The PLAYER is the storyteller.

– love dani

I think we’re going to have to disagree — or, at least, agree that we’re coming at this issue from two different angles. Mass Effect 2 is a game I liked a lot. I don’t know that it’s a story I liked a lot, though — in fact, it’s overall story is largely incomprehensible or silly, so generic I can barely commit much attention to it. And part of me wonders if that’s a necessary thing. What you describe — “Great action movie!” “Cheering and shouting!” are not the earmarks of a good story. They’re marks of a good experience. And ME2 is very much that. It’s a great experience. And it takes special crafting to come up with that level of experience. It’s a dumb story in a rich storyworld — a generic adventure amidst great characters, fascinating situations, and troubling moral quandaries.

And, to be clear, I don’t consider that a bad thing.

Now, when you talk about options — Frodo dies, Sauron wins, Eowyn falls down a well and is eaten by piranha — that’s great, and that’s part of the consideration that a *game* designer needs to think about. It’s a different toolset. Hell, it’s a different mindset.

But, but, but! Tolkien probably would’ve shot himself if he thought that’s what people wanted from his story. A well-crafted story makes all the elements as they happen critical to the piece. Frodo making it all the way is important to the story. Aragorn’s choices matter. They all matter. Everything matters. But in a story where everything is *optional* then nothing can matter, not from the creator-driven, author-described experience.

That’s a very big difference. It puts a lot of power in the player’s hands, and takes a lot of power away from the author. And *that’s okay* — but it’s an important realization on the road toward creating good game stories.

– c.