Kitsune9tails

I used to love this guy's stuff in Heavy Metal magazine. He will be missed.

In Star Wars Galaxies (as previously mentioned), you could create a character that was a dancer, get missions to go dance in various places, and get experience for dancing there.

You could use this experience to learn new dances.

The dances had healing effects on other players, who could then improve your rate of xp gain by letting the game know they preferred your personal dancing.

The dances you could learn could be strung together in various orders and modified on the fly, so you could dance completely uniquely if you had the skill (or the proper macros), thus getting actual players to prefer your dancing, resulting in more xp, etc.

It was entirely possible to max out your character along some skill trees via nothing but dancing and being a dancer.

No combat required.

Any number of modern MMOs could use a similar system to populate a world with crafters and various service professions and create an environment with no combat, but plenty of interaction, competition and conflict.

But not easily, and why not have combat also?

Essentially, what I would like to see are a few different 'types' of conversational options.

INFO OPTIONS: This is where the NPC (or the mission) has a deep personality and backstory, and I have conversational options where I can try to find out more of their backstory.

Example 1: While interacting with the Millionaire Playboy, I have a series of straightforward options that take me straight to the mission, but I can also follow an optional line of questioning (perhaps outlined in its' own color?) that leads me to suspect that he may moonlight as some sort of costumed detective. For bonus points, doing so changes a minor variable or reward in the mission to something equivalent but different, like maybe you are armed with a 'Call Chiropteran Detective' temp power instead of a 'Call PPD' temp Power.

Example 2: I have the option to skip most of the interaction and just retreive the glowing cube from the opposing faction. However, I can also question the NPC about the cube and find out that it contains a nascent universe and can grant a holder nearly unlimited power if it chooses to do so. Rewared for doing so: recapturing the Universe Cube grants you a temp power instead of XP.

NPC INTERACTIONS: It also includes cases where they have quirks and I can choose to interact with those quirks in a variety of ways. The important thing here is keeping the interactions vague or varied enough that I can stay 'in character'. Choosing whether or not to High Five Dean MacArthur is perfect (it's basically a yes or no, I can fill in my own attitude, expression, explanations, etc).

Other examples might be choosing to 'accept' 'gently rebuff' or 'forcefully object' when my Contact threatens me. Alternatively, a choice to 'accept' 'reject' or 'haggle' (which could randomly choose between accept and reject).

Here's an important question:

How can I get McGann Big Finish episodes onto my Android OS phone?

Eh, give it a name.

I personally say that to the extent that the game allows me to alter the environment, that is the extent to which it is a sandbox. Can I build a castle? Can I build castle defenders? Can I assault the castle I built with antagonists? etc

A game is Open World to the extent that I can ignore the Main Quest (supposing there is one) and do what I want within the world itself. If I answer the ringing phone, I get assigned missions, but I can ignore it to go wandering across the world beating people up and advancing my character without locking myself out of the main quest. Note that having the Main Quest lock out is not a dealbreaker, it just makes the game LESS Open World.

To relate this back to the OP:

Various missions can and should emphasize various levels of dialogue interactivity based on the mission. That said, if you are going to give me a choice, please make me beleive it is a choice.

And if you are going to give me a choice, I am indeed in the camp that prefers the choice be 'vague' enough that I can use my own made up internal 'voice' for my character.

I am not sure about the non-canon co-op game Book of Memories for the Vita (which I don't own), but the other two are definitely things I want, especially the remastered Collection.

Apparently, the Collection is just 2 & 3 however; I guess Shattered Memories (for the Wii) is the closest we'll get to a remake/remastering of one.

They redid all of the voice work, but apparently you will be able to choose between voice tracks in case you preferred the originals.

I am stoked!

...I see that place.

heh, Effectively, Lucas went back in time and changed history. But now nearly everyone that lived through the original event remembers both histories, and they prefer the one in which Han shot first.

...there's a Doctor Who episode in there somewhere...

I have a good reason for the circumstances, so no worries.

For the initial story it is best if jane stays a jane doe for a couple months or so.

If I end up committing trilogy I may or may not need her to remain thoroughly mysterious. Even if she is identified she will still likely have amnesia. Assuming she even survives the horror stuff.

Next question. I would like a nurse from the hospital to take her in as a roomie. Is that unbelievwble? Illegal?

I gather feom the above that her hospital stay will a week minimum up to a couple weeks tops if she presents no or few symptoms.

Footprints will likely be partial due to heavy calluses consistent with a lot of barefoot actvity.
Missing persons reports are as normal for a big city.

Blood toxucology shows recent exposure to "she ought to be dead" levels of a neural paralytic. This could account for the brain damage, I am guessing.

