There was this one time at id Software when we were working on Quake 2 and everyone piled into Paul Steed's office to check out what Valve was doing was our tech. And there was a cinematic scene with characters moving around while a crane operating and multiple cameras panning around to convey some element of the narrative. Proper cinematic storytelling using the Quake engine! And I let out a breathless "WOW." The whole room turned around and scowled at me. Ha. That was the moment I knew, "OK, well. I want to tell stories with this tech. And these guys don't." That was why, on the day I was fired from id, I first cried... and then driving home with a box of my crap in the trunk of the car, I began smiling. Then laughing. And the first chance I was given to do something on my own with that tech? Well, I pushed it as hard as I could in relation to surreal visuals and cinematic storytelling. 26 years later and I can still say "Wow."