Telling a story through games (part 3/3)

Another example of telling a story through an RPG is the short mission included in the Explorer's Guide to Sa'mesh. Questions about cloning are explored in the story, and players will experience a future where cloning is legal. But what happens when illegal cloning operations are conducted and cloning laws are violated? How will violators bypass the laws, and what are the repercussions upon genetics if they succeed? An RPG game is ultimately a story told by the players after beyond dropped into a setting and plot, and what one group experiences and gets out of the game might be different than what another group experiences, depending on the choices they make. In the end, though, I think RPG's produce very memorable experiences because they involve player choices. This personalizes the story in ways that other games can't, because in those games, rather than shape the narrative, players are usually just along for the ride. That doesn't mean good stories aren't told through other genres, but for me, at least, the most lasting and fond memories are formed through the experiences I had some control in shaping.