Libertarian/Moral Video Games? Cool Gamasutra Article by Reid Kimball! Infusing Games with a Moral Premise / Some Prior Art/Patents
county line films
Premise
Cool Gamasutra Article by Reid Kimball! Infusing Games with a Moral
Premise
[url]http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/ReidKimball/20090706/2235/
Infusing_Games_with_a_Moral_Premise.php[/url]
Hello Reid Kimball! I cited both Dr. Martin Luther King and Stanley D.
Williams', Ph.D. “Moral Premise” in my 2005/2006/2007/2008 patents--
would be awesome if you could cite/link to some of the prior art in
your article! Thanks so much! I hope you enjoy reading through some of
my work!
If you google "moral premise video game" [url]http://www.google.com/
search?hl=en&q=moral+premise+video+game&aq=f&oq=&aqi=[/url] , you will
find my work!
[url]http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=moral+premise
+videogame&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g%3Ap1[/url]
[url]http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2007/0087798.html[/url]">
[url]http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=ee-jAAAAEBAJ&dq=Morality
+system+and+metho[/url]
d+for+video+game:+system+and+method
[url]http://www.google.com/patents?
id=aAuzAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4&dq=exalte[/url]
d&as_psra=1&as_psra=1
In the ABSTRACT of the application "Morality system and method for
video game: system and method for creating story, deeper meaning and
emotions, enhanced characters and AI, and dramatic art" , [url]
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2007/0087798.html[/url] (filed
2005/2006) I cite the" moral premise."
"Abstract :A video game and game system incorporating a game
character's morality level that is affected by game occurrences such
as moral, amoral, or immoral choices in an epic story's deeper
context. The character's morality level affects the game's
environment. Such a feedback system based on MORAL PREMISES provides
an efficient means to enhance and deepen game play, as a sensible,
realistic, meaningful, profound, and epic story naturally emerges. The
measurement of moral choices will allow a player's soul to be rendered
upon the screen in cinematic action paralleling internal dramatic
action, thus providing the dramatic elements of classic literature and
film. The presentation of moral choices in the game, based upon moral
premises, will allow plot points that result in character arcs,
romantic relationships, exalted game play, and epic story. Moral
choices will lead to overall success, while immoral or amoral choices
will lead to overall failure."
A couple weeks back they cited my work (both patents) at neogaf:
[url]http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=366448[/url]
[url]http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3143589[/
url]
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed.
Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-
evident." --Arthur Schopenhauer
The neogaf thread/my work were discussed here @ gamasutra:
[url]http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4061/dramatic_play.php[/
url]
Morality system and method for video game: system and method for
creating story, deeper meaning and emotions, enhanced characters and
AI, and dramatic art in video game (2005/2006)
SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CREATING EXALTED VIDEO GAMES AND VIRTUAL
REALITIES WHEREIN IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES (2007/2008)
[url]http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?
threadid=3143589&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1[/url]
[url]http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2007/0087798.html[/url]">
From the 2005/2006 (Prov. (2005), Filing Date:10/12/2006 ) patent
application (please forgive my copying and pasting this text, but it
probably shlould have been cited in the article):
[quote]
In the 2007 Guide to Making Movies published by Movie Maker Magazine ,
Stanley D. Williams writes, “All the star power in the world can't
help a film lacking a moral premise . . . Since the first stories were
ever told, only one thing has ever consistently and successfully
connected the storyteller with his or her audience: The Moral
Premise.” So too is it that all the processing power and pixel counts
in the world can't add to the story. When considering the dramatic
arts in his Poetics , Aristotle ranked story first and spectacle
second to last. Thus video games and a lot of contemporary movies fall
short of exalting, engaging entertainment, as does video game AI which
never contemplates, nor includes, nor embodies, nor seeks to embody,
nor manifests a moral premise.
Stanley D. Williams goes on to say in Movie Maker Magazine , “On
paper, the Moral Premise is a once-sentence description of the
physical and psychological arcs of a movie's main characters. The
Moral Premise focuses the storytelling in one direction and
inextricably links the main characters' motivations with their
physical action.”
