Q: Do you think a good, meaningful story is possible in an ever-changing world that all users can change?

Ray Muzyka: I think a great story is possible, because if you think about it, the narrative is actually possible in multiple directions. There's a social narrative between players, there's the external narrative outside of the game with social networking. And then there's the internal narrative of the choices you make, and then there's the internal narrative of the story arch being created and kind of evolving over time, both on the player's user-generated content and the way they make choices and their impact on the world, but also the developers actually create a story arch that has some kind of purpose or overarching goal to it. So you can look at it almost like an onion with multiple layers of narrative, and that's one of the reasons why I think interactive fiction is so exciting, because it has those multiple layers that aren't really possible or as achievable in a more passive, linear medium. They can have good stories as well, but I think there are different kinds of narratives that are deeply exciting, in some ways more exciting, in non-linear fiction.

Q: There's obviously, as we've discussed, a growing trend of trying to grow the gaming audience. A lot of it has to do with hardware, for now, but do you think narrative in games, just by their nature, can grow the gaming audience?

Greg Zeschuk: They definitely do. Story is the most common, fundamental thing that we all share. It's there from the beginning of human time, sitting around the campfire telling stories is an entertainment form. Movies are an extension of that, and games are now becoming an extension of that. I think it's exciting to see where we are right now, because the technology is getting to the point where barriers are being broken down, and we are able to explore stories in different ways. For us, it's gotten to the point where it's real. You're looking at these characters that are believable, and you can actually engage with them. It's exciting because I think we're past infancy, we're in the toddler stage now. In the past ten years we've gone from really tiny pixely characters to Commander Shepard. Ten more years, who knows. It's crazy.