I do believe it is possible to incorporate good litaiture into a computer game. It's just that now with the writing you also need to back it with styled art, audio track to match and ease of imersive gameplay. This works against the team alot. Often the story get's hacked to be more eGame approriate.

Whilst planescape most certainly does have a good storyline it really isn't as good as the best literature in terms of narrative.

Whats important about gaming isn't the quality of the narrative but its the interactivity.

I had the intention of mentioning Planescape when I entered this thread.  It's badass.

I think that the best stories tend to occur in books.  This may be just because so many books have been written that there are a few dozen or a few hundred absolutely dynamite works in each genre (thinking now of fantasy/sci-fi).  Teams of creators may increasingly be able to match the output of brilliant single authors laboring for years...who knows.  Video games will tend to have the problem that movies have: the capitalists with the purse strings think that storylines should be simple enough for all the cretins out there to understand.  Some great movies/games get made, when their intention is to have a great story, but the best stories are mostly in books.  Not comic books, not anime, not video games.

But I take it that Molyneux's point is that video games as an interactive medium, when they are intended by the developer to convey a great story, are particularly well-suited to doing so.  I don't personally see how control over outcome makes a story great.  Choose-your-own-path books (remember those?) didn't seem to offer potential over novels in which the outcome is set in stone by the author.

Music and visuals have a primary effect of making observers think a story is better than it is.

I believe in that as well, Peter.

well im sure its not a fable game...

Only because said swimmers will be subject to some governing body which determines the ranking. Who determines the best story of all time, across all medias? Certainly not You, I, or Mr. Molyneux.

What does popularity have to do with quality? Even though Planescape: Torment sold low, it still is claimed by many as the best game story ever.

Story-driven games aren't mainstream, and the ones that are usually have much dumber and simplistic stories to attract a more casual audience (Fallout 3, Oblivion, Mass Effect, Fable, MGS4) and end up hurting their stories and writing. Complex and deep stories are only seen on PC due to the audience probably being more mature and having roots on story-driven games since the text adventures.

I agree with you.  Making a good story is a hell a lot easier when it is completely linear than when it isn't.

@shio

MGS4's story is far from simple.  The story of the series is the one of the most convoluted stories of any game out there.

This guy talks to much :P

What I was going to say. Also, if there ever going to be a story told in game that even approaches being the "best", I'm pretty sure it won't be one of his games.