Miyazaki: The roots of my fantasy ideas are in Sorcery, by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, the adventure gamebooks.
While growing up as a kid, reading is what I truly loved. I enjoyed reading books that were beyond my understanding. I always explored and tried to aim higher and read advanced books. What typically happens is, although I could read them, sometimes, and this is because I was young, I couldn't read too deep into them. Sometimes I would understand only half of the story. Then, my imagination would help fill the other half, and that imaginary part would just blow up. I find this experience to be truly enjoyable, as well, where I fill the gaps of what I didn't understand in my reading, where my imagination took me eventually to be convinced that I understood what I was reading
His romanticization of western culture is atleast more refreshing atmosphere wise than the atmosphere in most actual large scale western games and their inspos. Atleast for me
Atmosphere is obviously more within the confines of visual medium. When I say story, I specifically refer to something that validates the innate cognitive element within the human brain: whatever has evolved for the 7000~ or so so years Earth has existed. That which is told and retold through speech and more importantly, language.
Compelling stories can be puzzles to solve which can activate that same reward mechanism for being solved as a game for being completed. Therefore, stories are games.
If you're putting what I assume as some amalgamation of ideas surrounding "world building", "theme", "atmosphere", "feel", whatever you want to call it and considering it an aspect of "story" you have just been completely contained by Big Narrative. You are a narrative coomer. You are failing at factoring.
I have made this point before. Go back to the 1950s or so, present them a "game" with "story". Do they think it's a movie, or do they think it's a game?
