> It was stated by Paul Engle—the founder of the Writers Workshop at Iowa. He told me that, if the workshop ever got a building of its own, these words should be inscribed over the entrance: “Don’t take it all so seriously.”
> INTERVIEWER
> And how would that be helpful?
> VONNEGUT
> It would remind the students that they were learning to play practical jokes.
> INTERVIEWER
> Practical jokes?
> VONNEGUT
> If you make people laugh or cry about little black marks on sheets of white paper, what is that but a practical joke? All the great story lines are great practical jokes that people fall for over and over again.
> INTERVIEWER
> Can you give an example?
> VONNEGUT
> The Gothic novel. Dozens of the things are published every year, and they all sell. My friend Borden Deal recently wrote a Gothic novel for the fun of it, and I asked him what the plot was, and he said, “A young woman takes a job in an old house and gets the pants scared off her.”
> INTERVIEWER
> Some more examples?
> VONNEGUT
> The others aren’t that much fun to describe: somebody gets into trouble, and then gets out again; somebody loses something and gets it back; somebody is wronged and gets revenge; Cinderella; somebody hits the skids and just goes down, down, down; people fall in love with each other, and a lot of other people get in the way; a virtuous person is falsely accused of sin; a sinful person is believed to be virtuous; a person faces a challenge bravely, and succeeds or fails; a person lies, a person steals, a person kills, a person commits fornication.
> INTERVIEWER
> If you will pardon my saying so, these are very old-fashioned plots.
> VONNEGUT
> I guarantee you that no modern story scheme, even plotlessness, will give a reader genuine satisfaction, unless one of those old-fashioned plots is smuggled in somewhere. I don’t praise plots as accurate representations of life, but as ways to keep readers reading.
It's funny how familiar this philosophy feels to me as a game designer. Earlier in the interview, he compares the craft of writing to engineering the Model T. Something that can be engineered, but also to be fiddled with and iterated upon in a playful, but mechanical way.
The thing with video games is, the industry has done that. We know the tricks and reward paths on a scientific level. Skinner Boxes, intermittent randomized rewards and all that.
The casual game industry has put huge amounts of work into discovering these systems, the systems that keep people playing and sometimes that keep certain people paying, in a methodical and statistical way. But in my own experience, my best work has come out from not taking the project seriously, and just having fun, tinkering at the edges. Making a game for me, or for a few people as a joke.
Anyway, it's a fantastic interview. Vonnegut is an American treasure, etc.
> INTERVIEWER
> Could you put the theory into a few words?
> VONNEGUT
> It was stated by Paul Engle—the founder of the Writers Workshop at Iowa. He told me that, if the workshop ever got a building of its own, these words should be inscribed over the entrance: “Don’t take it all so seriously.”
> INTERVIEWER
> And how would that be helpful?
> VONNEGUT
> It would remind the students that they were learning to play practical jokes.
> INTERVIEWER
> Practical jokes?
> VONNEGUT
> If you make people laugh or cry about little black marks on sheets of white paper, what is that but a practical joke? All the great story lines are great practical jokes that people fall for over and over again.
> INTERVIEWER
> Can you give an example?
> VONNEGUT
> The Gothic novel. Dozens of the things are published every year, and they all sell. My friend Borden Deal recently wrote a Gothic novel for the fun of it, and I asked him what the plot was, and he said, “A young woman takes a job in an old house and gets the pants scared off her.”
> INTERVIEWER
> Some more examples?
> VONNEGUT
> The others aren’t that much fun to describe: somebody gets into trouble, and then gets out again; somebody loses something and gets it back; somebody is wronged and gets revenge; Cinderella; somebody hits the skids and just goes down, down, down; people fall in love with each other, and a lot of other people get in the way; a virtuous person is falsely accused of sin; a sinful person is believed to be virtuous; a person faces a challenge bravely, and succeeds or fails; a person lies, a person steals, a person kills, a person commits fornication.
> INTERVIEWER
> If you will pardon my saying so, these are very old-fashioned plots.
> VONNEGUT
> I guarantee you that no modern story scheme, even plotlessness, will give a reader genuine satisfaction, unless one of those old-fashioned plots is smuggled in somewhere. I don’t praise plots as accurate representations of life, but as ways to keep readers reading.
It's funny how familiar this philosophy feels to me as a game designer. Earlier in the interview, he compares the craft of writing to engineering the Model T. Something that can be engineered, but also to be fiddled with and iterated upon in a playful, but mechanical way.
The thing with video games is, the industry has done that. We know the tricks and reward paths on a scientific level. Skinner Boxes, intermittent randomized rewards and all that.
The casual game industry has put huge amounts of work into discovering these systems, the systems that keep people playing and sometimes that keep certain people paying, in a methodical and statistical way. But in my own experience, my best work has come out from not taking the project seriously, and just having fun, tinkering at the edges. Making a game for me, or for a few people as a joke.
Anyway, it's a fantastic interview. Vonnegut is an American treasure, etc.