When we talk about exploring the lore of a film, a video game or any other cultural product, we immediately think of a discovery activity driven by the users’ curiosity. That is a way of thoroughly investigating the details of a world to discover events, relationships and stories that do not emerge in the main plot. This explorative work is thought of as a complex treasure hunt: it is about finding important details and linking them together to discover what the creator(s) had hidden.
The active search for the different codes and their connections stops being a passive activity of searching for what is already hidden and becomes an agent of expansion of the world itself.
The active search for the different codes and their connections stops being a passive activity of searching for what is already hidden and becomes an agent of expansion of the world itself. This archaeological process is further enhanced by the activities of the gaming community, spreading outside the boundaries of the world that they inhabit. It is the case of thousands of Reddit’s discussions about the structures, narrations, cultures and other lore elements in which players and users gather every piece of information in the attempt to fill the missing data of the game. Storyworlds like the one of the action RPG Bloodborne, are intentionally created by the author as fractured worlds, with a series of ambiguous lore elements scattered all over the map. The community of the game created one of the most prolific discussions on Reddit, at the point of writing an entire printable text that narrates the complete story of Bloodborne - or at least what the users discovered and theorized through their journeys in the dreaded alleys of Yarnham.
Communities and fandom have always been fundamental in the construction and enhancing of a world as a consequence of the small narratives in the Postmodern age.
The expansion of world-building outside the boundaries of the original world is not a recent process and prerogative of the virtual field of design: communities and fandom have always been fundamental in the construction and enhancing of a world as a consequence of the small narratives in the Postmodern age1. A complex system of references, namely a database, is definitely shaped by the extensions and derivative contents created by fans, through a process in which their role gradually becomes as relevant as the one of the author. Countless fanfictions, sequels, prequels, texts and other objects have been realized by the community and became canon of the original world.2 This happens by turning the detail of a plot into a building block in order to construct new stories and new codes, as well as collectively explore a world through discussions and perspectives to make it more complex, demonstrating the importance lore has on the survival of a world itself. The lore is the lifeblood of the world, the dynamic vector that allows its codes to be invigorated, but also to create a larger database. When this active side of the lore is accentuated, we are faced with worlds in which interaction and sharing play a central role. This is, in a sense, positive decoding:3 Understanding the various elements and the details that make up a reality by sharing them with other inhabitants of the same universe means reworking and transforming the information received into new codes, with the possibility of creating new relationships. A world differs from a static place precisely because of its coefficient of interactivity and interaction between its inhabitants. In Synthetic Worlds Castranova explains that a world is defined not only by the way it can be perceived,4 but also by the consequences our actions can have in it.5 Equally fundamental to the understanding of a world are the roles reserved for the interactions between its inhabitants. It is, in this respect, that one can distinguish a lore as passive investigation from a lore as productive exploration.
A world differs from a static place precisely because of its coefficient of interactivity and interaction between its inhabitants.
The more a world presents a hierarchical and vertical structure, the more the investigation of its codes will turn out to be a kind of self-portrait of its creator. It is enough that this relationship becomes prone to turn a world into a closed realm, into the territorial domain of an author, developer or owner. On the contrary, worlds in which exploration is an active part of their functioning reconfigure at the same time both the position of the inhabitants - or, in the case of virtual worlds, the position of the players - and the concept of author. The concept of designer or author of a world is functional to the attribution of meaning. The creator is seen as an invisible presence that allows order between different elements and events disconnected in time.6 But when the interaction of users, of players, becomes an integral part of the world, the function of the author is obscured by the endless game of cross-references and collective interpretations. The maniacal and monothematic search for the creator and his image behind every detail is replaced by a choral action of sharing and creating new codes.
The concept of designer or author of a world is functional to the attribution of meaning. The creator is seen as an invisible presence that allows order between different elements and events disconnected in time.
