What you don't know does matter

One of the things that many player never realise is how much time and effort goes into creating the things that players never see. All the things that are necessary in order to make a game what it ultimately becomes. All the drafts, all the planning, all the scrapped ideas, all the background information that never makes it into the game but are there are significant driving forces and inspiration behind the final experience the player receives. I'd hope that regular readers of the blog would have a greater understanding of that due to my posts - if they didn't possess that knowledge already.

I'll pick a specific example for this point, namely characters. Most characters within video games will have fairly lengthy backstories created by the developers. This is not just RPGs, even though by necessity they tend to revolve more around fully developed characters and are thus more likely to have larger character profiles. These character biographies provide the game developers with a means to guide so many aspects of that character, from their appearance, their actions, their speech, mannerisms... not just "many" aspects - every aspect. Yet the chances are that the player may never see the information contained in that profile, or at least not in that form. It will be doled out in little bits and pieces, directly and indirectly as the game proceeds until the player builds up the full picture of that character.

Do PCs ever get paranoid about others reading their diary?

This raises a question of how much does the designer really need to force on the player? I'm not simply talking about the division of dialogue/cinematic versus optional information the player can choose to read or not read, but the choice of whether certain information should be included in the game at all. Do the players really need to be told everything? Can game designers leave some facts and history untold (or in some cases, amibiguous) to allow players to "fill in the blanks" and add in their own spin or thoughts on the idea? Or is this in fact a great design decision, allowing the players room for discussion and interpretation and to create their "own version" of the world of the game that they played?

As a reference, I'm going to mention not a game, but a movie. Take the "cult classic" Donnie Darko. Upon finishing, the viewers are left with a myriad of questions as to what really happened and the events and even the knowledge of some of the characters and hence their intentions. There were many differing opinions and many people had their own take on the story. Some time later, a director's cut was released, containing a lot more information and "filling in" many of those holes that caused the ambiguity or discussion. Even for those who were "right", the movie was far less interesting or worthy of discussion.

Anyone for popcorn?

I'm not advocating giant plot holes or characters that seemingly lack any motivation whatsoever. I'm merely saying that players don't need to be privy to everything that happens in the lives of the characters they meet in games. Some degree of mystique is healthy and creates intrigue.

PS This marks my 50th post on this blog. I hope that my thoughts have proven interesting thus far, and that I'm able to provide entertaining and thought provoking posts in the future.