GS: Games graphics are getting more impressive all the time, but they still have a ways to go until they are as realistic as movie visuals. Do you think it's harder for games to instill the same emotion as films?

DF: That spellbinding graphics are required to evoke emotions seems like a very logical assumption--until you read Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. There he lays out a very convincing set of arguments that we're often more likely to identify with a character who is less rendered--for instance, a Peanuts character--than one who is highly detailed. He ties this to the fact that, unless we're looking in a mirror, we never see our own face in detail, just the faces of others. Therefore, he hypothesizes that when we see a less detailed face we're more likely to project our emotions into the character; when we see a highly rendered face, we're more likely to feel we're looking at another person. Scott backs this theory up with lots of evidence.