STORYTRON

I am a big fan of the work of Gary Alan Fine.  Sometimes I wondered if the guy was following my life; two of his studies involved cultural groups to which I have belonged: high school debaters and kitchen workers.   His study that was most influential on me was also one that studied a group to which I once belonged - in his "Shared Fantasy" he wrote about the nerdiest of nerdy groups, D&D players.  What interested me most about Fine's work was his assertion that gaming is essentially creating a collaborative narrative.   And it is this narrative that interests the little folklorist in me.   

This brings me to a recent post from the seminal blog "Boing Boing" about the launch of a new narrative-creating game called "Storytron."  The initial story is about geopolitics and treaty-making, which, admittedly, does not interest me much.   However, the concept of gaming as storytelling does enough that I believe it is worth a looksee.