I posted an essay version of a short talk I gave at an Austin Game Developers' meeting in March: "How Has Inventory Management In Computer Role-Playing Games Affected The Way I Pack?" It's one way of phrasing the question: how have videogames affected me as a person? Which is part of a broader inquiry: does a group of people with deep experience playing videogames solve problems differently? Or engage in different sorts of relationships?

This is a personal question for me; it's also a generational question affecting people who grew up with game devices plugged in to their TVs. Even if people didn't play much, I'm beginning to believe that the very form of a video game influences people. It's a conceptual shift along the lines of Ong, when you see that you can manipulate the content on the teevee.

Today Jane and Ryan and I drive down to Los Angeles for E3, a big video game trade show, to further explore these issues.