Variety Friday: The Main Character

Main characters in games tend to have a few things in common.  First, they are usually male, and if they are female; they are usually badass, or over sexualized.  They usually do not represent the “every-day man” and are in general, bad ass.  Now I’m not saying having a badass dude character is bad, but it is bad for the industry when it’s true for nearly every game.

The problem is that I believe it is easier to simply have a badass character, it allows the developers to focus on another aspect of the game, other than “progressing the character”.  If you wanted to have a badass character, why couldn’t you have it like that in the end of the game, and at the beginning have the character be a complete n00b.  Not only would it help the player relate to the character, it would help them see how the character evolved into a badass.  Think of if in Mass Effect you started out as a recruit and shit went down, Mass Effect 2 you heard of the reaper invasion and had to serve under someone to fight the reaper threat.  Then in Mass Effect 3 you were a lone survivor on Earth and had to start from scratch.  Now that doesn’t sound as fun does it?

The reason for this is because it shifts the focus of the game, the game would have had to be envisioned completely different, and I believe that it honestly would have allowed the player to really connect to Sheppard, or whoever the main character may be, more so than starting out as a badass.  Now since Mass Effect is a great series, I’m not saying that all games should do this, I’m saying more games should take risks and try this.  A game that did this on a smaller scale is Dragon Age: Origins.  You chose an origin story and it dropped you in, showed you your characters previous background and had the player play out the events that lead up to him becoming a badass.  Within the experience of “n00b-to-pro” the player made game altering choices.  Now the game didn’t solely focus on this, which is okay, what’s important is that it builds upon the player’s initial actions and let the player create a larger bond to their character through interaction and choices.

Now a much simpler example of “The Common Man” who starts out not knowing much can actually be found in one of this year’s most popular games, Minecraft.  If you think about it the actual character within the game doesn’t know anything except how to punch stuff.  It is up to the player, who at the beginning also knows nothing, to learn how to make a simple shelter, and learn from mistake the dangers of night.  As you play more you as a player learn how to make more and more advanced stuff, this is a great example of having the character, and player, learn as they play.

Now female characters in games are an entirely different subject, since game developers (I’m looking at you Japanese!) have an odd tendency to give almost any female character big breasts so she is less of a main character and more of eye candy.  Bayonetta for example, it was a fun game, but the main character may have been a bit overboard, it may have fit that game’s style, but it doesn’t fit all.  Even Catherine!  At the beginning it seemed like it was all well and good until miss I’m a Demon or Something (Spoilers!) comes walking in all sexy and ready for a good time.

A game that has done a female character well is harder for me to think of, but the first…and only thing that currently popped into my mind, besides certain MMOs, is Hydrophobia.  Their goal was to have a female main character with an obvious weakness which she then was forced to overcome.  Unfortunately the game had subpar voice acting and didn’t really show the aspect of Hydrophobia all that much, as within 15 minutes the main character was essentially diving headfirst into giant swimming pools, but they tried to portray an average female character, and did it well.  Not only that but the game was fun, they also didn’t have a “badass” female character, instead they had an intelligent one.  The game’s gameplay aspect was to use your environment to kill enemies, so the character, and player, had to be intelligent which made the gameplay unique.  As far as the problems go, they released the game on steam with tons of fixed and additions so it is probably better to be played on PC.  Unfortunately I played on the 360 when it first came out.

Now as far as races go, I’m just going to give one example and call it good, Dungeons and Dragons.  That game allows you to play any race with any skin color with any attitude.  More games need to be as free as DnD and let the character fully choose how they want their main character to be, whether it be race, gender, or traits.  

The Tale of a n00b DM: We Aren't in Fallcrest Anymore....

This is my new weekly article in which I will write about my weekly DnD campaign, what works, what doesn’t work, and all that.

----------

Prequel: My campaign first began with a simple escort contract, taken up by the Elf Slayer, Shale Avalon, the Human Warpriest, Mike Walsy, and the Halfling Thief, Darth Reven.  Though when the caravan was ambushed by goblins and the man they were supposed to protect got insured, little did they know this would start them all on an epic (more or less) adventure.

