Five years ago I went to the GDC (then known as the CGDC) with one question in mind: did the industry know how much it didn’t know about the problems inherent in combining interactivity and narrative? After numerous conversations with some of the better minds in the business I came away with my answer: the industry was, as I had come to believe, essentially clueless.
In the aftermath of that experience I submitted my first roundtable proposal to the GDC on Creating Emotional Involvement in Interactive Entertainment, the intent being to use the forum as a vehicle through which to advance industry awareness. The subtext of these roundtables has been that we need to seriously address the threshold requirement of creating and sustaining suspension of disbelief over the entirety of the play experience, because without that capability we will always be seen as a lesser form of entertainment and artistic expression. (That may not be fair, but that’s the way it is.) As will become apparent, it’s also worth noting that of all the craftspeople involved in creating entertainment, none knows more about creating and sustaining suspension of disbelief than do writers. [ Read more ]