Over at the Game Developers Conference in Austin, Tom Abernathy, who writes for Microsoft Game Studios, explained how a character's wants and needs lead to better gameplay.

He used examples from the games Portal and BioShock, pointing out that they both wanted and needed something, which also led to drama.

Knowing character wants and needs leads to a better understanding of what would be obstacles to this particular character. How a character would go about tackling these obstacles would be considered "tactics" in acting. Throwing obstacles in the character's path and knowing the character's tactics is very similar to gameplay. In fact, Abernathy sees a direct relationship between good characterization and good gameplay.

tyranitar24 via edge-online.com »