LAST TIME ON “GREG’S WRITING SUBSTACK”: In the last two articles, I’ve talked about how the unique player-character relationship we get in games (where players are both agents and observers) creates unique problems and opportunities when it comes to interactive game writing. I proposed that rudeness is uniquely useful as a way of invoking a bond with character early in a game, and that it rivals the concept known as ‘Save the Cat’ in its efficacy. After this article explains my ‘Demean the Cat’ strategy, we’ll be hurtling back towards the main thread of analysis on barks - with one of my favourite rude lines of all time, a moment in DEMON’S SOULS.
NOTE: Two places remaining for my upcoming game writing workshop - read testimonials from past students and apply over at https://www.gregbuchanangames.com/teaching
And now for the main event for all the cool cats out there:
Yes, cat. You heard that right.
I am telling the writing masses to metaphorically -
DEMEAN. THE. CAT.
Early in your game, consider implementing an encounter where the player character is either the victim (or a close-bystander witness towards) rudeness and injustice.
Allow the player a chance to respond in a way that isn’t merely ‘turning the other cheek’. Allow the player to confront the rudeness if you can, whether this is a successful confrontation or otherwise.
Why?
Remember in the last article, I talked about a problem at the start of many games:
There is a fundamental challenge in game writing: the need to create emotional engagement without relying solely on observational moments, while not ignoring the fact we are observing the character at the same time as -being- them! Players are eager to act and want to want to be this character, they want the character to feel alive, but they do not want to be too actively shunted out of feeling that 1:1 connection at the same time.
And all of this is so important especially in the opening 5, 15, 30 minutes of a game — so few people ever finish games, but many writers don’t realise that even deciding to play your game at the start is not enough to secure investment. How many times have you started a new experience only to quit within a few minutes? You need to ‘sell’ being this person you’re asking the player to control.
So, how can game writers do something super easy like, say, quickly and effectively bonding players to their characters in a medium where the line between player and character is blurred? How can they do this rapidly at the very start of a game?
DEMEAN THE CAT is a strategy designed to deal with this exact dilemma.
A rude comment directed at the character we're controlling feels personal because, if we are controlling that character, the rudeness is being levelled at -us-. The physiological demand for a response to rudeness gives players an immediate reason to act, aligning their motivations with the character's situation as if we are the same.
But likewise, we may observe this character in an audience-like manner at the same time: this is not a problem, because the nature of rudeness is such that we feel a response even if we are a bystander.
So the effect is doubled — we feel bonded both as controller and as observer of our player character if the moment is well-written and well-executed. It provokes a bond through shared adversity. Rudeness doesn't invite us to feel aligned to a character; it forces it by challenging social norms and compelling us to react as a victim of a real-feeling sense of rudeness.
Immediate Shared Experience
Rudeness helps bridge the gap between player and character by providing an immediate, shared experience that doesn't rely on prior context. The fight-or-flight response it triggers gives players a reason to act, aligning their motivations with the character's situation. By leveraging rudeness, we can eliminate much of the character setup that might otherwise overload the player or create dissonance. Players don't need to know who they're filling in for; they just need to deal with the rudeness.
Also, to make this clear: none of this article is advocating that “demean the cat” is always the best approach, but that it is a tool available to us as writers and designers that could solve a bunch of situations.1
DEMEAN THE CAT is just another tool in our toolbox — one which acts as a nice antidote to the quagmire at the heart of a lot of game narratives, where NPCs seemingly exist in a power fantasy only to make the player feel special and at the centre of all events. Don’t get me wrong: power fantasies are not automatically bad things either! But, in all things…
NEXT TIME: Demean the Cat in DEMON’S SOULS (now in bark form!) + a Premium-Subscriber only TOOLBOX interactive exercise on ‘Demean the Cat’
FOOTNOTES:
Avoid, also, adding unnecessary problems to proceedings: players should have a range of responses to allow for roleplaying different kinds of conflict resolution that make sense with the kind of person we are playing. The rudeness will likely be surprising, but should still ultimately make sense in the context of the situation. You don’t want to overdo this by making every NPC rude, and don’t create incredibly unnecessarily offensive content — this device is supposed to be one of social rudeness, not a hate crime.