So it is that by adapting an entity that forms the foundation of
successful movies, video games may reach a brand new plateau. Within
the context provided by morality, and more specifically, within the
context provided by a moral meter, and moral premise, the character's
physical actions in a game take on a deeper meaning, as the physical
actions are really manifesting the internal soul, just as they do in
movies.
Stanley D. Williams goes on to say in Singular Sensation in the Guide
to Making Movies 2007 published by Movie Maker Magazine , “In order
for a story to be successful and connect with its audience, it must
present evidence towards some conclusion. In the courtroom, every
piece of evidence, like the final conclusion, is called ‘a premise.’
In a story, individual scenes are like the pieces of evidence or
premises. As the scenes pile up, the story leads us to the character's
physical climax, and, more importantly, to a psychological or moral
conclusion. It is this moral conclusion, or premise, that drives
everything physical that we see on the screen.”
The dramatic device of a “moral premise,” when introduced into video
games in a manner disclosed in this present invention, will endow
video games with epic storytelling capabilities. So it is that deeper
story may be gained by incorporating the notion of morality in video
games in both subtle and not-so-subtle manners, including presenting
players with moral choices, altering the player's morality level based
on their choices, altering the surrounding character's morality levels
based on the first player's choices and other players choices, and
having devils and demons, and angels and gods, intervene to help or
hurt the character based on their morality levels.
So it is that classical literature might be rendered in the realm of
video games. And so it is that deeper, more exalting games, capturing
that elusive Holy Grail of “storytelling in video games,” that has
eluded so many experts for so long.
Furthermore, the environment will change in accordance with the
character's actions, creating even deeper game play. The environment
could include gods and angels and other in-game characters which would
react positively or negatively to the player's moral or immoral
choices and moral actions. For instance, the gods and angels could
help the player with tips, guidance, and spiritual help when the
player was making the right choices. Alternatively, they could abandon
and desert the player when the player was doing immoral things, and
the player would end up in a meaningless, open-ended game. The
environment could include demons and devils which would seek to impede
or hurt the player's progress, when they player strayed from the
straight and narrow via immoral or amoral choices. So it is that the
struggle between virtue and vice in the player's soul could be
rendered on the screen, and the deeper dramatic action could inspire
the physical action, which in turn would exalt the spirit in deeper,
meaningful entertainment.
Stanley D. Williams goes on to say in Singular Sensation in The Guide
to Making Movies 2007 published by Movie Maker Magazine , “For your
story to be accepted by mainstream audiences, your Moral Premise must
be true and consistent with natural law—taking everything from
nature's law of gravity to a human being's feelings of injustice into
consideration.”
Mr. Williams is talking about movies, and this present invention is
novel in that takes Mr. Williams' expert advice and applies it to
video games in a novel manner, fostering unexpected and previously
unseen results, including deeper story in video games, augmented
markets for video games, better videogaming experiences, and a brand
new realm of videogames capable of epic storytelling, moral education,
and eternal art.
An embodiment of present invention would include a Moral Premise that
is true and consistent with natural law, based on the Bible, Dante's
Inferno, and other works of literature espousing and rewarding moral
behavior in this open-ended world. Just as realistic physical action
demands a realistic physics engine grounded in classical physics,
realistic emotion and storytelling demands a game engine grounded in
classical literature.
The present invention surpasses prior art such as Sanity system for
video game described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,935,954, which is described
as, “A video game and game system incorporating a game character's
sanity level that is affected by occurrences in the game such as
encountering a game creature or gruesome situation. A character's
sanity level is modified by an amount determined based on a character
reaction to the occurrence such as taking a rest or slowing game
progress and/or an amount of character preparation. That is, if a
character is prepared for the particular occurrence, the occurrence
may have little or no affect on the character's sanity level. As the
character's sanity level decreases, game play is effected such as by
controlling game effects, audio effects, creating hallucinations and
the like. In this context. the same game can be played differently
each time it is played.”
