Churchill club panel

Raph Koster points us to GameSpot’s video of the Churchill Club Panel that there’s a lot of buzz about in the blogosphere.

It’s a good view, and I recommend watching it. I don’t, however, agree with all of it.

The panel had 4 people on it: Microsoft’s Peter Moore, Sony Online’s Raph Koster, Ubisoft’s Laurent Detoc, and EA's Lars Butler.

It's a great panel, in that many controversial remarks are made (that's what makes for a great panel, no?). Among them:

• "Single player games are an aberration" (Raph)
• "Single player games are to multiplayer games as masturbation is to sex - it'll always be there, but it's not as good as the real thing" (Lars)
• "Physical media is stupid" (Peter)

While I thought the panel was great. All members, especially Raph, made great points. I thought that Peter Moore was a little too much in "Xbox talking point" mode, to a point where it damaged his credibility a little. I found myself tuning him out a bit.

I have to disagree with the "aberration" point that Raph made. Interpolation breaks, dude! Just because something is new (and I don't agree that 'single player entertainment' experiences are new) doesn't mean it'll go away. TV was an aberration. BOOKS were at one time an aberration, and story telling was a two-player experience! That said, when he later qualified it (e.g. community around single player experiences), I agree. Just in the extreme I think it's off some.

Anyhow, view the video and judge for yourself!