I understand the first part of that, but I'm not sure why you're surprised that game play is weighed more than plausibility. I get that maybe you would prefer more plausibility in the stories, and that's understandable, but games are, well, games. They're meant to be played. So even if a game has an amazing story, if it isn't fun to play, not very many people would play it.
I heard about that controversy before I played through that segment of the game. I thought that part was handled decently as far as games go, but at the same time, I don't know if I'd go so far as to call it a "moral vehicle." Of course, I don't actively look for those things in games, mostly because I have other means of looking at moral conflicts.
I also realize that I am not a kid, so that is bound to affect my view on games and how they fit within the bigger picture.
I meant this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth
I hail from the 8 bit era. My heroes were circles and triangles, and sometimes lines.
Stephen King is mainstream entertainment, and he's been successful enough to have a large following. But there are a lot of different kinds of novelists out there, many of whom don't write plot-driven books. I don't think very much their work would translate well into the gaming format. I don't even know if King could write a video game story. His stuff translates into film well enough though. So, maybe someone like him who knows something about games could do it.
But I think, when writing games (or any medium), it's important to consider the medium and the format. I would say that those things have to be considered first before committing to a story. Games are not novels. Whatever story is written for it has to fit that form.
As for SotC, the reason why I thought the story was handled well enough is because there seems to be a cohesive myth and backstory behind it. I thought that I was shown enough of it that the world felt real. It's not that the story was a feeble thing; it's more that the story was already in progress when we got to the scene. It's like a self-contained chapter to a larger book. All I knew was that this guy wants to bring a dead girl back to life. He has to slay these giant moving mountains to do it. And that, in itself, is a reflection of just how badly he needs to do this. And so he does it. That's all I needed to know.
That's probably not enough to satisfy everyone, of course. But, like I said, I also have a very short attention span and no time to commit to a grandiose epic. Those are also contributing factors.
