I was tricked into it.

First of all, I'd just like to point out that that was a tricky, deceitful thing that Joe did. It was kind of an unspoken vow for me to never play Dungeons & Dragons, and now I feel like an oath has been broken because technically Scourge of Worlds is Dungeons & Dragons and technically we have all played it.

I have personal standards to live by and good grief Joe, now the means of my learning is tearing down all I held holy.

Ha.

Okay, so as a piece of interactive media, I have to say that this game didn't really live up to all it could have. I'm guessing a lot of other people are going to feel the same way. The idea and the means are pretty interesting, like we talked about, it's a choose your own adventure movie, basically... aka a game. My little brother was really into this game called Fable for a while, and it was basically a souped up version of this, but a computer game. You chose the path to take, becoming good or evil or walking the line in between... with all kinds of stuff going on in the meantime.

I think the problem with using the dvd in this way is that the market's already cornered. Like the laser disc, the beta viewer, the mini disc player, etc, this is a medium that can't compete with the computer or video game systems that already exist. There are other avenues that would be far more interesting to delve into, such as the possibilities for movies. There is so much that could be done with perspective, audio tracks, etc that could completely restructure the idea of storytelling with movies. All those books we've read that never worked as a movie because of the multiple storylines within the same timeline could be realized visually, with the viewer in control of how much or how little of the story is seen.

little beepies everywhere

(1)These little games were full minutes of enjoyment, but it was only personally interactive. In some instances, there was only one button, and at most two, so although when the game was started, the object and strategy for success was not yet known, it was quickly identifiable.(2)All of us sat in our chairs, intent on the beeps and lcds in front of us. You could take it a step further by choreographing (in a way) the beeps. With about 16 of us that's not only technically difficult, but also would be pretty freakin cool, too. (3)The sound is the thing that stands out the most, as it probably was for a lot of people, especially since it was acknowledged. It's also interesting how important it became to beat these little games since we were all sitting together, meeting the same challenge (if you can call it that). In my head at least there was a small degree of competition (mostly because Liz had to be all up ons and whatnot, sayin she was the video game master. We'll see about that Liz Whealy!). (4)I don't know if this registered enough with me to produce any dislikes. Maybe if I was forced to play them for an hour, rather than 10 minutes, a substantial set of objections would form. That idea is interesting all on its own. (5)As we touched on during play, this could all be turned into an art experience through the use of sound and as I said before, made even more interesting by planning out and choreographing the beeps, or installing them in new environments.