Snow Crash

Reading even a portion of Snow Crash was a fascinating and somewhat dizzying experience. I use the latter descriptor due to the fact that Snow Crash is by far the most bafflingly quintessentially cyberpunk piece of media I've ever encountered, even as somewhat of a parody. A key feature of Snow Crash's world is the Metaverse, a virtual space in which users can perform a range of augmented reality tasks, not unlike a futuristic version of the game Second Life. The Metaverse ultimately proves dangerous as the titular drug, Snow Crash, transmits both a computer virus through the Metaverse and harmful side effects in real life, as well as more easily spreading the Sumerian language, which serves, effectively, as a programming language for human beings. The implication of this may be that Stephenson is condemning reliance on technology or, more likely, that Stephenson is suggesting humans and machines are not so unlike one another.

GDC

The 2016 Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco was an incredible opportunity and spectacle to take part in, and though the primary focus was on the art and design of video games, there was a noticeable emergent conversation regarding narrative and writing in games. Several panels presented by employees working at studios such as Bioware centered around various aspects of writing, considerable buzz surrounded the nominees for "best narrative", and it was more common than one might expect to spot nametags with "writing" filled in under the occupation or interest field. I spoke at length with several such individuals at parties regarding narrative supporting gameplay and vice versa, examples of writing ingrained into the core functions of games, and general career tips, such as one indie developer who advised me to "publish something on Kindle for 99 cents, because I already almost made 10,000 dollars." I also ran into a representative of the Screenwriter's Guild on the career floor, who mentioned that the Guild was becoming increasingly interested in game writing, and provided advice for becoming involved with writing for a team which hinged on, in his words, having a presence. Though it wasn't the main focus by a longshot, I feel I walked away from GDC with an improved understanding of the workings of writing for games, and with a greater sense of confidence and knowledge when approaching my own work.