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[palistov]

Not at all. In fact I think there's a custom story or two out there in which the castle/mansion does belong to the character whose role the player assumes. However, some of the main motifs in fear or horror entertainment involve the unknown, lack of control, defenselessness, being trapped, etc. The list goes on. Thus, it would be foolish to not bring those motifs into my story, seeing as we're dealing with a survival horror genre here!

I strongly believe these motifs need line up with the player's personal point of view for immersion to be maintained (I read/heard from a video about FricGames designing Amnesia around general idea). For example: if, in an Amnesia custom story which doesn't involve the player "forgetting" (a common thing among lots of custom stories, which irks me), the castle belonged to the protagonist, it would seem very odd for the player to not know their way around the castle when the protagonist should. Having the player and the protagonist share the same lack of knowledge, the same feelings, etc is what really makes the player feel like they're actually experiencing the game rather than pushing keys and clicking.

With that said, when I draw up a story or plot, I focus specifically on making it match up with the player.

Either A) the player knows exactly what the background story is, and what they're going into or B) they know why they don't know what the background story is, or what's going on.

Examples!

Spoiler below!

A) #2 - The player breaks into the castle in search of monetary gain by questionable means and gets into trouble with beasties and scary things. They know they screwed up and now they gotta run!

B) The Dark Descent! The player has no idea why they have to kill the baron, but after reading the first note, they sure as hell know why they don't know why!

Now, a poorly constructed story would have gaping holes in it which leave the player with thoughts that mostly involve unanswered or unanswerable questions.


By the way, as for 'causing all the trouble' I'm pretty sure #2 involves the protagonist out for trouble I actually brewed up that storyline idea around the idea of the player purposefully getting into trouble, instead of being unwillingly tossed into it.

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This will become... A thread left unmentioned!

I literally lol'd.