After they repelled the attack, they learned that the precious chest in the back of the wagon was gone, and because of their contract, they were inclined to get the item back at all costs.  Leaving the dwarf merchant alone, they started off East which is where they figured the goblins came from.  They arrived at a suspicious cave with a small squad of goblin guards at the entrance, so they figured they were in the right place.  They used clever thinking to allow themselves to be captured by the goblins, only then to spring a trap and kill them all, while losing a little bit of gold in the process.  The found the doors to what appeared to be an ancient temple in the back of the cave, and continued onwards.

Inside the ruins they killed a bunch of goblins while also discovering some other secrets, like a common-speaking dragon who gave them information about the necromancer in the back of the cave, as well as a reward for his head, though the dragon was sitting upon a magic circle, which upon examination leads to a stocked treasure stash.  They also found a clever chess board trap, in which moving outside the bounds of their assigned chess piece wouldn’t be a good for their health.  They finally found the necromancer and engaged in combat with him and his undead minions after threats seemed to not provoke any interest.  The priest was pinned in a corner by multiple undead, with his only possible escape being over a bookcase, many failed attempts and a new inside joke later, he got out, and made quick work of the necromancer and his minions, while killing the undead ogre with a natural 20.  They learned that the item in the box was a human skull with “necromantic properties” and they found an enchanted item or two in a chest, as well as a necromancer’s book on a bookshelf.

They returned to the dragon for their reward, and then walked outside (and for anyone who noticed, this is the end of the pre-set 4e Red Box mission) only to be greeted by more undead, and a seemingly crazy woman and her assistant, Clyde.  They asked for the skull, and since the adventurers refused to give it to her, they engaged in combat, killing them all, but having trouble with their final enemy, an undead horse rider.  They went back to the merchant who was still okay, to receive an award.  The merchant then left without them heading straight for the town of Fallcrest, leaving the adventurers in the middle of nowhere. 

After another encounter or two and multiple attempts at ditching the selfish thief (to no avail) they arrive at Fallcrest, eager to spend their money.  The adventurers decide to stay together and head towards the dwarven outpost of Hammerfast, which is home to many…odd properties, such as ghosts and undead walking the streets, not seeming to harm anyone, and some interacting with others.  They headed to an Inn to get some rest (and ale) as well as searching for information on possible “sources of income” since it seemed Hammerfast wasn’t in an immediate need for adventurers.  They learned of a possible revolution going on to the south in the valley of Harkenwold.  They arrived just in time to save a woman from bandits, after which they learned more about the revolution and how they could help.  They sought out an old witch, who told them a few ways to help turn the tides of the revolution, which they completed before heading to the main stronghold of the enemy, a heavily fortified castle to finish the revolution they may have well started.

Their plan for infiltrating the castle took inspiration from the movie Prince of Persia, as Shale scaled the wall of the castle, raising alarm, but also getting inside.  He threw two of the guards off the wall so that his other two companions could get their armor to attempt to walk in the front door.  It took a little persuading, but they managed to get inside, while Shale took out a whole squad of archers.  They learned of the location of one of the leaders/high value targets and headed his way.  They entered one of the castle’s interior towers, and made way downstairs into the dungeon, which was guarded by a demon.  Some hand gestures, as well as a large sum of money and sharing of gods between Reven and the demon, got him to exit the room.  They found a prince, clearly over 65 years in age, imprisoned in there, who told them that if they kill the leader, he could give them some nice items as a reward.  They agreed, but alerted the guards in the process, forcing them to fight their way to the secret passage that leads to the target’s quarters, they got their and killed him off.  Their actions won the revolution for the valley, and they were branded Heroes of Harkenwold.  This is also the time that my Thief, Reven, decided to become a mage, and reinvented himself as Darth Nithus.

They head off in search of more work, and went to help out the leader of the trade guild in Hammerfast.  They were tasked with stealing an expensive cloak from a rival family, with a hefty reward.  They entered the complex to find a guard’s house with a guard inside, they ended up killing him to get the key to the front gate, but caused a pretty big fire in the process.  Due to the fire, they were greeted by a very large group of dwarfs, which the killed as well.  The inside of the castle was big, and they ended up scaring, then bribing some guards to get info on where the cloak was.  They entered the dungeon to find a thief locked away, instead of being diplomatic, they decided to kill him to have one more encounter and get their action point back, this was their mistake as the thief conjured up a mage hand to steal thievery tools from Nithus and allowing himself to be freed by a natural 20 thievery check rolled by myself.  After becoming bloodied, he turned invisible and escaped.  They continued down the corridors until they got to the cloak, and had a 2^nd encounter with the thief, who again, when weakened, disappeared.  Our heroes grabbed the cloak and made for the exit, but not before the traps were activated.  They avoided them all until they came to a Huge gelatinous cube, which our wizard teleported past and the only action he ever took was to laugh as the Slayer engaged in One on One combat, ultimate leading to his death, as the gelatinous cube had 3 health remaining.

