERS: A case of positive feedback: socialisers can talk to one another on any subject for hours on end, and come back later for more. The more socialisers there are in a game, the more new ones will be attracted to it.
• KILLERS: This is perhaps the most fractious relationship between player group types. the main reason that socialisers tend to despise killers is that they have completely antisocial motives, whereas socialisers have (or like to think they have) a much more friendly and helpful attitude to life. The fact that many socialisers take attacks on their personae personally only compounds their distaste for killers. Increasing the number of killers will decrease the number of socialisers by a much greater degree. Decreasing the number of killers will likewise greatly encourage (or, rather, fail to discourage) socialisers to play the MUD.

Killers V.

• ACHIEVERS: Killers regard achievers as their natural prey. Achievers are good fighters (because they’ve learned the necessary skills against mobiles), but they’re not quite as good as killers, who are more specialised. This gives the “thrill of the chase” which many killers enjoy – an achiever may actually be able to escape, but will usually succumb at some stage, assuming they don’t see sense and quit first. 
• EXPLORERS: Killers tend to leave explorers alone. Not only can explorers be formidable fighters (with many obscure, unexpected tactics at their disposal), but they often don’t fret about being attacked – a fact which is very frustrating for killers. Sometimes, particularly annoying explorers will simply ignore a killer’s attack, and make no attempt whatsoever to defend against it; this is the ultimate in cruelty to killers.
• SOCIALISERS: Killers regard socialisers with undisguised glee. It’s not that socialisers are in any way a challenge, as usually they will be pushovers in combat; rather, socialisers feel a dreadful hurt when attacked (especially if it results in the loss of their persona), and it is this which killers enjoy about it.
• KILLERS: Killers try not to cross the paths of other killers, except in pre-organised challenge matches. Part of the psychology of killers seems to be that they wish to be viewed as somehow superior to other players; being killed by a killer in open play would undermine their reputation, and therefore they avoid risking it Killers will occasionally work in teams, but only as a short-term exercise; they will usually revert to stalking their victims solo in the next session they play. The only effect that killers have on other killers is in reducing the number of potential victims available. This, in theory, should keep the number of killers down, however in practice killers will simply attack less attractive victims instead. It takes a very drastic reduction in the number of players before established killers will decide to stop playing a MUD and move elsewhere, by which time it is usually too late to save the MUD concerned.

Equilibrium

Changing the balance

• Increasing the number of achievers will, over time, increase the number of killers in a typically Malthusian fashion.
• More explorers will lead to a quicker rise through the ranks for achievers, which will tend to encourage them (if not overdone).
  Changing the number of socialisers in a MUD has no effect on the number of achievers.
• Increasing the number of killers will reduce the number of achievers; reducing the killer population will increase the achiever population
• Explorers’ numbers aren’t affected by the presence of achievers.
• The explorer population is not directly affected by the size of the socialiser population.
• The affect of killers on the explorer population is fairly muted, because most explorers don’t particularly care if they get killed (or at least they profess not not). However, if it happens too often then they will become disgruntled, and play less frequently.
• Decreasing it has little effect unless the number of active achievers drops to near zero, in which case new socialisers might find it difficult to break into established conversational groups, and thus decide to take their play elsewhere.
• The number of explorers in a MUD has no effect on the number of socialisers.
• Increasing the number of killers will decrease the number of socialisers by a much greater degree. Decreasing the number of killers will likewise greatly encourage (or, rather, fail to discourage) socialisers to play the MUD.
•  Increasing the number of explorers will slightly decrease the number of killers.
• Increasing the number of socialisers will increase the number of killers, although of course the number of socialisers wouldn’t remain increased for very long if that happened.
• 
  

To sum everything up then we know the reading was about 4 different styles of player which were all released in way to a deck of cards.

Achiever - Diamond, always making goals to rewards themselves with.

Explorer - Spade, exploring the world and finding out new and interesting things

Socialiser - Heart, makes friends and talks to them a lot in game

Killer - Club, purposive causes grief on people to annoy them.

He mentions about balance with these 4 categories, if one of these gets too popular or not popular enough then a game would become unbalanced but lowering the population of one could make another thrive.

Conclusion

While reading this it was easy to see how based around an RPG this was. A lot of the idea's seemed similar to World of Warcraft and I could easily picture what he mean't. I do think though some aspects have not been covered enough and I think there are more than just these 4 categories. 

Other than that I found this reading really useful and learn't much needed information.

Why is chance and skill important components in games and what tools does the designer have at their disposal to deploy these elements?

