unforum

[krystyn]

[MrToasty]

[Euchre]

I don't think there's anything wrong with the authors having a specific end in mind. Cloverfield has many flaws, but it didn't really bother people that it was leading to the film - because that's what everybody expected. What they didn't know was how it would lead to the film, and didn't even know how it really related to the film. There was suspicion at early stages that most of the people in the teaser and on MySpace wouldn't hardly be in the film at all. Obviously, that proved wrong. What people did know was that it was all leading to a film, and that it was going to involve something very large, loud, and destructive. The players didn't even actually know the title of the film, yet look at the faithful following it drew.

This goes back to my mention of the 'axis'. If you've read Space's thing about what CF is, you know that there's basically 3 axes that define CF. Carry that idea a little further. There's a fairly linear story in there somewhere, but the author basically is the one who knows what endpoint they wish to reach. They can see that axis from the start, and the players may not - much as when using data to plot a line, the line doesn't become clear until you've inserted enough data (queue Still Alive for effect). From yet another perspective, the players may know the endpoint, but may not know what content really falls directly between those points to form the line. This isn't a problem though, as long as the players have expectations established that coordinate with the author's intentions - otherwise you've got a challenge for the authors to be clever in righting the course of their experience, or you've got an implosion.

[krystyn]