Nithus booked it out, and instead of completing what he was tasked with, he sold the cloak for a large sum of money he could only dream of, though there is now an outstanding bounty for his arrest/head within Hammerfast by the trade captain. 

Shale found himself awoken with his head covered and chained to a wall, he was able to shake off his head covering, and found himself in ancient ruins with two guards, and with a Half-Elf chained up next to him (played by our guest player).  Nithus learned that Shale’s body was sold to a dark rider who headed west, and started traveling with the Warpriest Mike.  Shale and the Half-Elf freed themselves and found their equipment stashed nearby, and at that moment Mike and Nithus entered through a window.  Now having a moment out of combat, they did some checks and learned that they were on the “Keep on the Shadowfell”, ancient ruins built to preserve a giant portal linking the Nentir Vale (where our heroes currently are) and the realm of the Shadowfell, and that the current inhabitants of the ruins are followers of Orcus.  They advanced their way into a central chamber which had a 30ft arch in it, which also had a cloaked figure saying chants out of Shale’s necromancers book in front of it.  (At this point the Half-Elf jumped out a window and ran away) Our heroes fought the demons inside, but it seemed that the chanting figure had a force field around him so he could not be damaged/interrupted.  Mike decided to do something reckless and broke all but one of the large support beams, and then threatened to break the last one, as he signaled this to the chanting figure, he said one last word as the archway turned into a large black portal, which sucked them, and the building into it, in a very Portal 2-esque moment.

They awoke on top of a ruined tower, which was filled with 4 floors of demons and monsters; they fought their way to the 2^nd floor, and all jumped out as Shale almost got carried away by a Gargoyle.  Mike was able to tame a gargoyle and got it as his new companion, and they fought off the rest.  They were able to deduce that they were in the middle of nowhere, and also in the Shadowfell, a gloomy plain much different from their own.  They headed along what they assumed was a path until they arrived to something odd, it seemed like Hammerfast, just the way it was in the Nentir Vale, besides the dark sky  of course.  They slept in a familiar inn, but awoke to learn that all the inhabitants of the town were vampires and they were about to be made dinner.  They were able to escape and ran out of the town.

Today’s Game: Our heroes, and their Gargoyle, continued down the path set before them, when they arrived at a seemingly abandoned and toppled wagon, inside they found some gold, but also (in one of the oldest tricks in the book) they found an ambush.  Before engaging in combat, the “main dude” spoke about how it seems that they found their target “3 adventures clearly lost and not from this plain”, they were clearly followers of Orcus.  They killed them all, but their Golem also killed “Fluffy” Mike’s gargoyle, the reason I chose to kill the Gargoyle was because it was becoming a pain to handle and deal with within combat.  They still continued on the path, hoping to arrive at some sort of safe haven, when an Inn with a glowing lantern on the top of it appeared, seemingly, out of nowhere.  Mike and Shale entered, while our wizard, Nithus, was still suspicious after being chained to a bed by vampires in an Inn.  It seemed welcoming, and Nithus ended up teleporting inside.  They were greeted by a Halfling host who introduced this place as the “House of the Black Lantern” an Inn which helps people in need.  They bought some beer and then went to sleep, covering the room with chain so there would be a loud noise if any of them moved an inch, they awoke safely, and looking out the window they just saw black. 

After some bribery (and threats) they convinced the Halfling to drop them off outside Gloomwrought, the main city in the Shadowfall, and exited the Inn after being told “Find the Lantern, and you will find shelter”.  They arrived greeted by suspicious guards, and having trouble explaining why they were here and where they were from; they said some gibberish and barged inside the town.  The hardest part of this game was trying to explain how Gloomwrought is an odd and strange town, and how the atmosphere is dark and dreaded.  I did this by adding details, such as a house randomly collapsing with a couple inside, who didn’t even let out a scream as they were crushed.  Our heroes found a house with a yellow lantern on it and entered, being welcomed by an elderly woman who explained where they were, and how the only way to get back to their “home” (which our heroes explained by saying “We want to get back to Hammerfast, and not fucked up Hammerfast, our Hammerfast”) was through a portal, rumored to be over 100 miles out from the Gloomwrought port, through a very dangerous sea.  She also told them about groups within the city and who they could try to find jobs with.