While the presence of a sanity level in U.S. Pat. No. 6,935,954 leads
to varied and interesting gameplay, the presence of a morality level
in the present invention leads to epic storytelling, more emotionally-
involving game play, deeper characters, and games that can achieve
classical art on a spiritual level. The present invention surpasses in
U.S. Pat. No. 6,935,954 in numerous ways, including expanded markets
and audiences for video games, increased use of video games in
academia, enhanced brands for video games, and novel and enhanced game
play in current RPGs and FPSs and MMORPGs that choose to adapt the
novel approaches of the present invention.
The present invention can lead to a renaissance in video games and
usher in a brand new era of deeper and more exalting video games with
deeper storytelling and a heightened cinematic experience.
So far video games have failed to incorporate a moral level ever in a
subtle manner or an explicit manner. Thus the prior art lacks
emotionally-engaging stories and “soul.”
Nowhere at Chris Crawford's storytronics.com website, nor anywhere in
his books, nor patents, nor any of his other prior art, does he
mention the central significance of a Moral Premise in storytelling in
the realm of video games. Nowhere at Chris Crawford's storytronics.com
website, nor anywhere in his books, nor patents, nor any of his other
prior art, does he mention the possibility and advantages of the
notion of morality and a moral level meter in the realm of video
games. Nowhere in Chris Crawford's prior art, nor in any other prior
art, is this present system and method for morality in video games
presented. The present invention will have far-reaching effects
throughout the industry, as it can launch both a renaissance and a
revolution.
Because game developers have been unable to incorporate morality in
video games on a deep, profound, realistic level, they have fallen
short in creating memorable characters, deeper emotional involvement,
and superior, more realistic game play. Because the moral sense is
intrinsic to humanity's reality, only games with higher moral contexts
can approach reality, thereby offering richer game play experiences.
In all the leading discussions on storytelling in games, and in all
prior art, no mention is made of the central significance of morality
to storytelling—not even in books, movies, film, and literature—and
certainly not in the realm of video games.
This invention, by offering a world which is wed to the character's
moral behavior, offers a unique and superior game play experience.
This invention may achieves this in the following manner—the
protagonist needs the help of a woman to accomplish his goal. By
behaving in a moral manner, he draws her closer. By behaving in an
immoral manner, he pushes her away.
[/quote]
----http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2007/0087798.html"> [url]http://
www.freepatentsonline.com/y2007/0087798.html[/url]">
--I also cite that patent in this patent: [url]http://www.faqs.org/
patents/app/20090017886[/url]
[quote]0008]The present invention will foster a new era of exalted
gaming in multiple formats and forms, including RPGs, FPS, an MMORPGs,
and too, it would provide enhanced means for bringing successful films
and dramatic art to life in the realm of video games and gaming.
Producers have failed time and again to translate movies into games
and games into movies, and that is because they do not comprehend nor
grasp the secret--the classical ideals which have consequences and the
simple moral premise must be woven into the fabric of games at very
level. For the classical ideals are the most efficient and natural and
simple way to unite the plot and the subplot, the dramatic action and
physical action, the love interest and the battle. Most fanboy
producers, who came of age in a declining fiatocracy, are used to
arrogance, hypes, and doublespeak as methods and means for producing
movies, which ultimately suck. So it is that this present invention
would exalt and foster novel video games that would in turn exalt and
foster a cultural renaissance; wherein one would be able to battle the
snarky fiatocracy producers head-on, both in the context game and
beyond it, finally avenging all the innocent civilians, prostitutes,
children, cops, and unborn who have been killed by the fiatocracy's
fanboys, while the artist's natural rights have been dismantled and
debauched, and the home and family destroyed along with the currency.
