i didn& #39;t understand this until i& #39;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& #39;re not crafting it themselves. https://twitter.com/crypticjordan/status/1319687175793897475">https://twitter.com/crypticjo...

and as a staff-level writer, your lead or director doesn& #39;t need to take your critique, lol. also, major cutscenes or similarly weighty narrative moments are usually written by leads or seniors. when they& #39;re not, they& #39;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& #39;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& #39;t. we have more freedom over the story experience than, say, a vfx artist might, but we& #39;re also just workers. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✌️" title="Siegeshand" aria-label="Emoji: Siegeshand">