Moorgard on writing vs. storytelling

Steve Danuser, aka Moorgard, is a game designer at 38 Studios who recently blogged about storytelling in MMOs, or more specifically — writing vs. storytelling. The days of story being incidental to games are long gone (we hope), as story really matters to many gamers, particularly MMO gamers for whom quests and missions occupy so many hours of their time. So you would naturally assume that game companies would hire top-notch writers to crank out engaging content on every project. But as we all know, it doesn't always pan out that way, even when excellent writers are brought into the game development process.

Moorgard points out that a narrative designer differs from a writer. Games revolve around storytelling. In an MMO, this goes far beyond the written word; less talk and more action. And let's face it, even if the writers really nail it and every line of text crackles, there will always be players that just speed-click through it all so they can dive right in. Effective storytelling, Moorgard writes, can be done with a certain economy of words. Why have players read pages of a story when they can witness the event unfold, as acted out by NPCs?

Moorgard stresses that designers should use all of the tools at their disposal, and not rely solely on the written word: "On EQ2, I worked with a brilliant designer who was only an average writer. But his zones were fantastic, perhaps because he knew he couldn't reply upon words to get his intent across. He told great stories using zone population, set dressing, mob abilities, treasure drops, scripted behavior, and more. You understood what was going on by playing through the zone, not by reading about it."

Moorgard finishes by saying, "If you want to be a great storyteller in MMOs, becoming a solid writer is the beginning of the journey, not the end of it." Do you agree with Moorgard, or do you feel that writing in games can't or shouldn't ever be trumped by other elements of game design?