So often it is that the poet and hero know not what they do, and this
game humbles itself before the epic poets, prophets, and heroes of all
ages; even as Socrates' ultimately, and reluctantly humbled himself
before Homer, who was exalted by Aristotle. This patent humbles itself
before the secret of epic storytelling. This patent does not drive
down Sunset in a Ferrari, as fanboys and failed producers do,
screaming and hyping their lackluster creations--lackluster movies
based on video games, or lackluster video games based on movies--as
exalted art; but rather this invention simply states that all epic
story derives for living for, speaking for, and sometimes dying for
higher ideals. Such is the way it has ever been, and will always be;
and this invention will exalt a higher realm of games and gaming by
returning this central tenet to modern art, leading with Character and
Plot based on Virtue as did Aristotle, and introducing all these
soulful, sacred, moral agents in the realm of video games.
0022]The present invention will allow us to imagine and exalt a game
wherein AI that exalted the classical moral premise in Plot and
Character--that allowed the first person player to exalt in Honor and
Integrity. Imagine an FPS that rendered the archetypal masculine and
feminine--the Odysseus and Penelope, the Dante and Beatrice, the
Hamlet and Ophelia--and like Zeus, saw to it that only those who
treated strangers and beggars with common decency and respect ever
prevailed. Imagine a video game that wore black like Johnny Cash:
[0023]I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, [0024]Livin'
in the hopeless, hungry side of town, [0025]I wear it for the prisoner
who has long paid for his crime, [0026]But is there because he's a
victim of the times. [0027]I wear the black for those who never read,
[0028]Or listened to the words that Jesus said, [0029]About the road
to happiness through love and charity, [0030]Why, you'd think He's
talking straight to you and me.--Johnny Cash--The Man in Black . . .
FIELD OF INVENTION
[0925]Opportunity abounds to create video games with souls, deep
intellect, and exalted spirits by endowing them with that which
renders mankind unique and exalts his greater heroes--ideas and
ideals. From dialogue, action, and world trees that branch according
to the profound ideas that are expressed, or remain unspoken, to the
moral premise, to ideas having consequences, to a vampire or zombie
game wherein the viruses are ideas, opportunity abounds to exalt video
games with superior gameplay. As every single work of classic
literature centers about a moral premise and classical ideals, and the
moral Character of the protagonist, from Hamlet, to Odysseus, to
Dante, to Jesus, to Socrates is founded upon ideas; endowing games
with ideas that have consequences and a moral premise will result in
games that achieve higher art.
[/quote]
[url]http://libertariangames.blogspot.com[/url]
[url]http://gold45revolver.com[/url]
Best,
Dr. E :)
p.s. I also mention "moral premise" in the final claim: "
19. A video game system including a control processor for playing a
video game including a game character controlled by a player, the
video game system comprising means for setting a morality level of the
game character; means for presenting the game character with choices
of moral consequence, based on moral premises, and requiring moral
considerations, said choices becoming plot points means for modifying
the morality level of the game character during game play according to
occurrences in the game and choices made by the game character,
wherein a modifying amount is determined based on the morality,
amorality, or immorality of a character's choice; and means for
controlling game play according to the morality level of the game
character, game play being controlled at least by varying game effects
and the actions of other characters in the environment according to
the game character's morality level. " --http://
www.freepatentsonline.com/y2007/0087798.html"> [url]http://
www.freepatentsonline.com/y2007/0087798.html[/url]">
Thanks in advance for the citation!
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3143589
(almost 20,000 views!)
http://www.onelastcontinue.com/9136/vampire-zombie-communist-hookers-patent-it/
This is the greatest videogame patent I've ever read:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=366448
Video Game Idea of the Century!
http://forum.teamxbox.com/showthread.php?t=623861&page=2
Imagine if we built the game!
Contact me at: drel...@gmail.com, http://twitter.com/45surf,
http://facebook.com/elliot.mcgucken
Getting the word out is just as important as creating new
technologies,.
1) The new technology has been created/patented
2) The word is getting out
3) Those who build the game will get $$$$$ !
This would be huge for garage games!
Let em know if you want to be a part of the team!
In Russia!
