A panel of UK-based developers and journalists are speaking for the first time at a British music festival about whether games are capable of telling stories commensurate with those expressed in books, movies and other established narrative mediums.
Developers Peter Molyneux (
Godus), Barry Meade (
The Room Two) and Siobhan Reddy (
LittleBigPlanet 2) will join Eurogamer's Ellie Gibson and Kotaku UK editor Keza MacDonald at the Latitude music and arts festival in Suffolk, England this Friday to talk about whether or not games are well-suited to telling complex stories, and whether they should even have stories at all.
It's a long-running debate, one we've covered many times in both our feature stories -- including this
inquiry into the value of game narrative by Mohawk Games' Soren Johnson, published in Game Developer magazine last year -- and our developer blogs.
However, this is the first time we've seen such a discussion take place at Latitude, a mid-scale festival (last year's event drew over 35,000 attendees) devoted to showcasing music and dramatic performances. This year's lineup includes musical artists like Robyn, The Black Keys, and Booker T. Jones alongside panels on Georgian court intrigue, data privacy, and the afore-mentioned game narrative panel.
The panel -- '
Storytelling: Can Games Ever Be Better Than Books?' -- will be put on by British publication The New Statesman in partnership with the Latitude Festival.
New Statesman editor John Elledge will moderate the debate, which will take place in the Latitude Festival's Literary Arena on Friday, July 18. Anyone interested in the panel but unable or unwilling to attend the festival should keep an eye on the
Latitude YouTube channel, where recordings of select festival performances and talks are often published.
