GameDaily BIZ: I met with Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack earlier and he believes storytelling is the driving force that's going to take gaming forward. Do you agree with that viewpoint?

Ray Muzyka: Yes, but also, what is story telling? It's an interesting question to explore. I really believe there are different types of narrative in games that are starting to emerge now as separate threads. The story, VO, and the character interactions for us is an important one, but it's not the only one. There's also you as explorer, exploring new areas with that sense of awe and excitement, or you and combat as you as a combatant and progressing your abilities. Or developing your skills assuming your personal identity, growing your character, or interacting with other players in your online guild or community. Those are all separate narrative threads. When you start teasing out of them, what the player experiences, they are all important and as relevant as the story.

Then there's the storytelling aspect as well, in a non-linear experience, the players can try different things in different order. So there's the linear director's cut that goes through most games, with a starting point and end point (or multiple end points in our games), Every player has a different view. If you go to an uncharted world in Mass Effect, as an example, depending on what uncharted world you've seen before, your impression and experience of that world is going to be different than if you did it in a different order or never even saw certain worlds, so you have no context of back history or story or weight of the IP that's underneath the surface that's adding a truth to it all or making it feel more real.