Twitter has recently emerged as the new social media phenomenon, and its arrival has seemed to trigger wildly different reactions from individuals. I personally know people who have embraced it, people who have become obsessed with it, people who are repulsed by it, and people who just plain ol' don't get it. The rest of this post is for the latter two types.
If twitter's role as an effective tool for the free flow of information after the recent events in Iran was unable to crack your cold, dark hole of a heart, perhaps this will do the trick. Admittedly, this story does not carry the emotional or inspirational weight of the Iran election saga, but goddamn if it doesn't hit that nerd nerve somewhere inside of you.
Earlier this afternoon, Soren Johnson, whose design credits include Civilization 3, Civilization 4, and Spore, responded to a talk by Denis Dyack (read about it here). Dyack's claim that game narrative may eventually overshadow gameplay incited Johnson to respond via twitter:
SorenJohnson: Hey Denis, if you put the narrative in front of the gameplay, you are no longer making a game. You’re making a movie. http://bit.ly/193Qdz
His tweet set off an enormous, emergent conversation about the nature of game design and game narrative that included some notable industry veterans. Participants ranged from Brenda Brathwaite, a professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design, to game designers such as David Jaffe of God of War fame and Clint Hocking, designer of the first two Splinter Cell games as well as the recent Farcry 2.I was going to try and post a few excerpts of the conversation here, but a combination of my innate laziness and the fact that the conversation reads much better as a cohesive unit has led me to simply point you in the right direction.
The conversation can be found on Twitter by searching #gamedesign or by clicking here for the much easier to read version. (via in_orbit)
The discussion ties very nicely into Hocking's recent post on his game design blog (found here) about the differing nature of authored narrative and emergent narrative. However, equally interesting to the conversation itself is the way in which it happened. Sure, the 140 character limit isn't ideal for detailed argument, but how else but twitter could an interaction between some of the game industry's brightest minds develop completely spontaneously and for all of us to read?!
