Without reading the previous posts, I gotta agree with Ken's statement. After all, the games with the greatest longevity are the ones where you can right jump into it and have fun, without any "stupid" deeply involved plot that just hinders your entertainment. Think of Blizzard games, Diablo, WOW etc. I sure don't play these games for the story. And the more developers concentrate on interesting gameplay, and narrative that really comes through suggestive themes instead of cutscenes, the better. Good story is nice and all, but like many "story-driven" games like Bioware games, NWN2, Kotor etc. I only play them once, then I sell them, simply because they lost any appeal to me after a playthrough.
There's hope though that Obsidian will accomplish a classic with Alpha Protocol. Cool setting, cool locations, good action, fast story delivery. No "stupid" line after line reading. Yay!