Author: Eric

Eliza Effect

While I was unaware of the term Eliza effect, I was familiar with the boom/bust of AI discussions when I began to read this chapter. I was most intrigued by the examples of those who, after interacting with the system for time sufficient enough to realize it’s limitations and break it down, choose to play into the system’s processes and willfully suspend (even further) disbelief; a look into the psyche of those people. I was also surprised by, but agree with, the author’s statement that the audience’s belief in the system’s intelligence comes from their own interpretation and expectation, not from the system’s complexity; ie. A simpler system (yes/no answer) provides the audience to fill in the gap and attribute more to the system… ironic, as we often look at advancements in AI beginning with more complex technology.

 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

Every speaker is given a uniqueness based on their language: clean and clinical, dialectic and conversational. I love the slight characterization that the interviewer attributes to themselves by their noting of the interviewee’s finger flexions in B.I. #48. It is especially funny when he comments on their “increasingly annoying” quality. Overall: an interesting look into the inner-workings of the male mind as it relates to (various) interactions with the female (with the exception of #42, who mentions his father’s work and discusses the disgusting quality of the ‘bare and uncovered’ male in a restroom).

https://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/emackie/NachtStory.html

Blanch

Idea: The game deals with a man who has been lost while climbing a snowy peak, the person hiking the mountain to find him, and their partner at base camp who has to wait till both, one, or neither return. It takes the third-person perspective and jumps between character and time-in-story randomly. The choices to make will not be explicit actions such as “grab the ledge” but will be more general, such as “push forward today” or “give up hope.” While it is not told in order, responses to situations presented/choices do affect the outcome of the story (I’m considering even to allow the player to decide when the stranded hiker dies, regardless of the efforts of the one trying to find him).

Paragraph 1: He grabs hold again, and lets out a grunt of frustration. A frustration filled with rage against the cold and a refusal to let it win. As he crashes the axe into the ice above him, he is counting. “Did he take four, or five…. Four or five?” Struggling to remember how many O₂ tank were still there when he left.

• >> Let’s hope it was five.
• >> Damnit… It might have been four.

Choices:

• A blizzard has passed, and the sky is clear. Do you move today and risk being caught in another one, or play it safe?
• Waiting at base camp, do you continue to worry, or preoccupy your mind with menial tasks?
• On top of the mountain, do you give up and allow yourself to die?
• Do you bring your friend’s body or leave him?
• Do you start trying to hike down despite having two broken legs?
• Do you send out a distress call from camp requesting emergency assistance? Will they make it in time?

Nacht

Idea: You play the role of the night and some of his ‘children’ or facets: loneliness, complacency, and rest. As these three personified beings you choose who you will attach yourself to (multiple people, possibly), and how you will affect them. The game will be told in second person (referring to ‘you’ the player), but will not explain who or what you are; it will only say what you observe and allow you the choice of how to react.

Paragraph 1: Lights go on. Lights go off. People stroll, dogs bark, cars screech to halts. As you descend, a chill of a breeze passes, and the clouds gather into masses of gray. The high crescent above gives you the feeling that there is much to be done.

• >>A man stumbles alone down a narrow street
• >>A well-to-do business woman drives home, a detached stare on her face
• >>A student stares intently at his desk full of papers and books

Choices:

• Do you lull one into a sleep before their work is done?
• Do you remind one of the friend they have turned away from
• Do you give one new motivation in the day-to-day struggle?
• Do you give peace to the one trying desperately to sleep
• Do you fill one with hope of finding a companion?

This is an image (not my own) from: http://english.sina.com/technology/p/2008/1201/201958.html

It’s interesting to think of the way they describe the behavior of a rhizome as possible nuances of a story; that it doesn’t have ‘points,’ rather lines that continually intersect; that it can shatter and reform along another line; that it can be augmented in any way and remain itself; having multiple entryways; that it has no leading force or “General.”

The short account of Dr. Yu Tsun seems to discuss the idea of multiple, infinite, parallel universes by way of his interaction with Stephen Albert. I find that the narrator’s reaction to this idea, and not the idea itself, odd. Tsun decides to shoot Albert as a way of (discretely) communicating a message to his allies; he states he “had no other course open to me.” This contrast between a man seemingly bracing the idea of infinite possibilities while at the same time believing he has only one path to follow is further coupled with a way of narrating which expresses his cognizance that he is very much in control of the future by means of what he chooses to do (thinking of the train station scene). It’s as if  he believes any path is possible, but he has decided to ignore all but one.

Hey all, I’m Eric!

Originally from Raleigh, NC, I am a Junior in the School of Art with a concentration in Electronic and Time-Based Media.

Game Design/Development Skills:

• Programming and game-making experience in Processing
• Autodesk Maya
• Photoshop