I attended the literature festival at Fantasy Faire today and it was rather a joy to behold. The session I attended was an Open Mic session whereby participants who were brave enough, could take centre stage and share their own personal stories, poetry and even Haiku.
Judi Newall was the star of the show but others volunteered.
I think virtual world storytelling is an under tapped market. There’s the opportunity to not only tell stories, but also to use the 3D environment to bring a story to life. Whereas today’s event didn’t use props, it still worked wonderfully well. There was a nice atmosphere and participants were well received.
The literature festival will be running throughout Fantasy Faire with a variety of themes including people reading famous works, their own works and engaging in discussion. Obviously this is a largely voice based experience and therefore some people won’t find it suitable. I most definitely have sympathy there as accessibility is very much something I believe in. Hopefully in the future tools will be developed to help people who have difficulty with voice to participate in these sessions.
I feel authors may be missing a trick by not embracing virtual worlds. The way the land lies, it looks like virtual worlds will grow in the future and this gives authors not only the chance to promote their work in virtual worlds, it also gives them the opportunity to meet their fans all over the world.
I sincerely hope that the literature festival prospers in future Fantasy Faires and that authors, especially of the fantasy lilt, see the potential of this sort of communication to not only tell their stories, but to also embrace their fans.