Notes from: Brenda Braithwaite & Ian Schreiber (2008) Challenges For Games Designers


Chance
Chance is very important in Games Design, designers always use it when developing games and you can find it almost anywhere. Chance is a random event, something as simple as a dice roll or picking a card. These random events create new levels of aesthetics to the game which the user must overcome to win. It gives a feeling of mystery to the game as the next steps are unknown and generally livens up the game. 


Chance adds a random element to the game, something which can not be learnt meaning that the game is a lot less solvable, this generally makes games more interesting as the user may not fully know their next step. Chance gives a much higher probability of a less experienced player winning because of the random events which a more experienced player cannot learn.


Games without chance normally begin the same each round, this ends up being very repetitive and boring because the user can learn the game and play the same each time, for example Tic Tac Toe and the fact it's almost impossible to lose. Adding in chance means that a user must constantly change their strategy to advance in the game, this then adds drama to the game and decisions will become very tense. It all effects the aesthetics of the game itself.


Mechancics of Chance
Dice:

• Many different types of dice with many amounts of numbers on them.
• Multiple dice mean the probability of higher and lower numbers are less common.
• No matter how many times you roll, future rolls will not be effected.

Cards:

• Can easily be shuffled to be randomized.
• Can be played privately so you hide your cards from other players.
• They can represent resources.

Pseudo-Random Number generator:

• Not actually random but generally works for most games.
• Must be careful when creating a game with one, must ensure not bias.

Skill

Strategic skills is very important for games. it enhances decisions and gives the player opportunity to master and develop strategies of the game. This isn't an accidental features the strategy development is something the designer intended. A good skill game will involve an interesting series of tough decisions which will cause the player to use and develop their skills frequently to discover more of the game and earn a big reward. When a player is constantly making these decisions, they enter a state that psychologists called "flow" which is described as an optimal play state which designers work hard to achieve.

Types of decisions

Obvious Decisions

• Can usually be made automatic by the design if it is obvious enough.
• Also, using an obvious decision but adding in time pressure, this changes it from a strategic decision to a test of dexterity

Meaningless Decision

• These are usually more frustrating and annoying than an obvious decisions.
• These decisions have absolutely no effect on the games outcome.

Blind Decisions

• For example, in Roulette, the user has a real decision of what number to bet on. 
• Decisions aren't obvious because players can't see ahead of time.
• More strategic games include these decisions as well.
• By adding more or less information, blind decisions can be changed into other decisions.

Trade-Offs

• Trade-offs occur when a user has depleted their resources and cannot complete their goal.
• None of the choices are clearly right or wrong

Dilemmas

• A dilemma is very similar to a trade-off but only occurs when all available choices will harm the player.
• A special case is the Prisoners Dilemma.

Overall this reading has really helped me understand and develop my ideas about chance and skill and how with a balanced mix you could create a really great working game. 

Group Project Update

This is the map and part of the GUI I have designed for the group project, the map is the first version and can probably be improved over time. The GUI I have gone with stylish bubble buttons which are appealing to the audience. The 4 dotted buttons will be the 4 towers which are available to place, the upgrade button is to upgrade each tower and the destroy button is to remove a tower.

I am now working on more GUI to add to the game, such as a timer, the next wave, health, and score.

MDA: Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics

"MDA: A formal approach to game design and game research" Robin Kunike, Marc LeBlanc, Robert Zubek


MDA has been described as a framework in which we can break down and design games. In the article it describes these tools in detail and how they effect the designers and the audience.

MDA stands for Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics. These are 3 tools which are part of the structure of the game and heavily effect the designer and the audience of the game. In the order they come (MDA) they are looked at differently by designers and the audience.

The designers look at the mechanics of the game first which then leads to the dynamics, but the audience looks at the aesthetics of the game first, they look at how the game feels and what it's like to play. The designer will create and add the components of the game for examples the rules, they will add the representation of the player and a lot more, basically the game atoms. Then these mechanics will effect the dynamics of the game for example the tactical choices which need to be made to pass a certain point. These then create the aesthetics which make the game more real to the player. This is like the competitive urge the player gets or the happiness when the player wins.

With MDA the designer can easily change the aesthetics of the game simply by giving the player fewer choices. For example the game Amnesia: The Dark Decent the user is made to feel very afraid and helpless, mechanics such as using very small very low lit corridors, adding small things which would catch your eye and make you jump and of course the only defence being a sprint key. This all makes the game much more tactical because the user has a lot more chance or being killed, so the user needs to make the tactical choices under the conditions which brings a whole new feeling with the aesthetics.

Understanding the MDA framework I find will be extremely useful in the future, especially with the group project we are working on. We can use the MDA to fine tune the games we create and make them as good as they can get.