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[Zecks]

cutscenes aren't the ultimate evil, there's just way too much to improve on their implementation and design

but i agree with the gameplay story stuff

also how does ffvi not have cutscenes. nor a great story (still by today's standards. haters can fuck off.)

[Tiderion]

tl;dr, lol

No really, I think you are missing the point here actually. When we talk about writing for games we must acknowledge all the aspects of writing in games. This would include not just the plot structure and cut scene character dialogue but also item descriptions, quest logs, interactive dialogue, and background chatter.

The quantity of writing that is required by many AAA games at present is a mountain in size and scope. To save money, studios undoubtedly let programmers fill in the gaps in their code with stock responses or cut scenes so they don't use studio time for voice overs. Professional writers should know how to write an entire room of people all simultaneously interacting. They should know how to change the dialogue to suit changes in the game such as the player being male versus female. The fact is that you see a writer only giving you one view because it is in book format. That is a limitation of the format not the writer. And interactivity sucks when characters give you stock responses because that is how it was coded.

Also, most of the games you listed had stories.

[filosofiamanga]

tl;dr, lol

No really, I think you are missing the point here actually. When we talk about writing for games we must acknowledge all the aspects of writing in games...

That's the principal problem a traditional writer who has no experience in games has.
That's why a game writer should also have experience in game design.
So The game designer-writer will reuse at most posible the locations, items, characters, just to save work to the team. An example would be returning to the same town but to a diferent location or to make something diferent, It would save a lot on the coding and 3d modeling (buildings, npc).
Also, the game designer-writer should be a gamer, so he knows how the player will play the game and which way to tell the story it's better to the genre.
Being a game writer that is not a gamer, would be like a music compositor that haven't listen any music nor know how to play any instrument.

Most of the time, a stock response is made by someone who is not a profesional writer.