“The culture is getting more cognitively demanding, not less.”

- Steven Johnson, "Watching TV makes you Smarter," New York Times Magazine, (April 2005)

In his essay on ‘the sleeper curve’, Steven Johnson addresses the fact that television is becoming more intensive with its storylines. The growing industry that is online fiction, be it narrative or even video game fiction, is becoming aware that it needs to develop a newer method of writing. The many and varied styles and techniques that are used by writers of web based fiction are no longer enough because the audience now wants more. A blockbuster movie with multi-million dollar special effects will not be nearly as successful anymore if it does not have the well written story to back itself up with. A small low budget movie with a good narrative though, that will be around for a long time.

Readers of digital narrative want the same things that they have been receiving from other forms of narrative. A need for more intense stories has been noticed and the challenge has gone out. But is it really something that is in so much need? Is there really a demand for it? Are the visuals that have been created not enough?

With narratives such as Shelley Jackson’s Skin creating a story with a novelty, and games becoming more visually stunning, it is possible that writing has been left behind in the fight for better sales. There is a risk that gimmicks will become a much more common way for the artists and writers to achieve success, sacrificing depth and composition for the quick sale. If the reader wants more challenge in their texts, but the writers are only providing more puzzling or attention grabbing forms for the writings, does the world of fiction not run the risk of losing its ability to produce timeless classics? How do these great stories come about when the writer is only concerned with how they are going to get people to read their work? And are there great stories out there now that everybody is missing out on because they do not have the different form or style that grabs the attention initially?