For Spector, it's none of those things, although he accepts that he enjoys the pleasures they all bring. Instead, his criteria for success is fourfold.
"The first is player power," he explained. " Are you epowering players to tell a new story in collaboration? Next, have I delivered one thing in the game that nobody has ever seen or done before? Thirdly, have I allowed the player to see the world through the eyes of someone different to themselves - have I let them walk in someone else's shoes? And have I made a game about something beyond what's on the surface? Have I made them think? These are the four things which define success for me."
That first point, telling a story in collaboration with a player, is something so unique to games that the medium has a "moral obligation" to fulfil its potential, says Spector. It's a theme he's tried to thread into every game he's ever made, encouraging players to see their choices as a part of the ongoing narrative of the experience, having a tangible effect on the outcome. It all began, he says, with a game of Dungeons and Dragons over 40 years ago. It probably helped that he had Bruce Sterling, one of the leading lights of modern science fiction, as his DM...
