Game conference speech: "The Wonderful Power of Storytelling"

From the Computer Game Developers Conference, March 1991, San Jose CA

Thank you very much for that introduction. I'd like to thank theconference committee for their hospitality and kindness -- allthe cola you can drink -- and mind you those were genuinetwinkies too, none of those newfangled "Twinkies Lite" we'vebeen seeing too much of lately.

So anyway my name is Bruce Sterling and I'm a science fictionwriter from Austin Texas, and I'm here to deliver my speech now,which I like to call "The Wonderful Power of Storytelling." Ilike to call it that, because I plan to make brutal fun of thatwhole idea... In fact I plan to flame on just any moment now, Iplan to cut loose, I plan to wound and scald tonight.... Becausewhy not, right? I mean, we're all adults, we're allprofessionals here... I mean, professionals in totally differentarts, but you know, I can sense a certain simpatico vibe....

Actually I feel kind of like a mosasaur talking to dolphinshere.... We have a lot in common, we both swim, we both have bigsharp teeth, we both eat fish... But you look like a broadmindedcrowd, so I'm sure you won't mind that I'm basically, like,*reptilian*....

So anyway, you're probably wondering why I'm here tonight, somehopeless dipshit literary author... and when am I going to getstarted on the virtues and merits of the prose medium and itsgoddamned wonderful storytelling. I mean, what else can I talkabout? What the hell do I know about game design? I don't evenknow that the most lucrative target machine today is an IBM PCclone with a 16 bit 8088 running at 5 MHZ. If you start talkingabout depth of play versus presentation, I'm just gonna to stareat you with blank incomprehension....

I'll tell you straight out why I'm here tonight. Why should I