The dental work once traced would lead to an extremely wealthy and uncooperative surgeon who is known, Er, alleged to be in the pocket of organized crime.

On the subject of social security. Per Wikipedia there is a guy known as 'benjaman k' who was found behind a burger king 6 years ago. He has yet to be assigned a number and is still unidentified and unable to legally work and still homeless.

I am on my phone at work. Apologies for brevity and delays.

No static or electrical wierdness.

Her mannerisms are a bit off in that other than having a snarky sense of blqck humor, she seeme too calm ajd rational for a person in her situation.

Normal pulse and temp.

Her clothes are all branr new with normal tags.

The world is somewhere between mystery men and the grudge and unbreakable in terms of wierdness. You can't call up a friendly psychic for a reliable believable reading, but the cops in a big city might employ someone to help when they are stumpe on an important case.
There are a few spandex wearing do gooders, as in real life, but some ro have surprising levels of competence. A cop of emergency worker with more than a decade of service has probably seen traumqtising things they cqnnot explain.

She has fairly poor eyesight and very good relexes.

All of her teeth are implants a few weeks old. Har canines are a little longer and very sharp. Looks like hollywood quality high dollar work.

Okay let's roleplay a little.

This is from my phone, so please cut slack on formatting.

She has no sign of concussion or recent injuries.
She asks to be checked for sexual assault which shows that she us a virgin.
She has a navel. No wing scars though.
Her fingerprints are in fact missing. Looks like someone removed them with acid weeks ago.
Cat scan shows signs of fairly extensive brain damage but no obvious cause. She does not show any obvious sign of mental impairment, in fact she seems unusually bright.

She is hungry, but no specific wired cravings per se. She does mention that the smell or sight of blood makes her hungrier. She thinks this might be wierd but is not sure.

Please continue.

The logical extreme of your theory being that all beings that exist everywhere are expressions of the only soul that exists.

Telepathy? Precognution? Claurvoyance? All memory.

Here is the scenario:

A young woman, apparently in her 20s-30s, normally dressed, with no apparent injuries, enters a hospital emergency room one morning.

She is an albino.

She writes her name on the signup sheet as "Jane Doe".

It being a big city hospital, she waits a few hours for her turn, and when it comes up, very calmly reports that she has no memories beyond waking up this morning in a hotel room where she had paid with cash and registered as "Jane Doe" the previous night.

She has less than $10 on her and no identification.

What happens next?

EDIT: I am writing a horror story that may one day become part of a novel or webcomic or something: this is part of the research. No money will change hands based on replies to this thread, but if there are acknowledgements some day, names can appear in those.

Cue Arnold Shwarzenegger getting punched out by Jack Slater.

I hope you're wrong, since I am currently into writing horror stories.

Quite frequently a story (or any work of art, really) can be analyzed, praised and condemned for possessing elements that the author did not intend.

For instance, it is pretty much a given that Frank Baum did not intend The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to sync up with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, nor is vice versa likely (and to what extent they sync is debatable), yet many people see that in there.

In another example, comic books were nearly banned entirely around the Mc Carthy era for storytelling elements that were seen as a literal and literary danger to society.

Many people see romantic subtext between characters in a work that the author never intended (or did they), and the motivations of good and bad guys alike can have many interpretations that utterly change the meaning of a story.

So my question is: if a large volume or percentage of readers see an element of a story that is in contrast to or orthogonal to the author's intent (or deliberately left vague), is it possible that the element exists in the story regardless of authorial canon?

or to put it another way,

Can the story itself "decide" to contain elements regardless of authorial intent?

For your consideration:

- Whether Han shot first; Midichlorians
- Superman and his relationship to the Ubermensch
- Zombie Apocalypse movies...survival horror or social commentary?

Related:

Does each version of a piece of art exist in its' own universe? For instance should Movie!Daredevil even try to emulate Comic!Daredevil, or are they isolated from each other from the get go? Is Superman Returns a sequel, or not?

All the comic really 'explains' is that mass effect has real choices that can affect the outcome of the current game and subsequent games. The rest is just cuteness and a really shallow plot synopsis.

Comic wins just for having a Krogan jump out from behind a lamp post and yell "OI!" at a couple of schoolgirls.

Wow.

I would not advise riding that after watching the Speeder Bike or Pod Racing scenes from Star Wars, hee hee.

Seriously impressed.

Here's the thing:

If Batman were to register as a hero in Paragon City, he could legitimately check 'Natural' or 'Tech' on the little application form.

Since he doesn't normally use magic enhancers, he would probably go with 'Tech'.

Or he would write in "Batman", the annoyed intern would look at that and file him as 'Mutant", and he would be forced to facepalm.