VII

Page VII:

Part of what engendered narrative to me, and what still does, is the mythos of a hero. In games where there are many units that can distinguish themselves through sheer luck and skill, a hero, even when that propoerty is embued solely by the player, can create a compelling emergent narrative. Randomly generated names, strange quirks, and amazing fortitude, cunning, luck or finesse all combine to generate the unwitting repository of a player's affections, regardless of the fact that they are essentially indisguishable mindless automata.

Games like Dwarf Fortress [and X-COM more recently] show just how powerful these ties can be: series of graphic art extolling the heroism of a single ASCII character are generated only by reverence and love. It's these interactions that truly propel god games - the anthropomorphisation of entites created by mathematics and chance, which makes us assume a narrative and monologue for those we oversee. And when the outstanding or miraculous occurs, it is the most natural human instinct to be drawn to it, as we admire the prospect of being outstanding.

Obviously personality plays a role, so it should be questioned as to what traits an elevated Rs has. One that seems obvious is bravery, then prowess, tenacity, and cunning (?).