They left heading to the market, in which they learned they could find just about anything for sale.  Nithus (still living up to the expectations of his original character) ended up stealing a near priceless talisman and a scroll which answered any three questions at any time.  He ended up selling those, gaining a 50K profit, and stole them again (using teleportation to quickly get out).  He went on a spending spree and bought new weapons for the group, as well as some Health Bracers for himself and also learned a “Summon Minion” skill from a Necromancer.  While the other two went “Pet-Shopping” they tried to steal a drake and a wolf, but ended up alerting the guards, who happened to have another golem.  They were able to kill the guards and golems and tame their pets.  I was thinking of killing the pets, but decided even though I dislike them, the group likes companions so I will make them part of the game now since the group is really focused on them.

They stabled their new pets outside the city walls and headed to the nearest inn for over 20 ales and rest.  This was another opportunity to help show the atmosphere of Gloomwrought, so I had them awake 2 hours into their sleep to hear a building close by being destroyed, and in the morning they awoke in the same inn…but on the other side of the street.  They all agreed they want to get out of here and were freaked out by the “Fucked Up” stuff that was going on.  They decided to talk to the prince that day and were given an audience, and they told the prince of the dangers of Orcus, and the prince told them if they could get money, they could use the private docks of Gloomwrough and would be given a squad of guards to accompany them on their journey.  They then rolled a d4 to decide they would join the Crimson Sash Merc. Group to get the money need for a ship, which they learned would be 200K for a fitted battleship.

This game was very important in that it gave them a quest, but also helped set the mood of their new home city and gave me things I could use in future games, such as the Time Travel talisman Nithus possesses, but doesn’t realize is priceless and that there were only 5 created, I also failed to mention that it can only be used once, and that a single ship wouldn’t survive the sea to get to the portal, as dangerous enemies lurk within it.  My next articles should be much more in depth than this one, but I wanted to take the time to explain the back story.

Variety Friday: RPGs

I recently decided to give tabletop Dungeons and Dragons a try and have been loving it so far. It then got me thinking the state of RPGs in the currently gaming industry, and, specifically, how there seems to be a lot less traditional RPGs coming out now as of, say, 4-5 years ago.  I don’t mean Final Fantasy 13; I mean more like the original Final Fantasies, The Witcher, and The Elder Scrolls.

Now specifically I am talking about the lack of said RPGs on consoles (as I am majorly a console gamer).  If you look at the release schedule for the past months (again, for consoles), the best you will probably find is Dragon Age 2, which I don’t think really counts as a tradition RPG, because a lot of the good RPG elements from Origins were taken away with 2.  The point I am getting at is that console RPGs seem to be slowly fading away, and I contribute this to a few things. 

First is that the market for console RPGs seems to be going away.  With the amount of money Call of Duty and similar games are making, studios are telling developers “Yeah, that’s a great idea, but our stock holders want money, so go make a game like Call of Duty”.  Due to the limitations based on large studios by investors, publishers, and etc. to make games that sell well, the idea of a “Great Game” isn’t as well received as it used to be, people no longer want to take risks, so instead they misunderstand their entire market and want clones, expecting them to sell well.

That is probably part of the reason why Dragon Age 2 was so different from the original, was that they wanted to appeal to broader audiences, but screwed up, and being under strict deadlines couldn’t have helped.  The second reason I can find is that what IS demanded by modern RPGs is a very tall order indeed.  I don’t think most developers are willing to put so much time and effort into a gamble as big as a new IP.  That is why I honestly believe that good modern RPGs are probably better coming from indie studios.  Now so far the only way that a series of RPGs have been good and from a large developer is if they solely focus on RPGs.  My main example being CD Projekt, and my other being Bethesda (who may have done some other games in the past, but still mostly make RPGs).  CD Projekt recently released the sequel to the loved but unknown game The Witcher, and from what I’ve heard, The Witcher 2 is a great computer RPG, with full support for an Xbox controller which gives it the possibility of a future console port.

