"Is it possible to make a game that is significant in the way that Amistad or Titanic was? Or, perhaps, a better example: a work of art on the level of Dostoevsky that makes someone actually contemplate themselves and their condition? Or make them cry? Or make their stomachs knot with what they're feeling?"

Submitted by: Michael Mullins, English major

Answered by: Jane Jensen (novelist/designer, Sierra On-Line)

"Certainly, it's possible. Interactive story-telling is simply a medium, just like film or print. It has limits and advantages, like any medium, but the limits are certainly not serious enough (in my opinion) to prevent meaningful content. It's up to the game developer, or writer/designer, to make great content and the final product's value -- whether 'the best shoot 'em up ever' or 'really funny and entertaining' or 'family entertainment' or 'meaningful emotional content on a literary scale' -- depends on the intent, interests, and talent of the creator and team that put the product together.

"The biggest limiting factor at the moment seems to be the audience for the medium. 'Games' are not taken very seriously by most adults -- rather like the comic industry -- and the primary audience the medium does have is out for entertainment and action, not intellectual erudition. However, some creators have and do strive to tell intelligent stories.

"As for the future, it depends on whether this medium can attract its own Orson Welles or Quentin Tarantino."

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