You see, every time I play GTA San Andreas I find something new thats cool. Its a world that I can explore. I get to choose my path through it and there are all these interesting, entertaining things that I can play with along the way. I'll be done with this game when there is nothing more for me to do. When I've experienced all of it.

] I've said it before, all you need to get through this life is a
] little patience - and a speedball.

Today I discovered that Tommy "The Nightmare" Smith, the burnt out rocker who DJs the oldies station, is played by Axl Rose. Now, how fucking cool is that?

Sometimes you get so sunk into the pattern of daily life that you forget what makes life interesting. Its that feeling of new experience that I like. Playing this game has actually made me think about things in the world that I want to experience that I haven't bothered to yet. Places I need to go while I'm here. Things I still need to do. Thats pretty amazing for a video game.

What I want these games to start doing is letting me explore the real world through the game. There is something important about creating an environment and letting me decide how I'm going to consume it, instead of spoon feeding it to me in a predetermined way. But if it was a place I'd never been before, and it was accurately built, and the things that I could play with where related to the real place and its history. Well it would be all the more compelling. It would be tourism without getting up. And I think it would change the way people think about the world. When you went there for real, you'd know where you were.

We're still learning to tell stories this way. When we really get good at it, its going to make everything that came before it pale in comparison.