Because they focus on one game at a time, it really allows them to take the time needed to make a good RPG.  Then my other example, Bethesda, the developers of the very popular franchise, The Elder Scrolls, who also happen to be some of the only people releasing a traditional RPG for consoles anytime soon, and I am looking forward to trying it.  These have been two developers who stick to the traditional RPG style and who I admire for doing so. 

Now, why traditional RPGs are going away seems to be due to the mixing of RPG Progression and other game elements, for example, Mass Effect.  Specifically recently, a lot of games have been mixing RPG elements with other game elements such as First Person shooters.  Ultimately this allows a compromise between Developers and Publishers, which is appealing to the RPG fans and the Shooters, which is exactly what Mass Effect 2 did.  While Mass Effect 1 was much heavily RPG focused, Mass Effect 2 was essentially dumbed down to accommodate more people, something which usually ruins games (*cough*Deus Ex: Invisible War *cough*) but actually worked quite well, even if it didn’t feel as in depth.  Though Mass Effect isn’t the only game that combines another game genre and RPGs, there is Fallout, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, KOTOR years ago, and even in the MMORPG coming from Bioware, SW:TOR.  Though The Old Republic is staying very much and RPG, it still has some elements which makes it more.

Now, I would like to clarify that I’m not saying combining elements of multiple game genres is bad; on the contrary it is actually very good for the industry!  Though what I am saying is I would like to see more traditional RPGs, and not the “Interactive Movies” that Square Enix tries to pull off as RPGs these days.  But it isn’t always good, in cases such as Dragon Age.  In my opinion, Dragon Age: Origins was such a great game!  It may have had slow combat but I was fine with it, I loved how the character wasn’t voiced, so it didn’t seem like you were playing someone else’s story, but yours.  Then there was the great cast of characters and all the choices, it was one of the closest things to my perfect RPG I have played (A full article of my opinions of Origins can be found here).  Then there was Dragon Age 2…a game which tore out the strategic combat for hack-n-slash, it made you play someone else’s story, made loot pretty pointless and over half the game seemed like (or was) pointless side quests.  I didn’t start really enjoying the game till the last few hours of it.  This is a great example of how mixing elements, and especially trying to make RPG fans and Sword Flailing Action fans happy at the same time, can fail horribly.

I see the RPG branching into two paths as the industry progresses.  There are the traditional RPGs which I believe will rise up once more and play a much larger part in the industry than they do now.  And then there will be the hybrids which include games such as Mass Effect.  Though neither of these are “Better than the other” it all comes down to opinion, as more gamers start to try new things, and more developers start to take risks, then the industry can truly grow into something great.

Variety Friday: Story Telling in Games

This Variety Friday I will be talking about story telling in games.  It is much too broad of a subject to cover all aspects of in one article, so I will be specifically focusing on the different ways developers tell the stories. 

First I’m going to talk about a seemingly less used method today as of 5+ years ago, which is dialog with non-voiced characters.  This method is very popular in indie games, due to the cost of quality voice acting.  The first con with this, is that it requires players to read blocks of text at a time, which can make the game see more like a graphic novel than an actual game.  All though this method can produce great games with great stories, it is usually harder to pull off and at a smaller scale. 

There are some indie examples such as “One Chance” which show of a simplified version of this method.  And, there have been a few cases where this was done and created great AAA games (I use AAA as a term to describe games made with a large team over a longer period of time w/ a nice budget).  A good example of these would be the Pokémon games.  But, an even better example would be Dragon Age: Origins.  Origins actually did more of a hybrid system, having the main character not talk, and have all the NPCs voiced.

What this was able to accomplish was something almost no game, not even WoW can achieve, which was feeling that the character in game was an actual representation of you, that you were the character!  The reason for this is that you got to fully be the character, choose who to like and hate, choose what you want to say, what choices to make, how to make your character look, what race and origin, and etc.  All this added up to something nearly unheard of in a game, which was allowing you to feel that you were the character.  A lot of people took this for granted and didn’t like having to read full paragraphs of dialog options and thought it interrupted the gameplay, I disagree, I believe what it did was allowed you to think about the choices and choose carefully exactly what you wanted to say and happen, unlike in mass effect where it summarizes the choices, and is partly vague allowing for some unwanted outcomes.

