I’ve long wanted to write this article, which is excellent, but Jeff Kaplan wrote it, and he has the position of authority on the matter, being the lead content designer on WoW. Interesting quote:

I’m as guilty of this as anyone else. We’re so fortunate and privileged to work in a medium that is not only an art, but a revolutionary interactive form of entertainment. It’s unfortunate to see so many games try to be what they’re not, including our game at times. Of course we should embrace the concept of story… art, literature, film, song, they’ve all embraced story as well. But they all tell it in their own unique way.

I feel like we need to deliver our story in a way that is uniquely video game. We need to engage our audience by letting them be the hero or the villain or the victim. [Art, film, literature], they’re tools. But we need to engage our players in sort of an inspiring experience, and the sooner we accept that we are not Shakespeare, Scorsese, Tolstoy or the Beatles, the better off we are.

A lot of comments responded to this quote negatively, which I think means its misunderstood. So let me try to explain what I think he meant – he’s not saying that story is bad or broken in a game. He’s just saying that video games (and MMOs in particular) are a medium in their own right, and that have their own rules for what works or what doesn’t. This isn’t unusual- the Watchmen is a good example that some stuff that works great in the Graphic Novel medium doesn’t work so well in a movie.

As an example, Mass Effect isn’t a great story-telling game because it’s like a movie. It’s a great story game because it leverages the strongest aspects of the video game genre. Yes, a lot of this includes cinematic touches, but it also includes embracing story interactivity.

Original comments thread is here.