Bodhesatva said:
You're right, I phrased that wrong. I didn't mean it has to be 100 percent story, 0 percent interactivity or 100 percent interactivity, 0 percent story, with nothing in between -- I only meant to say that one comes at the sacrifice of the other. Using that simple math again, you could have 60/40 interactivity/story, or 70/30, or 10/90, or whatever. The point is, you can't have 100/100. You sacrifice one for the other. |
That is Completely Wrong, Open-endness does NOT sacrifice story, it merely changes the way the story is portrayed (aka, story-telling). It is clear you have little experience with RPGs, especially wRPGs (probably since you're not very fond of RPGs)
Do you know which game is claimed by many to have the Best Story Ever in the history of videogaming? that's right, it's 'Planescape: Torment', a open-ended wRPG. PS:T has an incredibly deep and fascinating story, brilliant characters (with possibly the best sidekick character ever created, Morte), and was even compared to novels. If I was going to rate the game the way you just said, i'd give it a 100/80 (100 Story, 80 Interactivity).
Overall open-ended RPGs actually have better stories than linear RPGs: Baldur's Gate 2 just feels like a true epic and has the most natural romance; Fallout 1 & 2 have more personality than 99.9% of jRPGs (actually make that 100%); The Witcher, based on a polish novel, shows how well a open game can tell a story.