[url]http://ded-maxim.livejournal.com/337627.html[/url]
@NEOGAF:
[url]http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=366448[/url]
@TWITTER
[url]http://www.google.com/search?q=%22exalted+video+games
%22+site:twitter.com&hl=en&filter=0[/url]
[url]http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22video+game+patent%22+site
%3Atwitter.com&aq=f&oq=&aqi=[/url]
@GAMASUTRA:
[url]http://www.google.com/search?q=%22exalted+video+games
%22+site:gamasutra.com&hl=en&filter=0[/url]
@WORDPRESS:
[url]http://www.google.com/search?q=%22exalted+video+games
%22+site:wordpress.com&hl=en&filter=0[/url]
@LIVEJOURNAL:
HOPEFULLY THE CRAZIEST THING YOU WILL READ ALL DAY
May 27th, 16:42
What happens when a schizophrenic libertarian has an idea for a video
game? He files a 100-page patent for it, of course.
[url]http://steffo42.livejournal.com/24420.html[/url]
a fallout 3 mod based on this shit would be boss as fuck."
"What’s scary, for me, is that this might be exactly what gamers
want." --onelastcontinue.com
[url]http://www.onelastcontinue.com/9136/vampire-zombie-communist-
hookers-patent-it/[/url]
@SIMDYNASTY: "I didn't bother reading it, but my friend (who found it)
said "did you notice he quotes the Declaration of Independence, Gandhi
and then talks about Clint Eastwood and Eminem?"" --simdynasty.com
"That thing is the proverbial gift that keeps on giving." --
simdynasty.com
"Fuck! I actually have to come back and read this later as it will
take too long right now. Fucking hell though!"
@TWITTER: Wow! Most amazing videogame patent ever. Save the earth from
communism by not shooting the hooker! 120page WIN [url]http://
tinyurl.com/savehooker[/url] --http://twitter.com/DenUngeHerrHolm
a fallout 3 mod based on this s@#$ would be boss as f@#$."
"What’s scary, for me, is that this might be exactly what gamers
want." --onelastcontinue.com
[url]www.onelastcontinue.com/9136/vampire-zombie-communist-hookers-
patent-it/[/url]
@SIMDYNASTY: "I didn't bother reading it, but my friend (who found it)
said "did you notice he quotes the Declaration of Independence, Gandhi
and then talks about Clint Eastwood and Eminem?"" --simdynasty.com
"That thing is the proverbial gift that keeps on giving." --
simdynasty.com
"F@#@#! I actually have to come back and read this later as it will
take too long right now. F@#$ing hell though!"
@TWITTER: Wow! Most amazing videogame patent ever. Save the earth from
communism by not shooting the hooker! 120page WIN tinyurl.com/
savehooker --http://twitter.com/DenUngeHerrHolm
Finally, Dr. MArtin Luther King Jr. in a claim!
SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CREATING EXALTED VIDEO GAMES AND VIRTUAL
REALITIES WHEREIN IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
"11. The method in claim 1 where the character can battle for said
ideas that are based upon classical moral and economic principles of
famous philosophers, prophets, poets, statesmen, and economists
including Plato, Moses, Jesus, Gandhi Sun Tzu, Buda, Jefferson,
Aristotle, F. A. Hayek, Martin Luther King Jr., Homer, Ludwig Von
Mises, Adam Smith, and others, and witness the consequences of both
their success and failure of their battle, as the consequences are
rendered in the game's physical world."
ZerkonXXXX
> :A video game and game system incorporating a game ...
publisher's morality which comes down to a right thing (reward) and a
wrong thing... as someone else sees right thing and wrong. Here, as
some one else wants you to see right and wrong.
Conditioned response.
Most games carry moral sense. Zelda/Ocarina, for instance, has a strong
moral sense as does all the FPS's. The act of gaming itself can hold a
moral sense. One makes a moral choice by just playing, any game.
"I will now spend my time and play. Is there something else I should be
doing?" Even NOT asking this question is a moral choice.