Steve Hibit

Enter the Puppet Master

Relationships and Power Dynamics established between players and masters in Performance and Role Playing Games

Steve Hibit

Masters of Gaming• “For decades, non-digital games have relied on

[individuals] to organize, host and guide players through table top games…”

• Jane McGonigal (2007)

– Importance of these Individuals

– Relevance in Digital Games• Multiplayer Networked Games

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Masters of Gaming (continued)

• DM – Dungeon Master• Storyteller and referee of each ‘adventure’• Creates game world, allowing other players to interact• Not a Player• Power to influence game

– Term constructed and copyrighted in 1977

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Masters of Gaming (continued)

• DM Examples– See Video

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Masters of Gaming (continued)

• GM – Game Master• Similar to “DM”, considered interchangeable in most

cases– Game Masters in Digital Worlds

• Like all playing characters, GM’s are masked by an avatar

• Less inclined to affect story of game world• Clearly recognized within game world• Direct link between players and creators

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Masters of Gaming (continued)

• GM Examples– MMORPG’s

Gaile Gray

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What is a Puppet Master?

• Puppet Master: – “An individual working ‘behind the curtain’ to control the

game”• Sean Stacey(2002)

– Origin of Term

– Agreement between players and designers

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What is a Puppet Master?• “[The] first real-time, digital game designers”

– Jane McGonigal (2007)

• PM’s are present in games that are– Real world– Live action– Performance based– Utilize digital and physical mediums to communicate

• Alternate Reality Games

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What is a Puppet Master?

• Puppet Masters find a niche in Alternate Reality Games

– Unlike past Performance and Role Playing Games• Players cede all control over to PM’s• PM’s design and control nearly all aspects of game• Players may never know who is “pulling the strings”

during or after the game• Digital, Virtual, Physical and Real boundaries are

blurred.

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The Coexistence of Play and Masters

• “Play is a creation of which the player is master” – Roger Caillois (1958)

• Traditional Elements of Game Play– Huizinga

• Play must be voluntary– Caillois

• Play is free within rule sets

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The Coexistence of Play and Masters

• GM’s and DM’s allow for players to make meaningful decisions– Even when outcomes may be predetermined or

influenced by factors outside the players control.

• Choices that players make in-game have a significance and purpose.

• Interactivity & Responsibility

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The Coexistence of Play and Masters

• How do Puppet Masters fit into Traditional Game Theory?

• Does the absence of choice deny Puppet Mastered experiences ‘game’ status?

• Reassessment of personal power

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Mateas’ Model of Interactive Drama

• Neo-Aristotelian Model– Purpose: to increase player agency.– Focuses on Human Interaction with

an Artificial Intelligence

– Significance to the Puppet Master

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Murray’s Aesthetics

• Agency• Transformation• Immersion

• Using these aesthetics, Puppet Mastered experiences are analyzed as interactive stories (games)

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Agency• “The feeling of empowerment that comes from

being able to take actions in the world whose effects relate to the players intentions”

– Michael Mateas (2001)

• Agency is created when material and formal constraints are balanced.

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Agency• Traditional Game

– Internal rules and context of game

• Puppet Mastered Games– Follow the Instructions, or else

– Is Agency present when the results of the game are already decided by the PM?

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Transformation• As Variety:

– “The game experience offers a multitude of variations on a theme”

• Michael Mateas (2001)

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Transformation• Traditional Games

– Star Wars KOTOR

• Puppet Mastered Games- Go Game (2002)

- Opening Text- Player Reaction

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Immersion• “The feeling of being present in another place

and engaged in the action therein”– Michael Mateas (2001)

• Avatar• Visit• Interface

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Immersion• “A conscious…choice to surrender to the pleasures of

narrative, role-play or well defined goals and limits.”– Jane McGonigal (2003)

• Traditional Games– D&D

• Puppet Mastered Games– The Beast (2001)

• The Difference between Game and Non-Game

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Power Dynamics• Puppet Mastered Games

– Gamers willingly accept submission and give up individual power.

– PM’s assume power and control of story, game and players.

– PM’s modify game “behind the curtain” as players interpret instructions differently.

• By doing this, players actually have input in the game, although the illusion of power is never broken.

– Ex.) I Love Bees (2004)• PM’s realizing what the players were willing to do,

modifying game appropriately.GPS Coordinates

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Power Dynamics• Reverse Puppet Mastered Games

– Command and Control Games– Player is in power

• Roles of designer as master and player as puppet have switched– Follows The Classical Model of Player

• Taken to the Extreme– Player is Commander

– Ex.) Big Urban Game (2003)– Online Players Vote for Game Piece Movement

Uncle Roy All Around You (2004) - Online Players Direct a single player across the city via text messages

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Power Problems• Critics of this genre

– Perverse Nature in Relation to Accepted Play– Dangerous to Players

• PM who tells players to “go too far”

– Puppet Mastered Games• Players are pacified as they mindlessly accept PM’s

instructions– May lead to players accepting non-game uneven power

distribution– Reverse Puppet Mastered Games

• Players experience pleasure as they become the authority figure, commanding others without personal responsibility.

– Desensitized to Militaristic attitudes and logic.

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Conclusion• Realistic Feeling vs. Realistic Doing

– Game is omnipresent– Technologies used

• “Optional is the new Virtual”

• Murray’s Aesthetics are fulfilled

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Conclusion• By ceding power and control to the Puppet

Master, the players experience dramatic performance.

• They become the actors in the script of mission-based gaming created by the dramatic writer, director and producer, The Puppet Master.

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References• Caillois, Roger (1958). Man, Play and Games. New York: Free Press.• Huizinga, Johan (1950). Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture.

Boston: Beacon Press.• Mateas, Michael(2001). “A Preliminary Poetics for Interactive Drama and

Games.” First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game. MIT Press. Eds. Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardrip-Fruin

• McGonigal, Jane (2003). "A Real Little Game: The Performance of Belief in Pervasive Play."  Digital Games Research Associaton "Level Up" Conference Proceedings.

• McGonigal, Jane (2007). “The Puppet Master Problem: Design for Real-World, Mission-Based Gaming.” Second Person. MIT Press, January 2007.

Eds. Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardrip-Fruin• Stacey, Sean. (2002) “Unfiction Glossary.” Unfiction.com

http://unfiction.com/glossary [10/11/07]

Steve Hibit

References (Games)• The Beast. 2001. Microsoft (CloudMakers). 2001. Sean Stewart, Elan Lee,

Jordan Weisman.• Big Urban Game. Design Institute. 2003. Nick Fortugno, Frank Lantz, Katie

Salen.• Dungeons and Dragons. TSR,Inc. 1974. Gary Gygax, Dave Arneseon.• Go Game. Wink Back, Inc. 2002. Ian Fraser, Finnegan Kelly.• Guild Wars. NCSoft. 2005. Mike O’Brien, Patrick Wyatt, Jeff Strain.• I Love Bees. 42 Entertainment. 2004. Elan Lee, Sean Stewart, Jim

Stewartson, Jane McGonigal.• MapleStory. Nexon. 2003. Wizet.• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. LucasArts. 2003. David Falkner, Steven

Gilmour, Casey Hudson.• Uncle Roy All Around You. Blast Theory and the Mixed Reality Lab.

2004. Matt Adams, Steve Benford, Ju Row Farr, Nick Tandavanitj.