Re: Story telling confrence

[WFreitag@aol.com]

In a message dated 6/21/01 2:12:56 PM, todd@coyotegrits.com writes:

>Ah there is life here. I expecting(hoping) that this list would spring to
>life after Chris's conference but none of you have shared so far. I wasn't
>able to make it this year so I have been looking forward to hearing accounts
>from others on the state of interactive storytelling. Anyone care to
>share???

In a message dated 6/21/01 3:12:19 PM, chriscrawford@wave.net writes:

>I had refrained from publicly announcing it because I wanted to give the
>attendees time to correct all the errors in the report. So far, no
>corrections have appeared.

I've read the report early and often, and so far I haven't found anything 
that disagrees too radically from my recollection of the discussions. 
Certainly nothing so major as to make me not want the public to see it unless 
corrected. I do have a few points I'll send directly to Chris as they may or 
may not have merit.

There are, of course, various details on which my own opinion disagrees with 
the consensus reported, but that hardly warrants "correction." I had my fair 
say at the conference. I may write some minority opinion notes for specific 
items, but that'll take longer.

Barbara and I both felt that the conference was the best so far -- not just 
the best Phrontisterion, but the best conference on IS that we've seen. Apart 
from the number of participants, one key factor appeared to be that the 
participants were knowledgeable enough about a broad range of relevant works, 
technologies, approaches, and artistic principles to be able to discuss 
rather deep subject matter among the entire group without becoming totally 
lost in terminology. This was a first in my experience.

The next great milestone will be when we can get through a whole conference 
without anyone bringing up the "early days of film" analogy. (Sorry, Laura. 
Not your fault. I first heard it in 1992, nine years ago, and it's been 
brought up in every interactivity-related conference I've been at since then. 
Nine years was enough to go from the Edison Kinetoscope to The Great Train 
Robbery. And if we equate the first commercial Kinetoscope films (1894) with 
the first _commercial_ version of Zork (1980, though the game is actually 
many years older), then our medium's Birth of a Nation (1915) is officially 
due just about... now. Soon we'll have to admit that we're lagging behind the 
primitive screwheads from the dawn of the last century in our ability to 
comprehend a new art form, and stop using how long it took _them_ as an 
excuse.)

As for Todd's query regarding the state of interactive storytelling, the bad 
news (as usual) is that meaningful progress continues to be glacial. The good 
news is that there are signs the glacier is starting to move again after more 
than a year of a peculiar deep freeze during which it seemed almost everyone 
in many diverse IS-related endeavors was either not making progress or not 
talking about it. The plans laid this year for Phrontisterion 4 could help 
quite a bit.
- W