I'm not naming any names, but I've heard a few people in ACM club say that no one plays a video game for the story. This is only true if the game doesn't have much of a story. For example, you don't play fighting games for the story (if they even have one) and there are many first-person shooters that you don't play for the story. However, some games would be nothing without a strong single-player narrative. To make my point, I'll be referencing a game which has been considered one of the best ever made, not only because of fun gameplay, but because of a strong, compelling story. That game is none other than BioShock. BioShock was the winner of numerous Game of the Year awards in 2007, and was able to hold its own against other strong competitors. If you're reading this, and you haven't played BioShock yet, you HAVE to play it all the way through at least once. You can get it on Steam if you have an account, but I would highly recommend the console version, since the game was originally designed for consoles. The story of the game was inspired by (and is meant as a satire to poke fun at) the controversial books and essays of objectivist Ayn Rand. The game takes place in the year 1960, and begins with you on a plane, which crashes in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. You swim to a nearby lighthouse containing a submarine. As you begin your descent under the ocean, a video plays with a message from a fanatical billionaire named Andrew Ryan (his character is a satirical image of Ayn Rand). The message tells about how he built an underwater city, which he called "Rapture." It was a society meant to glorify the individual. Ryan describes it as: "The city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, and where the great would not be constrained by the small." A major foundation of Rapture was genetic modification, which also led to its downfall. When you first leave the submarine and enter Rapture, you see a city in ruins, with homicidal, genetically mutated freaks roaming the halls. In order to survive, you're forced to inject yourself with "Plasmids," special gene altering chemicals that give you superhuman abilities, such as telekinesis and shooting lightning from your hands. The gameplay of this FPS is very fun, and the story is told not through cut-scenes, but through what you experience. You learn more about how Rapture fell through audio diaries that you find lying around. I'm not going to ruin anything for anyone who hasn't played yet, but I am going to say one thing. When you enter Andrew Ryan's office and meet him face-to-face, there is a shock factor that is equivalent to the kind you would see in a well-written Hollywood thriller. When I saw it for the first time, it gave me a completely different perspective on the game as a whole. I wouldn't be surprised if it went down in history as one of the greatest moments in video games. So I guess the point I'm trying to make is, when a single-player narrative is done right, it can make the game more enjoyable than it would without a story. If you don't like games that have stories, you don't have to play them. However, once you play BioShock, I really think you will wish more games had writing this good. I'm really looking forward to BioShock 2, which is coming out towards the end of this year! Well, I know that was a bit long-winded, but I hope you were able to get something out of it.