This thread has apparently gone off into the games as art discussion. In an effort to get back on topic, which was the quality of writing in games, I offer some thoughts:

1) Games without writing. Some game (genres) do not have or need writing. Adding a script to Tetris would be wholly irrelevant, IMO. Other puzzle games like 7th Guest, where a series of puzzles are tied together with a story, offer the player 2 experiences (the story and the puzzles) that could be seen as seprate.

2) Linear writing elements. Traditional story writing is insufficient for games. Many of the writing elements (foreshadowing, for example) only apply to games that are linear in nature. In a game that contains an interactive world, whose contents vary depending on the player''s actions, foreshadowing has no place. Likewise, if my strategy troops barely squeak through a scenario, calling it a crushing defeat for my enemy in a prescripted cutscene is rather silly.

3) Writing to convey information. Individual descriptions of people, items, and places can be improved, but will be ignored if they are not integrated into gameplay. In Ice Wind Dale, most (all?) of the magic items had a sotry along with them. A brief history of the item. None of it was relevant or even used in the rest of the game. It was a nice bit hanging on the edges if you went looking for it, but useless given how the rest of the game was laid out. The writing here conveyed no information of rlevance to either the characters I played or the story as a whole.

4) Symbolism, bigger picture relevance. This is closer to the writing as art bit, but let''s say we have chosen to make a game ina genre that lends itself to the possiblity of a strong story, one where we want the player to think and experience rather than point-n-click. I''d like to hear suggestions on how we accomplish this without alienating the player as a participant.

It''s hard to demonstrate a universal truth about human nature if the player doesn''t behave how you expect. And artificially restricting the player''s actions reduces a game to a story (might as well write a book).
''Iago suggests that your wife is cheating on you.''
''I go talk with her.''
''No no. You;re supposed to throttle her.''
''I don''t want to throttle her.''
''Even if I throw in some great lines like put out the light then put out the light?''
''I still don''t want to throttle her.''

You can do a little better with some larger than life symbols (see also the religion threads), but it gets tricky, again because the nature of the game is such that you don''t know how it will end.

Maybe have some hidden numbers in the game characters that will indicate how they are aligned with more abstract symbology to vary their interaction with the player. Thus if the player acts more violently, this violent demeanor is evident to other elements of the game, without changing any of the icons on the screen, but instead changing some dialogue options. Likewise, if a player is passionate about NPC x, then the story molds itself around the passion.

I''m not sure that this would work, since most normal folks have a rather average personality - no one set of traits would tend to stand out very strongly. But if you did want to do it, you need a new kind of AI that manipulates the environment altogether, with some very versatile writers to cover all of the option you make available.

Well, that''s a little more than $0.02