November 12, 2006
MarkBernstein.org
 

Endless

J. Nathan Matias weighs in on the question of Stories in MMOGs and the End Which Never Comes. A very useful point:

When I go to the cafeteria and meet my MMORPG-playing friends, they never tire of telling me about their adventures hunting Chinese farmers, or taking out some monster. WoW has renewed the oral tradition. When I hear them, I imagine it as a taste of the storytelling in Mead-halls during the time when stories like Beowulf were first told....Some stories aren't even about the battles or quests -- did you hear? Ed just sold his helmet and bought two hundred fireworks. It happened this way....

The bottom line for Matias is a response to Michael Joyce's "Closure is a suspect quality":

Goals....leave us with a satisfying place to stop playing.

Are we reading yet?