Dramatica: child's play?

#1

I was playing “pet shops” with my 6 year-old daughter today and noticed some strange patterns!

I’ve always known that we often settle on similar games, often repeating the same style. In the style of play I’m thinking of, I play an antagonist type character. Here are some examples:

  • The “overbearing parent” who doesn’t want the kids to do anything fun because it’s “too dangerous”
  • The “grumpy adult” who thinks kids are gross and ruin everything, and shouldn’t be allowed to use anything, or eat anything except bugs and dirt because the good food is for the adults
  • The “long-standing group member” (usually a puppy) who doesn’t agree with accepting anyone new into the group

And I realize that in all of these cases my antagonist character is motivated by Oppose. He doesn’t really have any good reason for disagreeing, he just disagrees with everything the others do, a total nay-sayer. He also can’t really do much other than Oppose because my daughter won’t let him!

Now what’s really interesting is that in my current story I’m working on, the OS, RS, and IC Problem is all Oppose. Maybe all these games have made me desperate to work these issues out? (LOL) Or maybe there’s something deeper causing me to always gravitate towards this sort of thing…

Even neater, I just realized that anytime I try to bring Support into it, my daughter stops me with a “no wait, pretend that didn’t happen” because she knows that it means the game might be coming to an end!

#2

What an awesome corroborating illustration from life, mlucas!

Chris, Melanie, Jim – all the experts tell us Dramatica imitates the Story Mind’s problem-solving process, and you and your daughter have clearly manifested this in the games you play.

It’s that whole “in a problematic situation, people in the involved group tend to self-select which archetype they will tend to play” (including the Oppose, Support, Consider or Reconsider traits)!

#3

Thanks @keypayton !

Your enthusiasm convinced me to think about this a little more, and I remembered a totally different style of game we play that is a bit more involved. This game is “preparing for, traveling to, watching, and taking part in the dancing/singing/talent competition”. It takes a while to play, often spread out over several days – because we often stop playing before they even start the darn competition.

Note this “competition” is not really a competition, it’s more like a recital. There’s no judging or winning, not even any conflict over whether the dancing deer or the singing cat will do well – their doing well is a given.

The antagonists in this game-style are always doing something like: trying to budge in line to get the very best seat on the train to the competition, trying to be the first to get their popcorn or to get more than one, taking others’ popcorn, etc. Their shenanigans are always messing up the various activities that go into this competition/recital.

Thinking in terms of Dramatica Elements, it seems like these antagonists are driven by their Desire for things that aren’t theirs – they just want them. This led me to wonder about Symptom & Response, so I decided to look at the Theme Browser under Activity (since I figured that works best for the dancing & singing competition). Of course, Desire’s quad there is the famous KTAD, Knowledge, Thought and Ability rounding it out.

And it turns out that if you set OS Domain to Activity, and OS Problem to Desire, you get Symptom of Thought and Response of Knowledge. This is perfect! Everyone (mostly played by my daughter) thinks the antagonists are being totally inconsiderate and thoughtless as they budge in line or do other cunning tricks to get what they want. “That’s not nice!” my daughter will say.
And they totally respond to these misdeeds with Knowledge: “I know you budged!” or “No one is allowed two popcorns!” or “That is the Snail’s seat, not yours”. Meanwhile, the antagonists see it that way too – everyone is being inconsiderate to them, so they respond with, funnily enough, pure ignorance of the rules, and just keep trying things. (being 6 she doesn’t get tired of this)

Also kind of neat is the fact that these games always end with the amazing singing & dancing (Ability) and it never feels complete until we get to that part. I’m not saying it’s a proper storyform or anything, but just neat how the quad really completes things. I wonder if it could feel even more complete if we brought Understanding into it, like if everyone could find a way to understand why the badguys keep trying to steal things, or the badguys could understand that what they’re doing is wrong.

Sorry for the stream-of-consciousnes post!

#4

Yes, mlucas, do consider bringing the Understanding appreciation into it (when your daughter is old enough to understand her own motivations somewhat, and at 6 she probably is getting to be)!

That will definitely bring more meaning into her life, and yours. Because the Understanding appreciation is where we humans most tend to ask the “whys” of life, such as: “Why [do] the bad guys keep trying to steal things?” Or, will the bad guys ever “understand that what they’re doing is wrong?”

With your daughter’s tender heart (I’m assuming), I bet that could turn into a deeply meaningful conversation between father and child.

All in all, I find this real-life “child’s play” Dramatica lesson one of the easiest to Understand in a long time. Thanks!

#5

Totally makes sense about Understanding, I will definitely try that. You’re right that more of that sort of thing is coming into it as she gets older.

Thanks again for your interest! I had hesitated on posting these since it sort of felt like I was just blogging a personal experience, but I’m glad I did.

#6

You’re actually showing deep intuition for Dramatica “in life,” mlucas. Which means you’ll be able to make more dramatic/entertaining/meaningful writing out of “what you know” (which is what they always say you should “write about,” to some degree, because it will give your dramatic writing that “lived-in” feel).

Thanks to you for sharing, and for being a great playmate for your very-dramatic daughter!