Several times in the past, I’ve blogged my thoughts on why video-games make terrible vehicles for storytelling — and why those who seek to “tell stories” via games fundamentally misunderstand the basic nature of narrative. For my latest Slate column, I did a version of my longstanding rant on this subject. A snippet:

For many designers, crafting bravura cutscenes has become the best way to transform a mere game into a genre-smashing event. When Halo 2 shipped, for example, the game’s creators bragged that they had created nearly a feature film’s worth of scripted scenes. These Hollywood flourishes are good for dazzling mainstream journalists and pundits. That’s because there’s still a weird anxiety about adults playing games. Most people still think that video games are sophomoric kid stuff; the ones that have a narrative and emulate the movies seem more serious and, well, mature.

The column has prompted a storm of criticism over at Slate’s discussion board, The Fray. It’s worth checking out — there are several extremely smart, perceptive posts: This is one of my favorites!

I’ll blog more, later, about some of the other responses I’ve gotten, including several game designers who wrote to agree with me, and/or take issue with how broadly I dismissed the idea of narrative.