Narrative Criticism

(Not intended as a question or an mean insult, just passing along a narrative criticism/complaint on another forum that felt like it had a (blunt) point to it. The "one voice in a sea of many" re: R&D def seems to get lost on the blog.) "He needs to stop talking about tales where he is the lone hero battling against the rest of R&D to prove something work and is great, and how he finally overcomes this to save the game. It's a bit tiresome and really creates the image that Mark is Magic."

I’ve talked about this many times. One of my jobs as the chief communicator for Magic is to get as many people as possible to listen to what I have to say. I do not serve my role if no one listens. A key to doing this is to be entertaining. Yes, I’m also trying to be informative but that matters not if no one is paying attention. The key to being entertaining is to present things in the form of stories. It’s a time-tested means of holding the interest of humans. Stories have to have a narrative. There needs to be conflict. Now, that conflict at times is others not seeing what I see. That’s not the only conflict. Sometimes I have a daunting problem. Sometimes I have a restriction I have to work with. Sometimes outside forces are working against all of R&D. Sometimes I’m the conflict and I learn I’m wrong. All of these are stories I’ve told time and again. This year I will write my seven hundredth article, three hundredth podcast, one thousandth comic (okay, that one already happened) and my fifty thousandth answer on my blog. I have a giant amount of content to fill. The “fighting to prove I’m right against all odds” is a compelling story and I’ll use it when it works (and is true). But that is not the only story I’m telling. I make it a point to credit people when they are the one who’s done something. I’ve told many stories where I was wrong. I stress time and again how important the collaborative process is. If all you take away from what I say and write is “Mark thinks he’s Magic” I would argue you’re selectively choosing what to listen to.