I know. Most gamers haven't. We let ourselves become immersed in books and movies and television shows and The Wall, but games? In games we're still ultimately trying to get from Point A to Point B. Our immersion stops at a level where we feel afraid that something is going to jump out and get us.

I want designers to be able to level this kind of immersion at us like a weapon, to be used at their command. I don't know how they would do it, but I know that they can because there are games that have done this. They're rare and precious, yes - the Mother series, Team ICO's games, Chris Avellone's works - but they exist. They know how to do the magic. They just need to share.

Edit: To clarify, Portal was awesome, but I think it would probably fit in category one of my game design dichotomy.

Half-Life 2 flirts with the other one, at points...

But then, the immersion that one can feel in Portal might bring it up too, mightn't it? You did feel some agency, or else you wouldn't know to be afraid, or laugh.

Hard questions.

The MGS series is an ok set of games with a crappy storyline. I dont understand why people like it; if you want good storylines, u goto Zelda (all of them), FF7, FF9, and Xenogears.

I like how Zelda tells stories too - I guess Zelda can stand as the epitome as a potential third school of storytelling in games, where stories are there and they are told in a semi-interactive way.... but in truth I think that they're still just window dressings for the games themselves, so they probably go into category one.

They just show that one can have NICE window dressings.

Actually thats what they are trying to do atm. They give us a linear game that tries to be like a movie. I don't like it at all. I take it more like insult as I could always see a movie if I wanted movie. I wouldn't mind if there wasn't no main plot in games at all. For example if in oblivion you could just make your own plot by trying to get something/somewhere and there would be several things you could achieve(Like becoming a king, best gladiator etc.). Well, thats what I am trying to do currently. Dunno will people like it.

That reminds me. I haven't played Earthbound yet. I'm going to start that right now. I downloaded it when they said it would never get released on the VC due to music licensing issues, and I forgot to play it.

I've heard nothing but good things about this game for years from several people I know. And this is the last straw.

Hahaha, this game is 3 MegaBytes, and people are still talking about how amazing the story is.

EarthBound.... yeah

If it clicks with you, you may have a new favorite game.

If not, you're going to hate it.