Phrontisterion IV?

["B. Fallenstein" <b.fallenstein@gmx.de>]

Dear Chris (and dear iDramaticians)--

What's the scoop on this year's Phrontisterion? I haven't heard anything 
about it since you've set its date in last year's report, and it's less 
than one and a half months till then!

I would really miss it if it didn't take place, especially as I will be 
in the US the week after that, mainly for presenting a paper about 
Something Totally Different at the ACM Hypertext'02 conference in 
Maryland. I am currently working on an Interactive Storytelling demo 
which I will also present there; if Phrontisterion 4 will be what you 
outlined in the last report (a discussion about presentations of 
different in-progress works), I would also show it there. (I have a 
two-page writeup for the conference which I'll send you in a separate, 
off-list mail; I don't have much time as I'm very busy preparing the 
demo, but if you're going to make a Phrontisterion writeup collection, 
I'll also do a writeup for that.)

As there has no mentioning of Phrontisterion and not much else going on 
in the IS community over the last iDrama year, I assume that we're not 
going to have the type of conference planned last year, though. I'm 
wondering whether you have been planning to simply not hold it this year?

IMHO, that would be a real shame, and least because I have made 
preparations for going there for some time now. I think that what we 
need is an in-depth artistic conference: with sessions like

* What is interactive storytelling anyway? What do we want it to be
   like for a player?
* What products do we have so far? What do they right, and why are they
   so far from really archieving their goal?
* What are our experiences with trying to make satisfying IS? What have
   our approaches been? What's the everyday work of an IS author, and
   when exactly are the times where you just seem to bump your head
   into a wall?
* Where have we been successful: What archievements are we proud of?
* What experiences have we had with the different technologies
   out there? Why have we failed to create anything slick with them?
* When and how have we managed to *overcome* storybuilder's block?
* When and why have we given up projects, declaring them a failure?
* Can we say *why* interactive storytelling is so hard?
* How do our approaches differ, and what do they have in common?
   Most interestingly, do they have different problems or is it the same
   one-- is there a Last Big Question of Interactive Storytelling?
* What does an IS author think of when designing an interactive dream?
   Let's compare notes: What do we think important enough to write down
   when working on a new project?
* Where is our blind spot?

I would want to have sessions about theoretical issues, sessions 
discussing experience with specific past project, sessions comparing 
experience from different projects, and (if the atmosphere is right) 
brainstorm designing sessions where we could try to outline some simple 
projects together.

I think it wouldn't matter much if the number of attendees of such a 
conference were small; what I think would matter is whether they had 
experience with creating (read: attempting to create) interactive 
storytelling. I think we need to exchange experiences; what we need is 
not convincing ourselves that interactive storytelling is big, or that 
it can be done, but finding out *how* we can get closer to it.

At the two Phrontisterions I have attended, I have felt that a lot of 
the discussion was about how to market interactive storytelling, and how 
to create business models to make money from it. I admit that I'm biased 
here: I'm not interested in marketing interactive storytelling at all. 
However, I do think I can say from a relatively objective POV: You are 
trying to market a product that you don't even know yet. We need to talk 
about how interactive storytelling can be made work, what our problems 
with it are, and what to do about them.

I still hope that interactive storytelling can be made to work. I'm 
still working on it-- and I still believe I'm slowly making progress. 
But I could use help. I could use in-person, in-depth discussions about 
the problems we face-- not at the edges of a Phrontisterion about 
community issues or audience engeneering (two examples from past 
Phrontisterions which are certainly important, but don't seem to help 
with the *really* pressing problems), but at the center
of the conference.


What do you think?
- Benja


P.S. BTW, I'd need a 'Book the tickets' or 'Don't book'-level answer by 
next week, if at all possible.