Rant against 3D: "3-D isn’t an interface paradigm. 3-D isn’t a world model. 3-D isn’t the missing ingredient. 3-D isn’t an inherently better representation for every purpose. 3-D is an attribute, like the color blue. Any time you read or hear about how great 3-D is and how it’s going to change everything about computers and services, substitute the word blue for 3-D"

Hear, hear. My favourite recent example of this was a guy at a recent mobile games event I attended, talking about mobile games his company had been producing. He proffered the handy statistic that 3D games sold the same amount as 2D games, but cost about twice as much to produce.

So... err.... why bother doing them then?

Along with 3D I'd also put the word "interactive" into the box of magical pixie dust words that get sprinkled onto crap in an attempt to make it interesting and appealing. Interactivity in and of itself isn't a priori a good thing. I think the video and film production industry might be learning this lesson, when balancing production costs for truly interactive narratives against the payback for doing them well.