about 2,000 people at Rockstar, one figure for each 100
Think of the credits at the end of a big game. Red Dead Redemption 2, from 2018: about 2,000 people at one company, Rockstar, had a hand in it, and 1,600 of them worked on it directly. One name on the box, two thousand hands behind it.
20 of 20
about 20 Zelda games on Nintendo's own timeline, 1986 to 2024
Now think of a story that is not one game but forty years of them. The Legend of Zelda began in 1986. About twenty games sit on Nintendo's own list of the series. Different teams made them, with different directors and writers.
Nintendoowns the name
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Many teamswrote the games
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One person?
Forty years, about twenty games, many teams. Who is the author of The Legend of Zelda?
Nintendo, the company that owns the name. Many teams wrote under it.
Right. A company can own a name for a hundred years. The people come and go, and the name stays, so the name is where the story lives.
Shigeru Miyamoto, who made the first one.
Not yet. He led the first game and watched over many more. He did not write most of them, and a series outlives any one person who worked on it.
Nobody. Each game is its own story.
Not yet. Each game carries the same name, the same hero and a shared past, and the newest one is sold as part of the same story. Something joins them.
One Piece mangaone author
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One Piece animemany hands
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Doctor Whosince 1963
It is the same on every screen. The One Piece manga, a Japanese comic, has one author, Eiichiro Oda, and about 1,190 chapters. Its anime, the cartoon made from it, has about 1,180 episodes by the studio Toei, with dozens of directors and writers. Doctor Who began in 1963: by 2024, fifteen Doctors played by fourteen actors.
Each card is a long story. Was it written by one hand, or by many?
One card at a time. Tap the pile it belongs to.
Card 1 of 5
Discworld: 41 novels, 1983 to 2015, all by Terry Pratchett
Pokémon: 1,025 creatures across games made since 1996
Doctor Who: on television, on and off, since 1963, with fourteen lead actors
The One Piece manga: every chapter by Eiichiro Oda
Halo: made by Bungie, then by a new studio, 343 Industries, from 2012
Discworld: 41 novels, 1983 to 2015, all by Terry Pratchett → One hand
Not yet. One hand. One author wrote every book for thirty-two years, so one memory held the whole story.
Pokémon: 1,025 creatures across games made since 1996 → Many hands
Not yet. Many hands. Teams of designers have added creatures for thirty years; no one person invented them all.
Doctor Who: on television, on and off, since 1963, with fourteen lead actors → Many hands
Not yet. Many hands. Writers, producers and actors have changed over sixty years; the name is what stayed.
The One Piece manga: every chapter by Eiichiro Oda → One hand
Not yet. One hand. One author has drawn and written it since 1997. Its anime, made by a studio, is the many-hands version of the same story.
Halo: made by Bungie, then by a new studio, 343 Industries, from 2012 → Many hands
Not yet. Many hands, and a whole change of hands. The studio that invented it left, and a new one took the name on.
2One hand
vsvs
3Many hands
Right. Two by one hand, three by many. The one-hand stories have one memory holding every fact. The many-hands stories have only a name and whatever somebody wrote down.
Bungieleft in 2007
↓→
Microsoftkept the name
↓→
343 IndustriesHalo 4, 2012
A name can outlive the people who made it. Bungie made the first Halo games. In 2007 Bungie left Microsoft, still making two more Halo games for it, but the name stayed with Microsoft. In 2012 a new studio, 343 Industries, released Halo 4, the first without Bungie. New people, same name, same hero.
Picture a story that puts out a new part every two years. Move the years and watch how many parts there are, and how many different lead writers. Made up to show the shape.
Parts1 made up
Lead writers1 made up
Years since the first part: 2 years
Two years in: one part, one writer. The person who wrote it is still in the room.
Parts5 made up
Lead writers3 made up
Years since the first part: 10 years
Ten years: five parts, three lead writers. The first writer has moved on.
Parts10 made up
Lead writers6 made up
Years since the first part: 20 years
Twenty years: ten parts, six lead writers. Nobody left met the first one.
Parts20 made up
Lead writers11 made up
Years since the first part: 40 years
Forty years: twenty parts, eleven lead writers. The newest knows the first only as a reader does.
After forty years, what does the newest writer know about what the first one meant?
Everything. Each writer tells the next one in person.
Not yet. The frames show eleven writers over forty years. Most of them never met, and a chain of retellings that long is a game of whispers.
Only what was written down and shown on screen.
Right. Eleven writers in forty years, and the first left decades ago. Memory does not pass down a chain that long. What was written and shown is all that does.
Nothing matters. Each part is a fresh start.
Not yet. The parts share a name and a hero, and the newest is sold as the same story. Lesson 3 is about what that costs.
Move the control.
A name→Many hands→Many parts→One story?
So a long story is held together by what is written down and shown, not by anyone's memory. People call a story like this a franchise. The word just means a name a company owns and sells many stories under. Films, games, comics and shows can all be parts of one franchise.
Nine games1998 to 2024
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The writersince 2021
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The earlier eight?
A game released in 2024 is the ninth in a series that began in 1998. Its lead writer joined the company in 2021. Which is true?
The writer must have worked on the first game, or they could not write the ninth.
Not yet. The first game is from 1998 and the writer arrived in 2021. Series change hands all the time; that is what this lesson is about.
The writer knows the earlier eight games the way a player does: from what is on screen and what was written down.
Right. Three years at the company, twenty-six years of story. The writer was a reader of most of it, and readers only get what was shown.
The nine games are nine separate stories, so the earlier ones do not matter.
Not yet. They carry one name and are sold as one story. Players who know the earlier eight will check the ninth against them.
Lesson complete
A long franchise usually has no single author. A company owns the name; hundreds of hands write under it.