I liked the method they used on FF7.

See, Cloud, being an ex-member of SOLDIER, knew a lot about combat techniques and how the world worked. All of the advanced stuff, he explained to AVALANCHE, even though you played as Cloud.

Moving this idea around, rather then your badass character not knowing anything about the world, have him know everything about the world, and have him answer the questions of the less knowledgable characters that follow him around.

Since ahw brought up Memento, I am obligated to mention its follow up Insomnia. A step removed from amnesia, but still related. The story gradually twists Pacino''s memory of a pivotal incident in the movie. And, at the same time, presents a recurring image from the back story, each time altering the audiences interpretation of it. Good stuff. My neurons are crackling even as I type.

Live cheap.
Live Free.
Get it wrong the first time.

I forgot to mention the FF8 method, which is the games INFORMATION menu. That type of idea can be greatly expanded to cover all of that stuff thats printed on paper and included in the box that the game came with.

As for events that the player should have known, Flashbacking helps, but these things require timing. Watching a 3 hour intro movie to cover all of the flashbacks are no good.

How about you''re a cyborg first coming into existence. Maybe nobody tells you you''re a cyborg, as an experiment to test your awareness. As you learn new abilities and travel to new lands, you meet new people, and slowly come to realization of what you really are...but you wonder...just because you''re made up differently, does it mean that you''re not the same?

Kinda like Kikaider, only you don''t find out right away.

Okay, I did a little research and found out how actual amnesia works. What happens is you lose your conscious knowledge and short-term memory, especially verbal or numerical strings you have memorized such as your phone number, house address, and full name. But you retain all your habitual and physical skills like sports or fighting techniques, object and acquaintance names (only the name you call them all the time, not full names), sound and scent meanings (especially reacting to your own nickname, knowing that a particular scent is that of your favorite food or that the sound of lawnowers always bothers you), habitual reactions to alarms and bells, paths that you habitually walk or drive, and basically any skill you can perform without thinking about it, like cooking, painting, throwing pottery, knowing where in your house the object you''re looking for is, etc.

You''re more likely to get false positive knowledge (I am John Travolta) than false negative knowledge (this is not my house, I''ve never seen it before), but both kinds of false assumptions happen because your subconscious likes the fiction better than the truth. Amnesia removes the known distinction between the fictional and the real in other ways. You may forget that someone you knew well has died, that dinosaurs are extinct, that no one uses awords anymore, that superheroes aren''t real, etc.

Memories are most likely to return when you encounter a familiar object or while you''re dreaming. You may get the sensation of your own voice reciting to you something that your subconscious remembers but you don''t, especially poetry and mnemonics.


So, what can we do with this? Well I really like the blurring of the line between fiction, myth, and reality myself. I can just imagine various fans walking around looking for their heroes/idols because they''re certain they''re supposed to be their sidekicks or lovers. And they would get hyper and glomp anyone who looked like the person they were searching for, and try to convince this person to play the role of the hero/idol. And then the player would have to figure out how all this was working and try to take advantage of (or escape) it.

Hmm, you know, it might work even better to ave your character be the only one who _doesn''t_ have amnesia. And then you would have to wonder whether it actually was everyone else who was acting wierd, or whether it was really you who was delusional.

S&S : I can smell PHilippe K Dick in the air...
what was the quote ? "I am alive and you are dead" ? :-)

Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !

i''d make is so that something bad happens, and like u said sunandshadow, have them no nothing of the world. but they would know something to they have to do, which is find where the bad dude is and to get rid of him.