Virtual Reality – Take Two

Look out – Façade is on its way. Billed as "an artificial intelligence-based art/research experiment in electronic narrative – an attempt to move beyond traditional branching or hyper-linked narrative to create a fully-realized, one-act interactive drama". The blurb goes on:

You, the player, using your own name and gender, play the character of a longtime friend of Grace and Trip, an attractive and materially successful couple in their early thirties. During an evening get-together at their apartment that quickly turns ugly, you become entangled in the high-conflict dissolution of Grace and Trip’s marriage.

Er, excuse me, is this entertainment, a training experience, or a reminder that I sometimes want to get away from real life and switch off for a couple of hours? I don’t think I want to witness the breakup of someone’s marriage – I’ve seen too much of that in the real world.

I think I’m getting nostalgic for the days when computer games consisted of "go North" and "a hollow voice says ‘Plugh!’"