Project Horseshoe
Here’s an account of Project Horseshoe, where “the unicorns of the game development profession” got together for a weekend to discuss the problem of story in games. There’s a lot of good shit in here, including consideration of things outside the game industry such as ARGs, Disneyland, social networks and even the ol’ Stanford Prison Experiment. The thesis:
We believe that game designers are in the business of experience creation rather than that of storytelling. The story that is generated through gameplay is the player’s personal story that has been mediated by the game systems.