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Yoko Taro’s “Scenario Writing & Manipulating the Heart of Human” Presentation

Written by Yoko Taro (Director of NieR Automata), Translated by me

The most important thing in making game design is “imagining” . The world consists of 2 things, “I” in the center and “Others” around it. A collection of “Others” is the rest of the world.

The act of expressing and manipulate the heart of others is like throwing stones to someone’s sea of mind, making ripples. However, since I don’t know the heart of others, I need to “imagine” what the ripple looks like.

Here’s a picture searched with the keyword “sexy”. Some people think that this is sexy, but perhaps there are a lot of exposures and some people might feel uncomfortable. Some people might also think that it’s strange to wears flashy outfit when swimming. [TL Note: The original presentation had a more flashy picture, but we changed it here so it could be more SFW]

A picture can cause a different kind of ripples in the hearts of others. And it’s important to imagine this. To the utmost, a kind of belief thinking “a girl in swimsuit is sexy” is not an imagination but a delusion.

However, the ripples that arise in the hearts of others can be manipulated. Here’s a picture of cute kittens. Some people might think that they’re cute and adorable. But for the people that have an allergy to a cat might afraid of them. Then here is when I put the caption “Abused and abandoned kittens”. the atmosphere of the photograph is changed so much.

With this, a lot of people will feel sorry for the kitten on the photograph. If that was a picture of a masculine man they probably would not think that way. Analyzing this, if there’re weak things being put in an unreasonable circumstances, people will think that it’s a poor thing. In another word, you can manipulate others’ minds by attaching captions in it.

When there’re two people. One thinks “Anime is cool” and the other thinks that “Anime is awful”, the correct answer is “Both are correct”. As others’ minds are varied and it is impossible target everyone, a mass or a niche strategy must be considered carefully. In addition, if you want to do something unique, you must understand the standards.

Based on above’s analysis, it is necessary for creators to know what their battlefield is. And after you fully understand the battlefield, then “You can make a Mess of it”.

More Yoko Taro Presentation: Gun Soccer - Soccer + FPS that connected to Drakengard / NieR Lore

#cowboy times

kaijuborn

“Games make us happy because they are hard work that we choose for ourselves, and it turns out almost nothing makes us happier than good, hard work. We don’t normally think of games as hard work. After all, we play games, and we’ve been taught to think of play as the very opposite of work. But nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, as Brian Sutton-Smith, a leading psychologist of play once said, “The opposite of play isn’t work. It’s depression.” When we’re depressed, according to the clinical definition, we suffer two things: a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity. If we were to reverse these two traits we’d get something like this: an optimistic sense of our own capabilities and an invigorating rush of activity. There’s no clinical psychological term that describes this positive condition. But it’s a perfect description of the emotional state of gameplay. A game is an opportunity to focus our energy, with relentless optimism, at something we’re good at (or getting better at) and enjoy. In other words, gameplay is the direct emotional opposite of depression.”

—

Reality is Broken, by Jane McGonigal

This book is fantastic and well worth reading even if you only play games and aren’t interested in making them. It’s about how games make us better and how they can change the world, by making it more gamelike and thus more motivating and rewarding.

You can also watch her TED talk about the same subject here!

#cowboy times