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Why Isn’t the Game Industry Making Interactive Stories?. Neil Young, Electronic Arts Warren Spector, Ion Storm Tim Schafer, Double Fine Michael Mateas, Georgia Tech Moderator: Andrew Stern, InteractiveStory.net. No interactive stories – is this true?.
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Why Isn’t the Game IndustryMaking Interactive Stories? Neil Young, Electronic Arts Warren Spector, Ion Storm Tim Schafer, Double Fine Michael Mateas, Georgia Tech Moderator: Andrew Stern, InteractiveStory.net
No interactive stories –is this true? • Depends on your definition of “interactive story” • Today’s best games are quite good • Preconceptions of story in games
Focus of this panel • Not about defining “story”, “game” • Try to abandon those terms for this panel • Identify specific qualities or pleasures of stories that we don’t yet have in games • Won’t worry about what to call the result
Example qualities and pleasures • Not about saving the world – about individual people, personal • Play centered on affecting characters’ thoughts, feelings, problems, conflicts, relationships, lives • Fighting outer demons inner demons
Example qualities con’t • Allow players to express more complex feelings, ideas • NPC’s who can better listen to and understand you • Varied sequences of events *truly affected* by your actions, dramatically paced
Discussion questions • Describe specific qualities and pleasures you are seeking • *Why* has the game industry has not yet achieved them? • Are they possible, how do we get there – or is this not a productive direction?
Question 1 of 3 • What do you consider the most important qualities and pleasures we *don’t* yet find in today’s interactive entertainment?And why are they needed?
Question 2 of 3 • Why haven’t these been achieved?What are the obstacles, how daunting?Are they so technically difficult that incremental progress is not possible?Are players happy enough with what they’ve got?Too great a divide between programmers and designers?
Question 3 of 3 • Give a realistic prescription for how to surmount these obstacles in the foreseeable future.Or, describe how this is not possible, or the wrong direction.Near-term technical and design milestones to shoot for?How can publishers become more experimental?Do we need to train a new generation of designer-programmers?