First person: new media as story, performance, and game

Electronic games have established a huge international market, significantly outselling non-digital games; people spend more money on Sims than on Monopoly or even on Magic: the Gathering. Yet it is widely believed that the market for electronic literature -- predicted by some to be the future of the written word -- languishes. Even bestselling author Stephen King achieved disappointing results with his online publication of Riding the Bullet and The Plant. Isn't it possible, though, that many hugely successful computer games -- those that depend on or at least utilize storytelling conventions of narrative, character, and theme -- can be seen as examples of electronic literature? And isn't it likely that the…