Dec
04
I gave another talk on Agency Theory today to students at WPI. This talk was a bit more in depth that the Agency Theory in 20/20 talk, but covered a little bit more . I was also able to talk slower, which was nice. The slides, if you'd like to see them, are here, and, as usual, the entire talk is contained in the slide notes.
The talk was recorded, but I don't know when the video will be up, so I'll have to get back to you on that.
I enjoyed the talk. You brought up some interesting points that I’d kind of considered before subconsciously, but never articulated in the kind of detail you’ve gone into here.
Have you seen the book “Quests” by Jeff Howard? I read it last week after your talk, and the ideas about quest design echoed some of your points. The main idea is that quests in RPGs and adventure games need to feel meaningful to the player. Most of the book is about designing quests and has a surprisingly narrow view of what a good quest is, but I thought it was an interesting read.
Would you say that agency theory means developers are more constrained in their design? That is, the developers have to rein themselves in so that the players can have more fun?