I agree in principle with the advice, and understand the good intentions in which it was given. Still, I say create the Gettysburg scenario, because it is kind of early in the game (if you will) to worry about banality in designs. The secret society hook is also a good plot device, and I would hardly reason that the fictional AOE III Campaign makes creating plots around the historic information in your examples commonplace or overdone. My favorite example of what I'm getting at is to ask scenario designers to consider Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and then consider West Side Story, and the Legend of the Hatfield's and McCoy's. All three are very popular stories, and yet they use the same plot originally in Romeo and Juliet. Also interesting is that for the Hatfield and McCoy feud much of the drama was non fictional.
I have a habit of coming up with good storylines and then not being able to make good scenarios of them.
For me this might be a more important concern than what themes and stories are used, and what it comes down to for most scenario types is the game-play.
Stories are not games or game play, but they can be the sole objective, and theme for a scenario design. Stories exist by themselves and have many other mediums that they are merged with or superimposed upon (music, film, books, etc.). Scenario designs need not have any game play at all to be enjoyed. When we merge a story with game play we get the known genres of games that use stories to entice players. Again it's not my intention to delve too deeply into the abstract, that might assert that any human thinking or endeavor is a story; The hum of the computer fans the plot location and the player themselves the character. Instead maybe just to note that B&D, Bloods, and arcade type games do not need a story and a story can actually ruin the game. Although these types of fast paced games often have a theme, it is not a story. Moreover the best stories I've seen in my limited experience in scenario design are in what we call RPG, but for the most part have just been Adventure games with minimal RPG elements. I have yet to see any real character development in scenario game play. I have seen it in the stories though.
Like a good story, good game play is inspired by all the games and game-play which have preceded it, and is part of a kind of cultural tradition that we access through the common criteria known about game play. There are of course technical and mechanical aspects in creating game play, but the same applies to stories, which are not considered a technical creation when experienced.
My alternative or additional advice to new designers is to concentrate on game play.
Although the perceived value of the game play depends greatly on the individual preferences of those who play it, whether the game play is considered good or bad does not depend entirely on personal preferences. There are also objective criteria that can be considered.
1.) Challenge:
Challenge is the conflict between the player (their choices) and the opposition to the goal given in the game-play. Conflict arises naturally from the interaction in a game. The player is actively pursuing some goal. The opposition prevents the player from easily achieving this goal. The opposition can be passive or static, the challenge can be a cognitive or physical challenge. It can be active or dynamic, and purposefully respond to the player, but the challenge is the game play. Active, responsive, purposeful, opposition blocks the player’s attempts to reach his goals, and conflict between the player and the opposition is inevitable. Thus, conflict is fundamental to all game play. For good game-play, the opposition to the goal(s) must be balanced and a closed (complete) system with consistent rules. Good challenges require skill that can be learned and mastered. It is an advantage for a challenge to start quickly and be easy to learn, and the clearer and simpler the rules, the better. However, the more players can influence the course of a game with their choices, the more a player will accept a complex set of rules. Again, the challenge is the game-play.
2.) Balance:
Balance is the set of features to ensure a good level of fairness, challenge, and interest in a game. An equality between players, so that no one has an unfair advantage in multi-player is good game play. In a single player design this equality can be perceptual. Balance is also a match between a player's skill and game difficulty, so that players' achievements are based on skill not luck and advanced players continue to be challenged or reach mastery. A lot of game play has some aspect of luck or chance, but a balanced game has this luck distributed equally and it's effect does not predominate or invalidate skill.
Moreover, good game play has a balance between choices in a game, so that no choice is obviously preferred (over-effective choices), and no choice is useless because it's never chosen (ineffective, and irrelevant choices).
3.) Originality:
Good game play should be original. It should possess elements that have never, or at least not in a particular combination and/or theme, been part of a game before.
4.) Replay Value:
Good game play that makes us want to play again, is akin to originality in game play. An important aspect of this regarding game-play is the course the game play takes and having different possibilities of opposition and/or choices each time it is played.
5.) Tension, and Pace:
Like a good story, good game play must remain interesting, be easy to follow, and should hold some surprise (if you will). Also like a story, game play must create and keep the tension (challenge/conflict). Long periods of low tension should be avoided. Reading complicated and/or confusing rules, or taking a unit across a large map or back through already discovered areas without any new information or experiences is a period of low tension for a player. However, advancing units in a game, and accessing rules is necessary. Therefore it makes sense that timing or what is commonly referred to as "pace" is needed for good game play. That is the best game play will minimize the low tension aspects and will get us back to the high tension game play quicker and perhaps more frequently too. There are exceptions and creative ways to entertain and amuse a player in the periods of low tension game play with other creative devices.
"I take it that this is the Anastasia Scud pines for?" - Epic Commander
"What Ana said. Use sugar and the whip." - aka the Pilot
"I think you will realize the emphasis was on Ana and Cake." - Monk[This message has been edited by AnastasiaKafka (edited 11-08-2005 @ 06:46 AM).]