Dramatic interaction and social dynamics require new mechanics. You can’t just tune up dynamics to be social and interesting and dramatic if the mechanics can’t support that, theres a limit. Think of it this way, the mechanics define the possiblity space and the dynamics are good when that space is sculpted and tuned. Here’s some new mechanics: perspective shifting, scheduling, relationship adjustment, relationship creation, thats a sample. Tuning those into a compelling dramatic “space” is another trial, but theres some of the base elements. You can’t make chicken soup with escargo.

I think you’re missing something, and thats the emotional relevance of reacting to things you didn’t expect.

I addressed that briefly when I mentioned how I saw surprise as being the fight-or-flight mechanism playing catch-up. Also, I think the emotional impact in what you’re describing arrives from both antipication of one result and reflection on a different result, both of which originated from the same “player mental model.” Again, the drama is not in the mechanics but in the player’s reflection/anticipation of the results of the mechanics.

Of course, I may just be being pedantic about the term mechanics, but I see interactive storytelling, or drama games, as simply being more sophisticated dynamics on top of existing mechanics. I really do feel like we’ve developed a healthy enough palette of mechanics for our games; it’s the dynamics that are really too shallow and unevolving, particularly considering that that’s where the meat is.

I need to write this up, and I’m sure this is exactly what the academics would say if I was better versed in their writings, but I see mechanics as the necessary instant gratification of interactivity, with the dynamics being the longer term satisfaction of interactivity. That’s why I thought Facade was a failure as a whole: the mechanics were not at all gratifying. How is real-time-typing-hoping-the-parser-understands-and-waiting-for-a-hit-or-miss-reaction a gratifying mechanic? It’s not. Sure, the longer term dynamics of the drama that plays out may be satisfying (when you reflect on it), or the anticipation of what may happen next (when you anticipate it) may be interesting, but the actual mechanics were piss-poor.

In fact, this comment is already too long… I really need to write this up…