Following up on story in Video Games...

As a gamer since about age 6, I found Rich's incites into the state of storytelling in video games to be very fascinating. While fun gameplay definitely comes first for me in my game choices, the fact is that with the budget and work going into current games there is no excuse for mediocre storytelling. I think that the line between games where story is an important element and the games where it is not a critical part of the game is becoming more defined. While story can be essential in a modern, open ended 3D adventure or in an experimental game such as Heavy Rain, in more arcade minded independent games story has reverted to its former simplicity. As Rich mentioned, the role of story in games was initially just to give purpose to whatever goals you achieve in the game. I look forward to seeing the new ways that developers might approach story as experimental games are becoming more and more prevalent as downloadable content on the current generation of game consoles.