Gamebook store

Wednesday 3 April 2013

Why interact with stories?


I already posted up a brief summary of my talk at Off the Page last month. If you want to see the whole thing, it's now up on YouTube (above) along with the slides.

One caveat: some of the early slides in the video don't sync too well with the audio, so if you wonder why I'm talking about Breaking Bad all of a sudden, just hang on a few seconds and all will become crystal clear. (Do you see what I did there? 'Cause Jesse and Walt cook... Oh, never mind.)

For those who don't have seven minutes to spare to look at YouTube (among whom I'd probably have to include myself) you can read my summary of the argument here. And I probably ought to reiterate the context of the talk, as several people have wondered about my references to "publishers". That means book publishers, these talks being about how publishing is being transformed by technology. The clue is in the name: Off the Page.

6 comments:

  1. Hello, Mr. Morris! I haven't posted in a while due to many projects in my pockets, but I do read every blog post. I agree wholeheartedly agree about the need for narrative immersion, as plot lines tend to take a back seat to graphical finesse. Max Payne's developers chose to use comic paneling, rather than CG animation to spin their noir-styled tale of murder and betrayal, and was all the better for it. Simplicity works wonders in that regard, look at Shadow of the Colossus. That was a game where a boy and his trusty steed wandered through vast, barren environments in order to take down all of the colossi. It did not utilize actors, over the top choreography, or explosions. Did Wander need to kill the colossi in order the save the girl, or did he want to regardless of the implications? I also noticed that you said "Fringes" in one of your statements. That made me wonder why you didn't bring up Fringe, one of the most thought-provoking sci-fi series (or any series, really) of all time. The ending was absolutely fantastic, even though I honestly did not know what to expect! (*_*) May the Three Fortunes smile upon you, and the rest of the crew! Mike

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    1. Good to hear from you, Mike. But - ulp! - I just realized Fringe has ended and Breaking Bad will conclude over the summer. That's my two favorite TV shows gone. I knew having a 13 in the year would turn out to be bad news...

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  2. Hold up now, Dave. When you say "Fabled Lands," do you always put the emphasis on "Lands" rather than "Fabled"? Because that struck me as quite odd.

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    1. That's just an English thing, Mitch. Like "roast beef" or "Chinese food". (Hmm, why are both my examples about nosh?)

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  3. My word, that's weird. The adjective (in both your examples as well) is the interesting word!

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    1. Beef is always the most interesting word in any sentence that includes it :-)

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