After re-reading this
interview with Ken Rolston on Narrative Design (also containing Runequest & Glorantha bits - did I mention I like those?) I'm wondering if Fallout 3 is a step back in some cases in the narrative department.
Step back from what? FO1 or FO2? Certainly. Oblivion or Morrowind? No way.
After all, stat checks and choice are only any good if they are done well in the first place just slapping them in as transparent short-cuts (which seems to be the case in Fallout 3) I'm not sure I'm all that happy with.
It's not quite like that in FO3. There are some stat-checks as shortcuts, but most choices are genuinely meaningful -- in that they result in certain outcomes that exclude other outcomes. You can help the android or turn in the android, which results in different outcomes later on, and so on.
Basically, are badly written choices much better than you got in Oblivion?
Badly and better are both relative terms, and you have to distinguish between structure and writing. FO3's writing is bad compared to FO1 and 2, much better than Oblivion's, and par for course for most computer games, RP and otherwise. FO3's quest structures are only slightly worse than FO1 and 2's, much, MUCH better than Oblivion's, and a good deal better than most computer games.
So my answer would be "no, badly written choices are not much better than I got in Oblivion, but FO3's choices are much better than Oblivion's, therefore, FO3's choices aren't all that badly done."
Books & Films, societies choice of highbrow narrative, don't offer much in the way of choice apart from those choose your path adventure books but I don't think they are considered on a par with the likes of War and Peace or say Hamlet. I have a few other gripes with Fallout 3 but narrative is certainly one of them. Unless someone can enlighten me...
Yep, the narrative is pretty shallow. But that reflects on the quality of the writing, not the quality of the quest structures. It's a shame, really, since all they would've needed to make it click is someone with a vivid imagination and a way with words -- everything else is already there.