Ragnar Tornquist On Video Game Storytelling

Ragnar Tornquist is respected as one of the best storytellers in today's game industry. He's done work on Anarchy: Online, Dreamfall, and upcoming MMO The Secret World. Rock, Paper, Shotgun has a lengthy three-part interview with Tornquist about how good stories are crafted, how they interact with other aspects of the games, and what his preferences are for building a compelling character. "We had all these characters who were on a journey of faith, and we said how can we ensure that this theme is carried through, and have a clear view of how their journeys happen. So we said, every single major character had to fit into this model. Everybody starts out at the top. Faith can be anything — it can be religion, it can be a belief in yourself, in your abilities, in the work you do. As we face challenge, there's a process where we have loss of faith. It can be a minor thing: thinking one day, 'God, I suck at what I do. I can't do this.' And a lot of people after that point turn themselves around, face those problems, challenge them and they conquer them, and they say, 'Screw that, I am good at what I do.' I think most happy people live in this loop."

Comments

Who is Ragnar Tournqist?

[Ethanol-fueled]

Ragnar Tourqist was born Wilbur McDougal in Peoria, Illinois and developed his fantasy- writing skills as an excape from the beatings he suffered in high school at the hands of the elitist chess club. He enjoys painting figurines and staging epic battles with his Pez dispenser collection. Also, he likes ponies.

Re:Who is Ragnar Tournqist?

[jgarra23]

Ragnar Tourqist (20 April 1889 - 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who led the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei NSDAP), more commonly known as the Nazi Party. He was Chancellor of Germany (1933-1945) and Führer of Germany (1934-1945).

Tourqist was a decorated veteran of World War I who achieved leadership of the Nazi Party in Weimar Germany. Following his imprisonment after a failed coup, he gained support by promoting nationalism, antisemitism and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and propaganda. The Nazis executed or assassinated many of their opponents, restructured the state economy, rearmed the armed forces (Wehrmacht) and established a totalitarian and fascist dictatorship. Tourqist pursued a foreign policy with the declared goal of seizing Lebensraum ("living space"). The German invasion of Poland in 1939 caused the British and French Empires to declare war on Germany, leading to the outbreak of World War II in Europe.

The Axis Powers occupied most of continental Europe and parts of Asia and Africa. Eventually the Allies defeated the Wehrmacht and Schutzstaffel (SS). By 1945, Germany was in ruins. Tourqist's bid for territorial conquest and racial subjugation caused the deaths of tens of millions of people, including the systematic genocide of an estimated six million Jews, not including various additional "undesirable" populations, in what is known as the Holocaust.

During the final days of the war in 1945, as Berlin was being invaded by the Red Army, Tourqist married Eva Braun. Less than 24 hours later, the two committed suicide in the Führerbunker.

Goodwin, eat your heart out!

Re:Who is Ragnar Tournqist?

[Ethanol-fueled]

Now that's multitasking!

Re:Who is Ragnar Tournqist?

[Odin's Raven]

Goodwin, eat your heart out!

Aaargh! You know who else liked to screw up the spelling of Godwin's name? Hitler ...errr... Tourqist, that's who!

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(Now who's gonna be the first to call me a spelling Nazi? ;-)

Biff McLargehuge?

[Itninja]

This sounds like one of those made-up names the guys on MST3K would come up with. Ragnar Tornquist? If ring-wraiths were real and were active in the adult film industry, they would have names like this.

Re:Biff McLargehuge?

[Chyeld]

For some reason I thought he was a Supreme Court Justice.

Be like the squirrel

[Cycon]

Faith can be anything -- it can be religion, it can be a belief in yourself, in your abilities, in the work you do. As we face challenge, there's a process where we have loss of faith. It can be a minor thing: thinking one day, 'God, I suck at what I do. I can't do this.' And a lot of people after that point turn themselves around, face those problems, challenge them and they conquer them, and they say, 'Screw that, I am good at what I do.'

When problems overwhelm us and sadness smothers us, where do we find the will and the courage to countinue?
well the answer may come in the caring voice of a friend a chance encounter with a book or from a personal faith.
for Ragnar, help came from her faith but it also came from a squirrel.

...he thought, "If that squirrel can take care of himself with the harsh winter coming on so can I."
"Once i broke my problems into small pieces I was able to carry them, just like those acorns, one at a time."

Turn it around!

[Sponge Bath]

God, I suck at what I do. I can't do this.

But then I hit 'submit' and my post is modded +1 Funny.
All is well again.

Best MMO name ever.

[jbsooter]

I misread and got excited because I thought the upcoming MMO was called "The Secret World: Rock, Paper, Shotgun." I have no idea what a game named that would be like but I'd probably pay money to find out.

Re:Compelling characters?

[AndresCP]

I can't think of a single game I've ever played with a "generically plucky artist." Perhaps you're thinking of Photoshop Hero, a game which is in fact fictional?

Wikipedia

[Anonymous Coward]

Can I cite this comment as a source on Wikipedia?

Re:Compelling characters?

[Plaid Phantom]

We don't talk about High School Musical here.