Chris Crawford on Game Design

Chapter 20. Excalibur

Gossip was a pure design exercise; I never intended it to be a product. I desired only to demonstrate that a game addressing social interactions could be built. Underlying my efforts here was a much grander ambition.

I had been inspired by John Boorman's magnificent exposition of the Arthurian legends in the movie Excalibur. I wanted to create something as noble as Boorman's film. The Arthurian legends seemed to be the ideal vehicle for my efforts. These legends have played such an important role in Western literature because they have carried just about every basic dramatic theme and idea. Starting off as a defeated people's wistful legends of past glory, they were modified by the French troubadours to suit the ideals ...