Neil Gaiman, xbox360, and the computer virus in my head

Neil Gaiman, who happens to be visiting the Rose O'Neill Literary House in April for a reading (a fact which has most of us here at the House stuck in happy awe, our normal preparatory tasks now being done while whistling, while singing to the birds), wrote, in his short story collection Smoke and Mirrors: "I don't play many computer games anymore. When I did, I noticed they tended to take up areas of my head. Blocks fell or little men ran and jumped behind my eyelids as I went to sleep. Mostly I'd lose, even when playing with my mind."

I've spent my scant free time of the past few months working to beat Bioware's Mass Effect on the xbox360, a device which was purchased after I somehow became quite good at shooting alien forces in the game Halo some years ago. It's not a talent you might expect me to have. When I play these videogames for too many hours straight, I dream about them at night. I fight the aliens, drive the tanks, strategize the missions. Game's like Mass Effect, which allow for cross-character conversation using a "conversation wheel" to assist you in choosing your attitude, a certain tact, and exactly what to say even end up imposing a conversation wheel over the images in my dreams, sometimes over my waking conversations as well!

And then I start to wonder - who is writing these conversational options? Who is plotting out these complex story lines? In Mass Effect, each planet that you visit - no small number of them - has a history, a geography, a geology - that you read about in a pop-up menu. In Eldar Scrolls: Oblivion, each one of those small books and scrolls - hundreds of them - that you pick up along the paths, in hidden rooms, on the tables in shops - have side stories that were written by...well, not by the computer programmers! Video games are a lot more than just 1's and 0's. There must be a few clever English majors and creative writers on staff....

What a fantastic career to have. Does anyone know anyone who does this for a living? They'd make a great guest at the Literary House!

A treat for those of you familiar with the woes of the conversation wheel: Ass Effect - "I must know more about these trays..."

KAB