Now conveniently, I will be discussing the other main Bioware method, which is to tell a story through a character which has a certain back-story and name, and you just control him and make all of the choices.  The few main differences between this, and the method discussed before, is that the main character is voiced in this method, you usually don’t get to know exactly what he’ll say, and he has a set name and back-story, and usually doesn’t have as broad an amount of choices to make.  Examples of games that use this method are Mass Effect 1 & 2, and Dragon Age 2. 

Most gamers say they prefer this method, either for lack of reading, or for a more cinematic feel.  I do agree that, at some times, this method does produce a more cinematic and “eye-catching” experience, but the first one is just due to damn laziness.  While this can give a more cinematic experience, what it doesn’t do is form that special link between the character, and the player.  Though due to player preference, this method is being used less often now, such as in Dragon Age 2 where they used the same system as Mass Effect.  Another problem, which arises from an Origin – Mass Effect comparison, is that with Origins the choices aren’t described as “right and wrong” but are more along the lines or moral choices with impactful outcomes.  Unlike Mass Effect in which everything is defined as good or bad, and it doesn’t really allow for any “middle ground” or moral choices that don’t necessarily mean you’re a good or bad person, but just reflect your personal view on the problem.  I personally believe developers need to branch away from this system and try what Origins did, but that’s just me.  It’s still a pretty good system allowing for great stories and you will see it around for years to come.

The most popular kind of story telling in games, by far, is having a character with his own voice, back-story, and actions, while the player just plays through events as the character, not offering much choice.  This includes the par Call of Duty storytelling, to the great Red Dead: Redemption system.  Though Red Dead still offer some choice and a lot more freedom, at its core it is still the same system as other games.  The reason this is most often used is because it is easy to force players to do certain things, than account for hundreds of different options, taking into account every detail.

Next is a game that allows your actions to impact the game, but not as broadly as having set forth choices, not everything is straight forward, and you usually don’t know the exact consequences of your actions, most current example being LA Noire.  You do play as a character with a defined back story and blah blah blah, but you also make impactful decisions which, unlike Mass Effect, aren’t clearly defined.  While in LA Noire on the other hand, depending on how good you are at interrogating and using evidence, it could severally impact you in the short, and long run.  I didn’t like not being able to give your personal opinion on “I don’t think he’s guilty, don’t charge him just yet” which is one of the flaws of the game, but I’m not going to hold it against it that much.

LA Noire also excels at “story through setting” partly due to the game having a huge 8 square mile map with everything detailed and polished.  If you want to feel even more engulfed in the game, then play it in Black and White, which really gives it a Noire feel you won’t find in any other game.  Though it does have cons such as not allowing opinion to come into play and the game not being as personal as it could be, the system still works pretty well with LA Noire.

Next is something which even I have a hard time of explaining, I will just say “A game in which you play, control, and make choices as multiple characters who all don’t only have their own back-story, but thoughts”.  Of course I am talking about Heavy Rain here.  What really made the game stand out, besides its ingenious control system, is that you do play as multiple characters, and the choices you make as each one, largely differ the final confrontation.  Why is this good you ask?  It allows you to gain an almost “Emotional Attachment” to the main character.  After playing the prologue you get a main idea about him and after seeing his past, you really feel towards the main character.

More games need to try to not only tell a story but try to give the player an emotional attachment with the characters in game, which is what I believe is so great about what Heavy Rain did.  I also think the multiple viewpoints idea should be used for more games, definitely not all games, but some.

The final form of storytelling in gaming I’m going to talk about can be a little controversial, but I believe it still counts, and that is table-top gaming, more so, Dungeons and Dragons.  D&D allows a group of friends to sit down and not only go on epic adventures, but also just allow people to have fun.  It is a lot more open than most games because choices are only limited to how much fun the DM is willing to have.  I honestly believe that Dungeons and Dragons is still one of the, if not the best way to not only tell stories, but do it with other people, it brings a multiplayer aspect into RPGs, something that current AAA games have been struggling at, yet it did it first.  If you are looking for a long adventure where you get to make choices and have fun, then D&D is still one of the best options even at the current point of the industry.

So overall there are many different methods to storytelling in gaming; am I saying one method is superior, no.  Am I saying that there is still a lot of improvement that needs to come out of storytelling in video games, definitely.  The reason I brought up D&D besides the fact that it does still count as a form of storytelling in gaming, is that it really is a much improved system over most current RPGs.