Interview with Chris Crawford at Gamasutra.
I must admit that I admire the conviction of Chris Crawford’s statements, but there is a worrying edge to them, as in:
GS: How do you feel that the creative spark has gone out of the industry?
CC: Well basically, new ideas don’t go anywhere. So the industry is just rehashing the same stuff over and over. During the 80s there was a lot of experimentation, a lot of new ideas being tried (many of them really bad) but there was at least experimentation. Now we don’t see any experimentation whatsoever.
I would personally say that a lot of new ideas are popping up – in rhythm games, open-ended simulations, MMOs, alternative interfaces, the Icos, etc… So what about the Wii?
GS: Continuing with the Nintendo theme, do you feel that the Wii in is a step in the right direction as far as innovation? Or do you think it’s going to be the same old stuff only with a fancy new controller?
CC: More likely, the latter. I’m not a fortune teller. I don’t know what they’ll do. But I think that it is reasonable to expect that an industry that hasn’t produced any innovation in at least a decade is unlikely to change its spots.
Perhaps being open to new directions and surprises can be a good thing?
So what does Crawford propose with the new StoryTron?
CC: It’s interactive storytelling. [Now that’s new! – JJ.]
GS: And what does that mean to the common person?CC: It’s a story you get to participate in as the protagonist. You’re the hero…and you let the story go. It’s not at all like a regular story. It’s not as if you’re just following the footsteps of the hero in a standard movie. Interactive storytelling has a more meandering feel to it. You don’t charge down a plot line towards the end, you meander through a social environment. The key thing is that it’s about people, not things. Social interaction, not mechanical interaction. The primary thing you do an interactive storytelling is talk to other people. What a concept! Most gamers react to that concept with some disdain: ?all you do is sit around and talk? That?s no fun,? and it isn?t any fun for many gamers. But that’s the kind of thing that most people spend most of their time doing.
I don’t think I can count the number of times I have heard such a description of a new game or game project. How about Omikron: Nomad Soul?
The game is entirely in 3D real time. Players can visit the immense city of Omikron, with its hundreds of passers-by, air-cushion vehicles, its day/night cycles and its random weather. Behind each door in the city lies a real decor. The player can thus go for a drink in a bar, buy a book in a bookshop, look for medication in a pharmacy or go to watch a strip tease show.
He can also go back to his apartment to watch hologram television.In Omikron-The Nomad Soul, the player can explore the universe, dialog with the characters, interact with the environment, fight with hands/feet, use weapons, make and cast spells, drive air-cushion vehicles and reincarnate.
To Crawford’s credit, his two main points about verbs and people, not things, really are strong points. Now show me the money!
