Reality is a Harsh Mistress 2

Last week I wrote an opinion piece decrying what I saw as the primacy of choice (and the ability to change the game world) over storytelling in modern video game RPGs. I see this as a sort of decay of strong narratives and well developed characters (and relationships between characters) so that the player can be given the illusion of truly having a significant impact on the game world. Part of my problem with this trend is that I see it demolishing what computer and console RPGs can do so well, which is tell a well scripted, well written, highly conceptual narrative with good visuals and interesting mechanics.