May 19, 2006
Dry Water in the Uncanny Valley, and more
Been too busy to post, but would like to share a few links:
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Devil’s advocates: Clive Thompson calls interactive narrative “dry water” and a “nonstarter”, noting (via GTxA) that interactive poetry is more prone to success; and Greg Costikyan opines,
To me, the search for the interactive narrative game is one of those things that people have bashed their head against the wall about since the beginning of computer games – and if you want to bash your head against that wall, that’s great. Sooner or later someone will break through the wall, but me, I’ll go do something else.
- Clive again, on next-gen characters’ ever deeper descent into the Uncanny Valley. Reacting to a preview of Indigo Prophecy sequel Heavy Rain,
This wouldn’t be so bad if the designers were actively trying to create some eldritch, sephulchral nightmarescape straight out of Goya’s Black Paintings. But no … they’re trying to create a spunky, cute, realistic girl. God almighty, these people must be stopped. This stuff is hideous beyond description…
- Pontification at Terra Nova on the future of MMOGs.
- In light of Noah’s series of posts on creative systems for narrative: a new book by generative music researcher David Cope, Computer Models of Creativity.
Cope departs from the views expressed by most with his contentions that computer programs can create and that those who do not believe this have probably defined creativity so narrowly that even humans could not be said to create.
- Gamasutra interview with Ralph Baer, “Father of Home Video Games”. President Bush approves, apparently.
- (re)Actor: The First International Conference on Digital Live Art, September 11 in London; cfp due May 26.
(Interestingly, Clive seemed to like our foray into interactive narrative, but didn’t seem to like our attempts at avoiding the Uncanny Valley…!)
May 19th, 2006 at 5:55 pm
David Cope’s Experiments in Musical Intelligence is the Aaron of the computer music world. Like Cohen with Aaron, Cope has been working on EMI for many years (since 1981), and has successfully generated compositions that human beings actually like and that expert judges have found indistinguishable from human compositions in the same style. I’m looking forward to meeting Cope when I move to UCSC and having discussions about AI-based generative art.
May 19th, 2006 at 8:26 pm
The Heavy Rain trailer, which I highly recommend everyone take a look at, shows no gameplay — it’s effectively a cutscene — but is very technically impressive in its realtime visual fidelity. It did make my stomach turn a bit, when I focused too much attention on the eyes.
Even with the Uncanny Valley in full effect, and no hint at all about how this will be interactive, the trailer is certainly visually seductive within a character-based drama domain. Its seductiveness reminds me of Lionhead’s “The Room” demo at the 2005 Game Design Challenge at GDC (which had no characters, but was dreamy and evocative).
Just as modern first person shooters can cause motion sickness, next-gen characters may cause a similar amount of physical queasiness. Weird.
It’s very interesting to think about how to make more abstract-looking characters that are comparably visually compelling. We’re faced with that problem/challenge, if we attempt to make a commercial interactive drama that can compete in the marketplace, and at the same time avoid the uncanny valley.
May 19th, 2006 at 9:30 pm
btw, on Clive’s oxymoronic comment on interactive narrative: like Cope’s comment on computer creativity, I think Clive is using a different, perhaps stricter definition of interactive narrative than we are.
Could even be a bit akin to how when a sophisticated technology gets implemented that used to require human intelligence, it’s not considered AI anymore.
(If I seem to be obsessing about Clive’s comments, it’s because I consider him one of the sharpest and most observant game and technology commentators out there, which has made him the successful journalist he is.)
May 22nd, 2006 at 3:42 pm
[…] , critical theory
I came across the following, written by Clive Thompson, today, via GTxA: For years, people — particularly in the video-ga […]
May 22nd, 2006 at 11:51 pm
Clive Thompson’s article is intelligent and well-written. However, I guess I think that the “valley of the uncanny” is a destination that we should strive for instead of avoiding. Quantic Dream’s previous effort, The Indigo Prophecy, calls realist aesthetics into question from the very first lines of Lucas Kane’s monologue (“we think we see the world as it is, but really we only see the surface”). Realism is only part of what Quantic Dream is aiming for. Magic realism and surrealism are just as much as part of their supernatural thrillers (and the work that Guillaume de Fondaumiere did with Arxel Tribe before joining Quantic Dream, such as Faust: Seven Games of the Soul). The uncanny is an important aspect of those movements. So, while David Cage and his team may not be consciously going for the look of a Goya painting, it’s ok with me if they end up with that appearance. Yea, though I walk throught the valley of the uncanny, I shall fear no evil. :)
July 24th, 2006 at 2:02 am
[…] ened the paper to find a big spread on serious games by Clive Thompson (whose journalism I blogged recently), leading with a screenshot of Peacemaker d […]