Do we just love ALL great storytelling?

I'll tell you a secret, and it's probably the worst kept secret on the planet: I love video games. It's the worst kept secret because, well, I'm a guy. We pretty much all love video games, don't we? Okay, yeah, there are the uber-class men who prefer their glass of wine from the cellar downstairs while listening to something from the Baroque period and watching the stock exchange numbers go by on the bottom of the muted 97" plasma, but they aren't 'guys', they're "refined individuals of quality", so they don't count.

I'm not refined. I'm just an average Joe. And the really cool thing is: my wife loves a lot of the same video games I do.

That's right gentlemen, I got one who loves to sit down and watch a good storyline game with me.

Hell Yeah.

The reason I bring this up is that we just got a new Bioware game for our xbox called Dragonage: Origins. We love Bioware games...played through Mass Effect several times.

But why? I mean, what is it that trips our collective trigger over games like these? The gameplay isn't that much different from many other games. The graphics aren't exactly light years better either. One's Sci-Fi while the more recent is Epic Fantasy. And if you really look at it, the Bioware games don't have any online multiplay, which is what gets so many people pysyched about the Gears of War and Halo franchises.

Wanna hint? It's the storytelling. What we all love about books are the way we can connect with the characters, to feel like we are right there in the moment. So why do so many people trash the idea of grown men who love games like this, where the storytelling is INTERACTIVE?

I just don't get it. Any ideas why there is such a stigma out there?