[arg_discuss] psycho geography

[Morbus Iff]

> Im putting together a paper on pervase game design and im interested to hear

> of games that have utilised psycho geography - the emotional resonance of

> locations - in their game design.


Entirely unrelated, but a game I played three years ago
(of the type "Lexicon") included the concept of "consensual reality":

   http://gamegrene.com/wiki/Cartographer%27s_Nerves

An overview of a Lexicon:

   The basic idea is that each player takes on the role of a scholar,
   from before scholarly pursuits became professionalized (or possibly
   after they ceased to be). You are cranky, opinionated, prejudiced, and
   eccentric. You are also collaborating with a number of your peers --
   the other players -- on the construction of an encyclopedia about
   Ghyll. Despite the fact that your peers are self-important,
   narrow-minded dunderheads, they are honest scholars. No matter how
   strained their interpretations are, their facts are as accurate as
   historical research can make them. So if you cite an entry, you have
   to treat its factual content as true! (Though you can argue
   vociferously with the interpretation and introduce new facts that
   shade the interpretation.)

Ghyll is one of the largest Lexicons out there (preceded only by The 
Toothpaste Disaster), and the longest running. I once maintained a list 
of them all, but I'm sure it is heavily out of date now.

Anyways, Cartographer's Nerves came about, as the entry alludes to, 
because I had tasked a player with making a map of this world that was 
constantly being reinterpreted by the players - often drastically every 
week. CN is pretty heavily worded. Ultimately, it can be summed up very 
much like What The Bleep Do We Now: the more you, and others, believe in 
something, the real-er it gets.

We eventually did work out a map:

   http://gamegrene.com/wiki/WhereIsWhere

and had grande fun with the concept of consensual reality:

  http://gamegrene.com/wiki/Mother_Mutton%27s_Golden_Books
  http://gamegrene.com/wiki/Conflict_That_Is_Not_Happening
  http://gamegrene.com/wiki/Hive-Lord
  http://gamegrene.com/wiki/P%27Jubal

-- 
Morbus Iff ( hey britney, you say you want to lose control? )
Technical: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/779
Culture: http://www.disobey.com/ and http://www.gamegrene.com/
aim: akaMorbus / skype: morbusiff / icq: 2927491 / jabber.org: morbus