Killswitch

100% agreed! It's always nice to gain insight from one of the masters. In my early days, the best experience I gleaned for game writing came from the old-school pen & paper days. Story construction consisted of a fixed "large scope/big picture" plot with several variable subplots interwoven into the players' paths. The main plot was inflexible but accounted for player choice by being designed in such a way that the outcomes were mainly Boolean. The variable subplots weren't fixed and presented players with "story" they may or may not fully explore. I often find myself disappointed with many game "stories" that fail to utilize the interactive medium in lieu of inundating players with too much exposition and/or cut-scenes. Maybe this is why I've grown to dislike the rigid formula of most Japanese RPGs and their extremely linear path of "play this, now watch this cinematic?" "Let players tell their own stories" is great and all but there really needs to be a great amount of context from which these stories can be derived. If players are supplied with a rich history, setting and a supporting cast to draw from, player-crafted tales are all the richer and memorable!