Redesigning Deal Structures

An interesting realization: the deal is the second-most important element of an interactive storyworld. I had earlier determined that the “statement of affinity” is the most important element. But making deals is fundamental to human relationships, so fundamental that we seldom notice how many deals we make every day. Most of the time our deals are shrouded in layers of euphemism, as in, “Honey, I’m taking out the garbage now; would you get the dishes dried?” or “Why don’t you grade the papers while I enter the students’ names?” 

There are also “one-sided deals”, in which one actor has an obligation imposed upon him. “Thanks; I really owe you” represents one direction; “Did you notice that I did this favor for you?” goes in the other direction with an implicit imposed obligation. 

I intend to implement both types of deals, but my current implementation is too simplistic. It has one primary verb and a secondary verb. The primary verb is “suggest deal”, which takes the following sequence:

A suggest deal B
B asks A ‘what do you want?”
A tells B ‘I want X’ 
B tells A ‘I want Y’ 
A agrees to the deal to B
A gives B Y
B gives A X

There’s a secondary channel; if B rejects the deal, the sequence goes like this:

A suggests deal B
B rejects deal A
A threatens B
B asks A ‘what do you want?”
A tells B ‘I want X’ 
B tells A ‘I want Y’ 
A agrees to the deal to B
B gives A X
A gives B Y

These two approaches are unsatisfactory to me; I have come up with a better idea that is really something I considered a long time ago (I’m sure that it’s somewhere in a past diary). The idea is to have three flavors of deal proposal, each one based on a different aura. Hence:

A requests deal B (based on p2Good, or Like)
A recommends deal B (based on p2Honest, or Trust)
A demands deal B (based on p2Powerful, or Cowed)

Each of the different verbs appeals to a different p2 value, and will engender one of two reactions: implicit acceptance, from “What is your goal?” and outright rejection.

So, here’s the new series, with obvious exits at the various points of rejection:

A {suggest deal | recommend deal | demand deal } B
B { What do you want? | reject } A
A tells B “I want X” 
B { reject | tells A “I want Y” }
A { rejects | accepts }
B delivers
A { delivers | cheats }

I think I can make this work.