Having been invited to write an essay about an old, old project called Mount Kristos, I caught myself writing about story and play. Funny how writing stuff down can actually commit you to an opinion you didn’t even know you had:

“Even to this day, it doesn’t feel like we’ve solved the basic tension between story and play. For the most part, people are still treating online ‘theatrical’ events and interactive story projects as an excuse to party on noisily, ignoring all the wonderful trinkety things ‘creatives’ sweat blood to make for the audience’s entertainment.

Many times whilst rolling out MK, I definitely felt like an actor on stage desperately trying to be heard above the hubbub of a quite rowdy drinks party going on in the auditorium.

True, there’s a new generation of ‘digital play’ studios emerging that are clever at developing light-weight sets of tools, kits and/or basic rules rather than multimedia-rich ‘content’ – with the aim perhaps of allowing players to define their own play & story worlds, handing over control of where and when both story and game starts and ends – and defining who you get to play with and even what kind of story gets told.

It’s unclear to me as yet, though, that this DIY kit approach to interactive storytelling and play actually ends up supporting (or generating?) stories that have any serious impact or interest beyond a short period of intense play between a small group of people.

We all know the joy of banter around a card table (real or virtual) and have fond memories of goofy playground games, dressing up parties, unusual outings with friends and so on. But is this really the breeding ground for new *meaningful* forms of digital entertainment with broad appeal and longer term socio-cultural significance? For me, the jury’s still out on that one.