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[tesselode]

I just came up with a cool idea for an exploration-y game:

It starts and you're in some kind of terrible situation (such as someone that you presumably know dying), and then you fall asleep, and you have a bunch of dream sequences where you relive all of the key moments in your life. You can make various decisions along the way, and then when you wake up, you get a different ending depending on the decisions you made. This way, the player basically writes someone's life without really knowing it. If you can make the player feel attached enough to the characters, then you can set them up for either a very satisfying or disappointing ending.

Now I'm sure someone's made some good game where you actually influence the storyline is a significant way; so feel free to point one out to me. If it exists.

[Ranordine]

What you have described is more of a (good!) framing device for a story than a game.  For the gameplay, you could take some inspiration from Alter Ego (http://www.playalterego.com/). It does the life-in-a-series-of-episodes thing very well, though it's basically a text adventure (nothing wrong with that).  I get the feeling you have a more restrictive story in mind than sandboxy games such as this, however.

As for games in which you can influence the storyline in a significant way: many people consider this to be a central goal of western RPGS.  Many of these contain multiple endings (e.g. recently Vampire:tMB, Mask of the Betrayer, Fallout:NV), but these usually result from only a few choices at the end of the game.  Some jRPGs and adventure games offer multiple endings too (e.g. Chrono Trigger, SMT:Nocturne, Vagrant Story), as well as games from other genres (Deus Ex, Blade Runner, other old adventure games).  There are very few games in which your actions can change the whole storyline.  A good recent example is The Witcher 2--the whole second act changes based on decisions you make in the first.

Note that the examples here are only from the top of my head and may not be the best representatives of this storytelling mechanic. If I left your favorite game out, it's likely not because I think it has less narrative branching. Anyway, post your own lists!

[tesselode]

Yeah, I wasn't thinking of something that sandbox-y. I was thinking that the sum of your actions would skew the story one way or another.

[1982]

Yeah, I wasn't thinking of something that sandbox-y. I was thinking that the sum of your actions would skew the story one way or another.

What story? Why there has to be prewritten story? If you don't mean by story: birth -> death... Which is quite enough here.