In 2022, artist and game designer Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley realized the playtest project We Can’t Do This Alone as a part of an art residency at Serpentine Gallery in London. Such work is described as “an interactive, improvised live play where you, the audience, become the actors. There are only participants on this set. Your presence is all that’s required to start the action and determine its path and your choice to come is only the first you’ll make on this journey. You decide where we go, who we protect, and how we protect them.”7 The interactive, digital performance created by Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley insists on the very impact of the users on the creation of a lore through their own experience. The choices they made inside the playtest directly shape the narrations, the spaces and the consequent interactions with the aim of raising the players’ awareness and guide their actions - both inside and outside the boundaries of the virtual world.
WE CAN'T DO THIS ALONE, image by Serpentine Galleries, 2022
In the universe of video games, the role of players is closely linked to the way in which interaction between the world and other players is conceived. Grand Theft Auto, Assassin's Creed or Red Dead Redemption are distinguished not only by their vast environments, but also by the dominant role the player can play within them. Part of the fun of these open worlds lies in the possibility of conquering spaces, events and non-player characters (NPC). Conceived as an enormous playground, the world becomes a simulacrum: an immense amount of space that serves as a backdrop for the rise of the player hero. Such a distinction - however functional could be a distinction between different worlds – seems, nevertheless, too radical to us. Indeed, it is worth remembering that even an open playground can become a world, since the boundaries are never so sharp: isn't it the lesson learned from Westworld?
Cover photo: Westworld Timeline, image by SlashFilm, Peter Sciretta, 2016.
Read the entire "How to Create a World" column by Davide Tolfo & Nicola Zolin.
Bio
Davide Tolfo writes about philophy and contemporary art, he has published for Marsilio Editore, NOT, LaDeleuziana, Mimesis and Philosophy Kitchen. In parallel, he has also worked with artist Shubigi Rao for the Singapore Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia in 2022.
Nicola Zolin is a researcher and sound designer, he is also co-founder of the experimental label Rest Now!. He writes about music, gaming, theory, visual arts and the intersections between them. He has published for many magazines and webzines, including Cactus Magazine, NOT and LaDeleuziana.
Notes
1 Jean-Francois Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Trans. Geoffrey Bennington and Brian Massumi. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984), XI.
2 For a more detailed analysis, see the example on The End of Evangelion, explained in Hiroki Azuma’s Otaku. Japanese’s Database Animals: «For instance, a scene from a parallel Evan gelion world is inserted in the final episode of the television series. In that parallel world with a completely different history, an Ayanami Rei dwells with a completely different personality. But in fact the scene depicted there was already a parody of an image that had been widely circulated as a derivative work at the time of the original broadcast. That is to say, an extremely warped relationship is interwoven into this work, where the original simulates in advance the simulacra.» Hiroki Azuma. Otaku. Japanese’s Database Animals. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009), 38.
3 Gilles Deleuze and Fèlix Guattari, Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature, trans. Dana Polan (Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press 2003), 81-88.
4 Edward Castranova, Synthetic Worlds. The business and culture of online games (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2005), 80
5 We find again here the concepts of persistence and pliability. The minimum condition for a world to be explored and perceived is a certain degree of persistence. The consequences of our actions depend, if we exclude the presence of other inhabitants purely as an example, on the ductility of the world itself.
6 Michel Foucault, “What is an Author?”, in Language, Counter-memory, Practice. Selected Essays and Interviews, ed. Donald F. Bouchard, trans. Donald F. Bouchard and Sherry Simon (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1977); Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author, trans. Stephen Heath (London: Fontana, 1977).
7 "We Can’t Do This Alone”, Serpentine, 2022. Available at: [link]
Bibliography
Azuma, Hiroki. Otaku. Japanese’s Database Animals. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009.
Barthes, Roland. The Death of the Author. Translated by Stephen Heath. London: Fontana, 1977.
Castranova, Edward. Synthetic Worlds. The business and culture of online games. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2005.
Deleuze, Gilles and Guattari, Fèlix. Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature. Translated by Dana Polan. Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press, 2003.
Foucault, Michel. “What is an Author?”. In Language, Counter-memory, Practice. Selected Essays and Interviews, edited by Donald F. Bouchard, translated by Donald F. Bouchard and Sherry Simon, 113-138. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1977.
Lyotard, Jean-François, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Trans. Geoffrey Bennington and Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984.
Redgrave, The Paleblood Hunt, Reddit, Last modified 2017.
