Via Metafilter, Bruce Sterling’s 1991 Game Developers Conference speech, “The Wonderful Power of
Storytelling”. It’s tough reading through rambling speeches, but he has some worthy food for thought. Beyond his calling Brenda Laurel “The High Priestess of Weird” (no comment from this ex-Purple Moonie :-), he worries over how science fiction books are shuffled through racks faster and faster (“They’re cliches because cliches are less of a cognitive load.”) and eventually advises that gamers ignore storytelling: “We’re not into science fiction because it’s *good literature,* we’re into it because it’s *weird*. Follow your weird, ladies and gentlemen.” As I look at my stack of Doom clones, no make that Wolfenstein clones, I wonder if the truly innovative designers out there are getting shut out by the “sure to please the masses” games. In ten years have we really only progressed in making everything more realistically 3D in version X+1, instead of trying new, mind-blowing methods of gameplay? Is there an outlet for the “art film” game equivalents?