Digitally Disillusioned

While it has been of tremendous influence in my life I’ve made efforts to downplay my move to Bioware and my switch to video game QA from web development. I think my most measures I have been modest in my expressing the details of the transition online. But I want to share something with you that speaks to why I wanted to switch specifically to a story driven company. But first, do you have 15 minutes? If you don’t come back when you do. I can wait.

I love stories. I think stories are an integral piece of how we relate to each other, and how we learn to understand ourselves. Since interactive entertainment is poised to move into new frontiers of story telling I am excited to be able to participate in what is still, by comparable measures, a story telling platform in its infancy.

I want to draw your attention to a specific story as an example of constructing an emotional response. That story is The Adventure of the Five Orange Pips by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and yes is a Sherlock Holmes story. If you have those 15 minutes you should read it right now here.

I have read this story many times over the years, and it is unparalleled in my esteem. It is one of my favorite short stories, and its only glaring flaw is the anachronistic subjective implications of using the Klu Klux Klan as a plot point, due to that organizations behaviors and incarnations in the many years since the story was authored. If you apply the brain power to look past that bias, you’ll find an extremely intriguing narrative that evokes a genuine sense of adventure and mystery, and due to the way it concludes it is a rare moment when the character of Holmes is quite relatable to the reader.

If I am ever able to create the stories I want in video game form this is certainly something I hope to be able to draw a lot of inspiration from.