Flaming Byrne

David Byrne that is, and I wish I could, but his web journal doesn't have a comments section.

Flame is too strong a word, but I liked the pun.

His latest post (thanks Robin!)talks about games as a medium of deeper storytelling. He makes some good points but comes down kind of hard on the value of interactivity, and interactive storytelling.

If Mr Byrne was listening (Listening Head?), I'd tell him to read Raph Koster's fabulous book. Raph talks about games as one man's tool for learning, rather than for storytelling.

The truth of course, lies somewhere in between - scratch that, it implies compromise - the truth incorporates BOTH. When we are able to steer the plot of rich, involving, griping, moving stories, and change their outcome for better or worse, this will teach us things about ourselves.