The Cruciality of Storylines & Characters

Third post on the blog! Woohoo! Well, you can throw a party wherever you are to commemorate this milestone. So, today, I'd like to address a rather under-looked element of game making: Story lines and Character Development. Here are today's articles:

Nguyen, W., "Buckeye", "jbadams" (2014). Character Development in Video Games. Gamedev.net. Retrieved from http://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_/creative/game-design/

Colson, D., "Dragonsoulj", "jbadams", Vega, J. (2014). Games are a Wholes New Form of Storytelling. Gamedev.net. Retrieved from http://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_/creative/game-design/

Nguyen argues that a singular form of character development will not suffice current involvements of players than a combination of varying methods. He states that unlocking game play limits, milestones and incremental learning are all crucial to players learning the game and its mechanics.
Notably, he suggests "Avoid things such as boring game play. Instead of grinding, they can do missions...". As much game making I've done so far (which isn't much), I've seen now that my game play, as much as it amuses me sometimes, we ultimately still need to think about player experiences rather than our own suppositions of what players may or may not enjoy.
He also defined a 'limitation' within the game play as "It can be any type of mechanical change in the game that involves unlocking a new feature", meaning that there are still ways to make any game engaging and fun for players, as long as it doesn't require grinding for hours and getting nothing back, or similar circumstances.

In Colson's article, he proposes that a game's storyline is one of the core elements of a story-driven game, not "just a lick of paint", as he quotes other media he had read prior to writing the article. He states that a game tells a story in a way which involves the player, and with the right tweaking of context and freedom, the game can immerse the player deep in the world the game portrays.
I'm sure we've all seen games where the storyline just doesn't make sense, or the characters are just 2D personalities. The market for games is changing into not one that merely enjoys the mechanics of a game, but also a story to follow, if any. Characters, environments, plot twists; at the same time, Colson states: "...the viewer's interpretation of the image fill in the gaps and create the story", implying that we, as game developers, are not just spoon-feeding the storyline to players, as books and films more or less do.
The player should be able to interpret the game in their own ways, but at the same time, act and understand in a way which matches the context of the game itself.

I think it would be better if you actually read the articles themselves for a full immersion into the depths of a game. I dunno, I found it enlightening, anyway. Hope to catch y'all on this blog again next week.

Peace. ☮