Narrative and replay value.

The way that games are designed, you can't have a replayable experience if the game forces you to be analytical. A fun, replayable game, is wild, absurd, and empty of any respectability. A novel-esque game is concerned with getting a point across. And you can't get a point across with a controller without it becoming a movie. The two inherently oppose one another.

Sure, there are games like Bioshock, which have novel-worthy stories ad pretty fun gameplay. But here, the issue of replayability comes across hard. How many people actually want to replay Bioshock? It was a great game the first time around, but why go back to it?

A game has two elements: a controller and a screen. To make the controller part relevant, you need something spontaneous that caters to our wild side. And the screen will have to project something that naturally follows that. So how do you make a novel out of spontaneity?

I saw this comment on Kotaku and now feel it's worth a longer response than no, you're wrong, multiplayer gives you the replay value, single player gets you the story.

But then again, there's games like Chrono Trigger or Oblivion, or any game where more story or space opens up after the main story is completed.

Bioshock is used as an example of a game that doesn't have replay value, but it's got a great story. Still, with Bioshock, there's two ways of going through the game, there's the "good" way and the "bad" way. (Ie: Don't kill 12 year old girls and killing 12 year old girls.) While the story doesn't change, the experience does, so we're led to believe. It might be a little bit harder, it might be a little bit easier, depending on what upgrades you get.

Chrono Cross (which people seem to loathe for reasons that don't hold water with me) is another great example of a game that has replay value even if the story sticks with you, even years afterwards. There are characters that when you go in one direction unlock, and by choosing that path, you lock up other characters. Also, with the new game+ feature, you can go back and see the different endings you can view at different points in the game.

You can't get a point across in a game without it being a movie.

Half-Life, the sequel, and the episodic content based on Half-Life 2 beg to differ. (Also Portal, so I hear.)

Haze, the new shooter from the people that made Time Splitters, has at least a good shot of putting together ideas without using cut scenes, though we'll see how if that works in practice.

I suppose I simply have trouble believing that because there aren't a lot of shining examples of narrative in gameplay means that it's impossible. To quote Henry Rollins, I just can't forget what I know.