Games 2006 in Portalegre, Portugal
Chris Crawford made an outstanding performance, saying that the paradigm shift in videogames would go from "fun, spectacle, and excitement" towards "interactive storytelling". This might have been a convincing statement ten or twenty years ago, but now it seemed as if he was the old paradigm. As I said he was quite a performer. Yes, it certainly was not boring to listen to. Jason Della Rocca and I had to tell him he was barking up the wrong tree though.


Chris Crawford

On the positive side Jason Della Rocca and Joseph Olin both gave realistic visions of the future of videogame industry. They were very laid back and a pair of fine lads. In the evening we got together with animation researcher Veronica Costa and had an exquisite meal with lots of meat. More than any of us could eat. Luckily, Veronica spoke portuguese.


Joseph, Jason, and Veronica

More on the positive side Hugh McCabe had some exciting thoughts on videogame cinematography. Joris Dormans made a point about how to make better dialogue in games, and Laura Vallius had some interesting ideas on experiences in videogames with some expressive examples. My own presentation about sub-creation went pretty well too. My message got through and maybe someone will even try to use these ideas some day. Who knows?


Laura Vallius