i didn't understand this until i'd worked in the industry, so i can forgive folks not getting it, but yeah, defining the high level story on big games is the territory of leads & directors. staff-level writers might get to make suggestions, but they're not crafting it themselves. https://twitter.com/crypticjordan/status/1319687175793897475

and as a staff-level writer, your lead or director doesn't need to take your critique, lol. also, major cutscenes or similarly weighty narrative moments are usually written by leads or seniors. when they're not, they're intensively critiqued and edited by leads and seniors.

you see the work of regular old narrative designers in the side quests, side characters, side stories. in the sentence-level writing and characterization.

and often not in the quest design! at obsidian, our quests are designed by area designers, sometimes in consultation with a narrative designer, but also often not, depending on time pressure, relationship, working styles of the designers involved.

there's a persistent notion among players, often unspoken but evident in how they talk abt narrative design/ers, that we control the game. we don't. we have more freedom over the story experience than, say, a vfx artist might, but we're also just workers.