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Originally Posted by Xandax  If the innkeeper tells you a bit of a tale, then what is the difference if he does so either via text or a cut-scene?
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Very different, in mine. It's the difference between finding out a story by being a person within the environment, who has to actually look around for pieces of it and fit it together--as opposed to suddenly finding yourself wrenched out of the gameworld to watch a movie giving you everything on a plate. The first stays within the game, the second doesn't. The first requires creativity to make the plot bits fit naturally into the environment, and to make the player feel they're really getting somewhere. The latter is a free handout, and also breaks the carefully constructed illusion of the game.
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Sorry, but that is not correct. There is no more creativity involved in writing up some story elements and getting the innkeeper to tell it via text, then there is getting it shown as a cut-scene of the innkeeper telling it to you.
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Well, I guess you're right, because you were there when we strategized for weeks criticizing where we'd place each piece we wanted revealed, how we wanted it revealed, and discussed the writing of it. Oh, wait a minute. You weren't there. I guess you're wrong. Telling the story straight out by having a few people show it is much easier than trying to fit it into the gameworld where the player wanders around, and making it not too hard or too easy to piece together, with different types of plaxement, different kinds of puzzles, and a real sense of progress that is gradual but builds.
And if puzzles weren't involved? I'd still rather find out via gameplay, than a cutscene that jars and takes me out of the gameworld to view it without interaction.
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And you can't piece together plots from a cut-scene?
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Semantics, and you know it. Games use cutscenes to tell the story, or to wow young players with fancy graphics. Not to create plot puzzles for the players to solve in order to figure out the story. And certainly not to make the players feel immersed in the gameworld. Because cutscenes do the opposite of that.